Note the following  is taken from the Democrat and Chronicle December 25, 1901.   Our thanks to the Rundel Library, (the Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County, NY)  whose microfiche preserves this record in the Local History Section.    

The First Christmas Tree

Introduced to Rochester about 60 years ago
by George Ellwanger

Austrian Pine from Mount Hope Nursery Catalog

It has within the recollection of one of Rochester’s oldest inhabitants when the first Christmas tree known in this city was exhibited.  It was the venerable and honored George Ellwanger,  of Mt Hope Avenue,  who introduced it here. 

Ad from 1847

“The Christmas tree was a German institution,”  said Mr. Ellwanger in relating the story to a Democrat and Chronicle reporter.   “We always had it in every Christian family in the Fatherland. It was the Christmas of 1841 or 1842, I don’t just recollect which, that we had a tree in the old German Lutheran church on Grove Street. We invited everyone who had never seen a Christmas tree, and explained its meaning to them.  It was a big green tree, all lighted up with candles, and the people were amazed and very much pleased at its appearance.  We had an address on the occasion, telling of the custom, especially directed to the children.   After the first tree, the custom became a yearly one, and from it has developed to the elaborate and beautiful tree with which children of the present generation are so familiar.”

“Our church,  too,  was very different then from the fine new building recently erected.  There were only about fourteen German families in the city then,  but we determined to build a church.   Mr. Riley gave us the lot,  and we put up a small, plain, cheap building.   Dr. Shaw preached the first sermon in it.   We had worshipped in the basement of Brick Church for a year previous. 

“The city didn’t amount to much then, having only about 18,000 or 20,000 people.   There were no police and practically no lights,  only a few dingy oil lamps in the center of the town.  During the day you could walk from St. Paul Street to the arcade and not meet more than two or three people. They were all too busy then to be on the street.  There weren’t so many idle people at that time as there are now.”

Eight months after the restoration of  its dome was completed, Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Botanical Park is decked out for the Holidays.  In 2009,  the Conservatory has been staying open late on Thursday evenings (as it will for Christmas and New Year’s eve) .   An evening stroll through this historic structure might just be the best present  you can give yourself this season.  See the slideshow below for a view of some of the sites.

All Photos © 2009 michaelino.com

It started with a Lilac tour of 100 year old trees, and then become a year-long series starting in July 2009.   Neigborhood resident Amy Priestley has been conducting free monthly Tours of Highland Park Trees, generally on the third Saturday of the month.   Amy attended graduate school at Oregon State University’s College of Forest Science and her time for these tours is made available through her business Labor of Love Consulting & Landscape Artistry.   Below are a few pictures of  Tour attendees &  Amy,  and, of course, some of the most interesting and renowned trees on the planet.

These are the final versions of
The Highland Park Neighborhood Association Presentations
 shown at the First Annual Meeting & Celebration Event which
was held on December 8, 2009.   Thanks to all who Attended!!

Year in Review Slide Show

Volunteer Appreciation Slide Show

See Our YouTube Videos

 Note: If you see someone missing in our list of volunteers, especially if that someone is YOU, please let us know at scrapbook@highlandparkrochester.org  and we will update the slide show with an additional credit.

Audrey and Alex , July 25, 2009

Audrey Kramer and Alex Chernavsky were married on July 25, 2009 with Cinematic Flair and catering that featured Neighborhood Specialities anong other treats.  Plus they got to see their name in lights.

That is because both  the ceremony and reception for Audrey and Alex were  held in the historic theater that anchors the neighborhood: The Cinema.  Guests were encouraged to wear movie-themed costumes.   The ceremony, like a classic main feature, was preceded by a Bugs Bunny cartoon.  Popcorn was provided aplenty.  The catering featured menu items from Ming’s Noodles and Flavors of Asia  (Both eateries are neighborhood favorites located on South Clinton Avenue)

 The Honorable Melchor E. Castro, Rochester City Court judge, officiated.

All Photos below Courtesy Cindy Welch.

 (Even more of Cindy’s Photos of this special wedding can be found here)

  

By  William De Lancey Ellwanger
© 1909

California gave to the world in 1849 not only the most wondrous wealth known up to that time, but also the tallest trees that ever grew toward heaven. Somewhere in the early fifties G. H. Woodruff joined the throng of gold hunters and went west to seek his fortune. So far as is known he found no gold, but, as the story runs, after a year or more of disappointments, he found himself one day in the forest primeval, forlorn and disconsolate. He threw himself on the ground, and, yielding to despair, gazed up into the treetops for help or resignation. Above him towered the big trees of the world, the grand Giganteas. You may call them, as you please, Gigantea, Washingtonia, or Wellingtonia. Their generic name is an arbitrary one, and it is still a disputed question whether they were first found and named by an Englishman or an American. No worry of nomenclature disturbed Mr. Woodruff”, but he knew trees. They had been part and parcel of his education, and as he lay on his back and looked up into their glorious heights, he appreciated their grandeur and rejoiced in their beauty. Also he noticed that the squirrels were nibbling at the cones above him, and dropping some of the seed shells at his feet. He thought that these seeds might be propagated successfully, and gathered a number of them. These he put into a snuff-box and at the first opportunity sent them to Ellwanger & Barry, nurserymen, at Rochester, N. Y. The snuff-box came by pony express across the continent, and the express charges for the little packet were $25. The seeds were duly sown and propagated by Messrs. Ellwanger & Barry, as appears from a letter in which they said:

January 11, 1855.

We have already one box of the seed sowed in our rose house under glass, a nice temperature of about 50 to 60 degrees. If it will do well anywhere it must do there. We shall sow all in boxes under glass, as the plants will be less liable to damp antf wither off. We have agreed to grow the plants on shares as proposed, but if you prefer to sell it you might name your price for it.

More seeds were afterward gathered and sent and propagated, with results shown in a second letter :

January 26, 1856.

We did all in our power with them; some of the seeds never vegetated and some came slowly. They have been coming through the ground all summer. We have succeeded in obtaining about 4000 plants, all of which are out of danger, we think; they are all in pots, and as there is no demand yet for them in this country we have shipped 400 to England to be sold, and shall send more as needed. We intend to advertise them here this spring at $2 per plant.

So much for the finding of these seeds and their propagation. Their subsequent growth and development, and their dispersion from Rochester over all of Europe, make an other chapter in their story. If it seems a far cry from these little potted pigmies to the giants of the forest, it is necessary only to turn to Messrs. Ellwanger & Barry’s catalogue of 1857 for encouragement as to their possibilities. In that catalogue these plants were thus offered for sale:

“Washingtonia Gigantea, the Celebrated Big Tree of California; Wellingtonia of the English, and Sequoia of the French; one of the most majestic trees in the world. Specimens have been measured upward of 300 feet in height and thirty-two feet in diameter three feet from the ground. We think it will prove hardy here, as several specimens stood out unprotected last winter. Mr. Reid, of New Jersey, has also found it hardy with him. One dollar to two dollars.”

But either this advertisement was too modest or the commendation too conservative, for the plants found few buyers here. Even in 1856 the growers had to look to foreign markets for the sale of the greatest native American industry, if a big tree of California, 300 feet high, may be so characterized. William Skirving, nurseryman, of Liverpool, England, bought the first hundred of the plants in that year. Later he bought 250 more, then again 500 and 500 and 500 and 500, making in all 2350. So the squirrel seeds began to take root and grow and spread in English soil. And Mr. Skirving’s purchase proved profitable to him in more ways than one. For he has told that when the first in voice of plants arrived he was quite ill and confined to his bed. His head gardener was so impressed with the beauty of the plants that he brought a box of them for admiration to Mr. Skirving’s bedside. The very sight of them, Mr. Skirving declared, made him a well man again. This was his own story to Mr. Ellwanger when the latter visited him, and the circumstances may go to prove that there is more healing balsam and resinous health in the evergreens of California than Bret Harte has ever dared to sing. Mr. Skirving went on to say that shortly afterward a certain duke whose estates were in Wales happened to call upon him. The duke had a fondness for conifers, as is characteristic of wealthy and exalted personages, it being well understood that far beyond roses and lilies and orchids and all the shrubs and trees that ever grew, a taste for conifers is the supreme refinement. It is the top note in the gamut of all songs of beauty and nature, whether people most love books or trees or pictures or porcelains or whatsoever it may be. The late Charles A. Dana, who knew most everything that was good, knew this also, and, it is said, loved his evergreens more than all his other treasures. But, be that as it may, in the course of conversation, the duke boasted to Mr. Skirving that he had recently made a find of a few plants of the Wellingtonia, for which he had paid two guineas apiece. These he bought at Veitch’s, he of the Ampelopsis, to describe him familiarly, for surely the Ampelopsis Veitchii is a household word. Mr. Skirving promptly offered to sell the duke any number at one guinea, and the duke as quickly bought a hundred, which he planted in an avenue. If they have grown and thrived, as is said, they must make an imposing sight by this time.

Of the plants which Messrs. Ellwanger & Barry propagated, several hundred were also sent to a well-known English nurseryman, Thomas Rivers. Of the dispersion of these there is no trace. Other dukes and potentates may have purchased them. The following record, however, is interesting. It is quoted from the memoirs of Tennyson, recently published. In the first chapter of volume 2 the poet’s son writes that the great event of 1864 was Garibaldi’s visit to the Tennysons. “My mother wrote in April,” he says, “A. and I went out to fix a spot in our garden where the Wellingtonia should be planted by him (given to A. by the Duchess of Sutherland and raised by her from a cone that had been shot from a tree 300 feet high in California).” Some of the circumstances are then told connected with the planting of the tree and the ceremonies attending it, as graced by Garibaldi’s presence and favor. Many strangers were there, and “when the tree was planted they gave a shout.” It is to be hoped that the shout was in honor of the tree itself, as well as for its sponsor or foster-father or either of its worthy namesakes.

So, from Mr. Woodruff’s snuff-box have come almost all important specimens of the Gigantea in Europe and in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. You can find them in the botanical gardens in Bordeaux, at Kew, in Madrid, in Switzerland and elsewhere. There are one or two in Boston. Of the original propagation a group of seven fine specimens are growing in the home nursery grounds of Ellwanger & Barry. These trees are now about fifty feet high, and, except that our winter winds are sometimes unkind to them, and the heads of one or two show signs of baldness, they bear their years and honors well. They are somewhat shielded by neighboring firs, yet they doubtless miss the protection which favored them in their original habitat. But nothing can rob them of their dignity. So long as they live they will have a majesty of their own. They must have known and asserted their importance when they were hardly inches high in the rose house, for even then they had a fair money value, and in 1865 Ellwanger & Barry paid to Mr. Woodruff as his half profits for his seed gathering $1030.60. It may be added that no similar large propagation of seed has been attempted here, or, if accomplished, would be likely to prove financially successful. Seed is now easily obtainable, but the plants would no longer be a novelty in the horticultural market.

 The death of Patrick Barry, June 23, [1890] of the firm of Ellwanger & Barry of Rochester, New York, removed the most commanding figure in recent American horticulture. He was a man of strong personality, clear perception and great integrity, and his opinion always exerted wide influence. He

1890 Source for Patrick Barry Obit

was one of the greatest and best known nurserymen of the century. He entered the nursery business when American horticulture was young, and when there was need of a commanding personality to extend and popularize it. Along with the Downings, Prince, Parsons and others, he was a pioneer. He helped to build up a great business which is not only a commanding financial success but a stimulus to ah to grow fruits and ornamental plants. He did much to give standing and stability to the nursery business throughout the country. 

Mr. Barry was also well-known as a horticultural writer. In his early years his pen was prolific, especially in an editorial way. He was once editor of the famous Horticulturist, and later he was horticultural editor of the Genesee Farmer. In his later years he became widely known among pomologists from his work on the fruit catalogue of the American Pomological Society. This was work in a new field. But his most important literary work is the Fruit Garden, which first appeared many years ago, and which in its revised edition is one of our best and most popular books upon fruit culture. All his work was strong and inspiring. His memory will long remain a great inspiration to horticulturists.

For more than thirty years and until his death, Mr. Barry was president of the Western New York Horticultural Society; he was also president of the New York Agricultural Society, and one of the board of control of the State Agricultural Experiment Station ; president of the Rochester City & Brighton Railroad Co., of the Flour City National Bank, Mechanics Savings Bank, Rochester Gas Co. and Powers Hotel Co.

The following tribute is from John Hall, secretary of the Western New York Horticultural Society, of which Mr. Barry was so long president. It first appeared in The American Garden for August :

It is impossible to do full justice to the life and work of Mr. Barry. He was born in Ireland, near the city of Belfast, in 1816. After receiving a liberal education, he emigrated to this country at the age of twenty years. Entering the employ of the Princes, of Flushing, —Long Island, as a clerk, he devoted his time and energies to his chosen occupation, and in the remarkably short space of four years had acquired a very thorough knowledge of the nursery business as it then existed.

In 1840 he moved to Rochester, N. Y., where he formed a partnership with George Ellwanger. The young firm started business with seven acres of land, known as the Mount Hope nurseries, and now of world-wide reputation. The young horticulturists of to-day find themselves the possessors of an inheritance secured to them through the privations and vexations of years of patient and persistent effort by the firm with which the late Mr. Barry was identified.

In those early days these pioneers found themselves in a new country, possessing no collections of fruit, with no telegraphic or cable facilities, with no railroads or fast ocean steamers, and separated from the Old World by a distance which then required almost as many weeks to traverse as days now suffice. Necessarily, therefore, many weeks and months were spent in the effort to procure new stocks, both in Germany and France, which, when gathered, were transported to the sea-ports by stage coach, and thence conveyed by sailing vessels to the New World. When the young firm started to budding trees they were sneered at, and called fools and lunatics for their pains. Such were some of the difficulties encountered by these men in the efforts to introduce new stocks into this country. But they persevered, and Mr. Barry was identified with the growth of horticulture to the present time, having succeeded in giving to the American people the most desirable plants that can be successfully grown upon its soil. Every new apple and pear was imported from abroad and tested, in order to determine its quality and adaptability to the climate before it was placed upon the market. It is safe to say that no other nursery firm in the country pursued such a course ; nor, indeed, is it now so necessary, since the United States government and individual states, as well as some colleges, have established experiment stations for the purpose of continuing just such work as the firm of Ellwanger & Barry inaugurated forty years ago.

Mr. Barry occupied numerous positions of prominence and trust in the state and in the “flour city,” and was identified with many enterprises which have helped to make Rochester the prosperous city it now is. For more than thirty years he was the president, and a most liberal patron of the Western New York Horticultural Society, and in his last communication to that body, at its annual meeting in January last, he thus expressed himself: “And now a word as to the presidency. You have given me this post of honor for a very long period of years ; I am no longer able to perform its duties, and lay it down with profound gratitude, and with an affectionate regard for the society and every individual member.” But the assembled horticulturists with one voice declared that so long as Patrick Barry was able to write “yours truly,” so long he should be continued as their president.

In an editorial, a Rochester paper thus referred to Mr. Barry: “He was a man of exceptionally strong character. The slightest contact with him elicited some manifestation of personal power. He was straightforward in his methods, honorable in his purposes, and of an integrity that would not tolerate even the suspicion of indiscretion. In private and public affairs he was a stern, aggressive personality whose influence went always for what was honest, genuine, and true ; and in his loss the community loses not simply an individual life but a moral force.”

And the bishop of the church with which Mr. Barry worshiped, as he stood by his casket, thus beautifully made reference to the dead horticulturist:

“This man and the others associated with him raised the occupation to which they devoted their life work to the dignity of a liberal profession, not manual or clerical, but a profession that needed long years of study and careful application. By intellectual labor and by extensive reading, he contributed to make their profession worthy to be called one of the liberal professions – raising those who were engaged in it above their fellow men ;” and again, “he ruled in his household wisely, conscientiously, lovingly, as a man should rule in it.”

Such was Patrick Barry, a man to whom every lover of horticulture owes a debt of gratitude that can best be acknowledged by constant efforts to perpetuate his example.

He leaves a widow, one daughter and three sons.

The portrait [shown here] is commended by W. C. Barry as a good likeness of his late father.

The dedication of  “Ellwanger and Barry Park” as the new name of the playground-park at Meigs and Linden  streets took place at the Third Annual Taste of the Neighborhood on September 20, 2009.  The re-naming had previously been made official by unanimous vote of City Council on September 8th, 2009.   The dedication ceremony was presided over by Neighborhood Association Co-Chairs Roger Ramsay and Ruth Danis , “Taste of the Neighborhood 2009 Chair” Matt Carnevale and resident Marcia J. Zach who had spearheaded the renaming effort.  The official dedication was performed by the Mayor of Rochester, Robert J. Duffy and  City Council member Elaine Spaull.  Also in attendance were State Senator Joseph E. Robach, City of Rochester’s Director of Housing and Project Development, Brett Garwood and SEAC Executive Director Helen Hogan  among hundreds of other residents and guests at the picnic.

1935 Map of Rochester Showing Playground

This process began in February 2009 at the first Neighborhood meeting of the year.  You can read Marcia’s cover letter to the Planning Commission requesting the name change right here.    She included quite a bit of documentation about the history of Ellwanger and Barry and their connection to this neighborhood and this park (such as the first map to show the playground from the City Library’s archives -  at left.)

I think this one quote from her letter explains it all:

The children of our city were important to Ellwanger and Barry. Not only did they donate land for schools, but they built a Memorial Pavilion in Highland Park and dedicated it to the children of Rochester. The dedication held such importance to the people that the pavilion became known as “The Children’s Pavilion”. Since that no longer stands in Highland Park, it seems especially appropriate to honor George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry by renaming this park, a place where children still enjoy land that Ellwanger and Barry gave to the city and where the Highland Park Neighborhood Association holds events such as our annual event, The Taste of the Neighborhood, to bring together all our residents, to “Ellwanger and Barry Park”.

Before the application was completed  Marcia and I had a chance to meet the Mayor at one of our Neighborhood events and she described the project to him.  He immediately endorsed the idea and asked that we copy him and keep him up to date as we proceeded.  With his help and also Councilmember Spaull,  the City Planning Commission and eventually City Council, the process completed in time for the celebration.   We will have a little more detail when we  add the “Visual History of the Playground” portion of  “The Arboretum that Became a Neighborhood” exhibit to this website in the coming months.  Stay tuned…that conversion project is underway….but in the meantime here are two videos of the event on September 20, 2009.

The first is one we created as an entry for the 175th anniversary video contest run by the City of Rochester and The Rochester International High Falls Film Festival

The second was made just for you and anyone else who attended or wanted to attend the Taste of the Neighborhood event.  It includes an abbreviated version of the dedication ceremony.  

If that isn’t  enough, come back soon and look for a third longer video in this space…once we finish editing all the digital files.  It will have more interviews, music and even some salsa dancing…did you have as much fun as we did that day?

Like many homes in the neighborhood and on Mulberry street, Ruth’s house  was built by the Ellwanger & Barry Realty Company.