"Rochester's first village green remains, a serene oasis, surrounded by the city's busiest streets. In 1817, when Rochester was Rochesterville, Washington Square was set aside from an 80-acre river tract purchased by Elisha Johnson and conveyed by him to the village which, largely by his help, was built into a city. The Square lies between South and Court Streets and Monroe and Clinton Avenues. In its center stands the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, surmounted by a large bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln. An attractive cottage in the southeast corner of the Square accomodates the executive office of the Rochester Convention and Publicity Bureau and serves as an information center for tourists; a bleak, dilapidated old house built many years ago, it was renovated and moved to its present site to be used by the city as a demonstration to home owners of the possibilities of home improvements. Convention Hall faces the Square on the south. Built in 1970 as the State Arsenal, it was converted to its present use in 1907." -- Rochester and Monroe County, A History and Guide, 1937
Local historian Blake McKelvey explains this Elisha Johnson's gift of land for a town square more precisely in his work "Rochester on the Genesee". As summarized in the National Register of Historic Places nomination form for The Municipal Park System of Rochester, there were three competing settlements, and their founders each envisioned their settlements to emerge as the site of the courthouse and town square. Johnson was one of the two losers in this tug-of-war, along with the Brown brothers. They had set aside Brown Square in the Brown's Race settlement on the west side of the river, north of the winning site, and present site of the Monroe County office building: the site donated by Colonels Rochester and Fitzhugh and Major Carroll. (
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Three more pages follow the excerpt above, outlining some of the history that took place in Rochester:
June 1825, Lafayette visited to celebrate the opening of the Erie Canal.
October 25, 1826, the Rochester Daily Advertiser published their first morning paper, the only daily publshed between Albany and the Pacific Coast at that time.
1833, the cholera epidemic that took the lives of 500 Rochesterians out of a population of 11,000.
1837: a haven for the homeless when economic depression hit Rochester and the rest of the country (as it did 100 years later, the guide further points out).
1841, a parade toward Mount Hope Cemetary for the reinterment of remains of Boyd and Parker, heroes of Sullivan's campaign. Their remains were brought from Cuylerville, where they were massacred in 1779.
October 24, 1843, the Millerites, clothed in robes awaited the coming of the end of the world, and beginning the Seventh Day Adventists.
1850: the funeral procession in honor of President Zachary Taylor.
1860: the orations of Frederick A. Douglass.
1861-65: assemblies of soldiers for the Civil War.
1871: the State Arsenal (which became the Convention Hall, and then Geva Theatre) was built.
1882: the first horse drawn fire apparatus passed by.
1890: a cyclone hit the city.
1892: crowds gathered for the dedication of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument and a speech given by President Benjamin Harrison.
Throughout the 1890, a bicycle craze that demanded the paving of streets to reduce injuries.
Today, the little house mentioned in the excerpt no longer exists. No mention are made of the two historic churches that flank the park, but they are still there, along with The State Arsenal/Convention Hall that now serves as Geva Theatre. New buildings also flank the park: most prominently, the Bausch and Lomb Building, with a multi-story glass atrium facing the park.
Although transient, and may not hold up as a historical event, the Occupy Rochester movement has a permit to camp overnight in this park. It is fitting, given its history through two preceding national depressions, and it comes only 20 years ahead of another century mark for these cyclical economic events.
... oh, and the descendents of the pigeons mentioned on page 102 are still there as well.