Rochester

Sister cities

• Kraków

History

The Seneca tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy lived around Rochester prior to the American Revolution, and used the area as a hunting ground. Allied with the British, the Seneca were forced to cede or sell most of their land in New York after the war. The area now occupied by Rochester was ceded in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of 1788. As a reward for their loyalty to the British crown, the Iroquois were given a large land grant on the Grand River in Canada. Rochester was founded shortly after by a wave of English-Puritan-descended immigrants from New England, who were looking for new agricultural land. They were the dominant cultural group in Rochester for over a century. On November 8, 1803, three men from Hagerstown, Maryland, purchased a 100-acre (40-ha) tract from the Pulteney Estate along the Genesee River: Major Charles Carroll, Colonel William Fitzhugh Jr, and Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, the namesake of the city. They chose the site because its three cataracts on the Genesee offered great potential for water power. Beginning in 1811, and with a population of 15, the three founders surveyed the land and laid out streets and tracts. In 1817, the Brown brothers and other landowners joined their lands with the Hundred Acre Tract to form the village of Rochesterville. This name was unpopular, and in 1822 it was shortened to Rochester. By 1821, Rochesterville became the seat of Monroe County. In 1823, the Erie Canal aqueduct over the Genesee River was completed, connecting the city to the Hudson River to the east. New commerce from the canal turned the village into America's first boomtown. By 1830, Rochester's population had grown to 9,200, and in 1834, it was rechartered as a city. Rochester was first known as "the Young Lion of the West", and then as the…

Geography

Rochester is located in Upstate New York, on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. The Genesee River bisects the city. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and are covered by water (3.42%). The ice sheets also created Lake Ontario, the Genesee River with its waterfalls and gorges, Irondequoit Bay, Sodus Bay, Braddock Bay, Mendon Ponds, numerous local streams and ponds, the Ridge, and the nearby Finger Lakes. Celebrate City Living, a partnership program between the city government and Rochester Coalition for Neighborhood Living, defines 35 neighborhoods in Rochester. Among these are the 14621 Community, 19th Ward, Beechwood, Browncroft, Charlotte, Cobbs Hill, Corn Hill, downtown Rochester, Dutchtown, Edgerton, EMMA (East Main, Mustard & Atlantic Avenue), High Falls, Highland Park, Homestead Heights, JOSANA (Jay-Orchard Street Area), Lincoln Park, Lyell-Otis, Maplewood, Marketview Heights, Mayor's Heights, Monroe Village, NOTA (Neighborhood of the Arts), North Winton Village, Northland-Lyceum, Park Avenue, Plymouth-Exchange, South Wedge, Susan B. Anthony, Swillburg, Upper Falls, Upper Monroe, and Upper Mount Hope. File:RochesterSkyline2017.jpg|Center City and the Frederick Douglass–Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge File:Corn Hill 2.jpg|Townhouses in Corn Hill File:Oxford Street Homes 1.jpg|Oxford Street Houses File:Park and Oxford Intersection.jpg|Park and Oxford File:EastEndApartments.jpg|Apartments in Rochester's East End File:Rochouse wintercolours (8458281227).jpg|Houses on Park Avenue File:Rochester aerial aug 17 2007.jpg|An aerial image of the city of Rochester taken in August 2007 The 19th Ward is a southwest neighborhood bordered by Genesee Street, West Avenue, and the Erie Canal, and is across the river…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  52,498
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  46,171
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  43,607
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  41,848
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  40,520
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  36,391
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  35,666
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  35,228

Most recent

• M 2.6 — 2022-03-15
  5 km SSW of Warsaw, New York
• M 2.6 — 2020-03-29
  11 km N of Lyndonville, New York
• M 2.52 — 2017-07-11
  11 km NNW of Barker, New York
• M 2.46 — 2014-02-13
  34 km N of Lyndonville, New York
• M 2.7 — 2009-12-21
  10 km NNE of Olcott, New York
• M 2.91 — 2009-06-05
  4 km SSE of Attica, New York