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
What would the children of to-day do without their Christmas tree? That is a question few of the happy favored youngsters of the 20th century could answer satisfactorily, and it suggests a condition they could not face with equanimity. The holiday season, indeed, would lose half its significance to them, if not to their elders, with no tree.
Yet, like many other things of to-day, the Christmas tree was an institution practically unknown to the children of Rochester sixty years ago. Such a creation as the modern child enjoys, with its glittering ornaments, its myriad tiny colored tapers, or, even more up to date, its twinkling electric lights, to say nothing of its wealth of gifts, would have seemed nothing short of a gift from some good fairy’s wand. It would have been a thing to approach reverently, to gaze upon in wondering amazement and to treasure in the heart as a sacred memory.
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.
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- Conservatory Window – Useful Plants
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- Panorama at Ten until Nine
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.
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- September Tree Tour
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- July 2009 Tour
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- Look for this Sign!
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- From September Tour
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- From September Tour
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- Needle Fir
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- Siberian Larch
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- American Arborvitae
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- Pinus Strobus orginally from Ellwanger & Barry Nursery
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- October 2009 Tree Tour
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- Tree Tour Guide Amy Priestley
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- October 2009 Tour
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- From October 2009 Tour
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- Rocky Mountain Yellow Pine
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- Tree Tour September 2009
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- The Most Beautiful Bark in the Park?
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- December Sight
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- Tree Tour in December 2009
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- Holiday 2009 Group Shot
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- Holiday Tour 2009 after the Cocoa was Gone
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)
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- A Cake of Vegan Cupcakes
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- Front Row Couple
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- Portrait of Audrey & Alex
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- Popcorn Feeding Exchange
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- Ceremony in Front
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- Wedding Couple with Friends
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- Concessionaire Couple
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- Baklava and Star Trek
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- Champagne Toast in The Cinema
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- Take:Each Other
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- Wedding Favors
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.
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- Ledger for House on Mulberry
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- Effinger Wedding
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- Effinger Family 1915
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- Effinger Uncles at Shoe Factory
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- Sherwood Shoe Factory
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- Mary Effinger
GEO. H. ELLWANGER.
Geo. Herman Ellwanger, of the well- known firm of Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N. Y., died April 23 at his home, 593 Mount Hope avenue, after an illness of several months. The immediate cause of death was paralysis of the heart. Mr. Ellwanger, who was an occasional contributor to our columns, was born in Rochester, July 10, 1848, and was the son of Geo. Ellwanger and Cornelia Brooks Ellwanger. The following notes on his career appeared in our issue of August 16, 1902:
“Few books have done as much to promote a knowledge and love of horticulture as the ‘Garden’s Story/ by George H. Ellwanger; and no book, it has been justly said, has taught its lesson so delightfully. With good reason, in that the author has brought to his subject a long and practical experience, a fine and cultivated taste and the pen of a ready writer. Mr. Ellwanger is the eldest son of George Ellwanger, the veteran and venerable horticulturist and founder of the Mount Hope Nurseries. He was born in Rochester, N. Y., and finished his education by a five years’ course of study and travel in Europe. He thus became an easy master of French and German, and so can turn his command of those languages to good account and keep in ready touch with all the foreign periodicals and literature on floriculture and arboriculture. Many friendships and intimacies were formed at this time and in later visits to Europe, with such distinguished men as William Robinson, George Nicholson, Andre Leroy, Reynolds Hole and others, whom simply to have known argues a liberal education in the matter of roses and hardy flowers and every tree and shrub that blooms and grows.
The Late George H Ellwanger
But aside from his technical and scholarly knowledge in this especial field, Mr. Ellwanger has loved to dig and delve and prune for himself, and to know intimately and as personal friends the daffodil and rose, the paeonia and phlox and every ornamental bush and shrub that serves to make the spring and summer glorious. He has said that every tree has its individuality as marked as the eyes or nose of a man, and it is this human sympathy with his impersonal friends among the trees and flowers, which has made the ‘Garden’s Story’ and his other volumes on nature so readable and helpful. The ‘Story of My House’ followed the ‘Garden’s Story’ as a graceful companion piece, and Mr. Ellwanger has published in quick succession ‘In Gold and Silver,’ ‘Idyllists of the Country Side,’ ‘An Introduction to White’s Natural History of Selborne,’ a new and revised edition of ‘The Rose,’ by H. B. Ellwanger, an anthology entitled ‘Love’s Demesne,’ and other works . In the meanwhile, too, he has found time to contribute articles on flowers or fruit to various garden journals. As a writer within these lines his characteristics are his catholicity, his graceful versatility and the assured knowledge where- from he speaks.
“Mr. Ellwanger is a director and secretary of the Ellwanger & Barry Co., and also director and secretary of the Ellwanger & Barry Realty Co. He is a member of the Author’s club, of New York, of the Pundit dub, of Rochester, the oldest literary club in America; and is an honorary member of the National Rose Society of England. All lovers of the queen of flowers will be glad to learn that he has promised for early publication a new. revised and fuller edition of ‘The Rose,’ by his brother, the late H. B. Ellwanger, the American standard of authority on that flower.
“That George H. Ellwanger will succeed to the high honors of his distinguished father, George Ellwanger, the pioneer of American horticulturists and pomologists, would seem predestined by stronger laws than those of mere inheritance. Yet happily George Ellwanger is still with us, enjoying a ripe old age of almost four score years and ten.”
GEORGE ELLWANGER.
On Monday, November 26, George Ellwanger, the senior member of the firm Ellwanger & Barry, died at his home in Rochester, N Y., which he had cherished so much for more than on ordinary lifetime. Here he had surrounded himself with his pets, the choicest and rarest trees, shrubs and flowers of all descriptions. He saw these trees grow into magnificent specimens, samples of his own skill, which even today stand unsurpassed.
George Ellwanger was born December 2, 1816, in Gross-Heppbach near Stuttgart, Wurtemberg, Germany, as the son of a vineyardist, and there, under the guidance of his father, received the first lessons in practical horticulture. But the vineyards alone afforded no opportunity to satisfy his eager desire for a thorough and complete knowledge of horticulture in all its various branches and while a mere boy, he was apprenticed to a nurseryman and florist in Stuttgart, where every opportunity was given him to acquire the extensive knowledge for which he was famous in after life
The Late George Ellwanger
In 1835 Mr. Ellwanger came to America and soon found employment in Rochester with Reynolds & Bentham which firm conducted a nursery and seed business. Three years later, in 1838, he bought out his employers and started for himself, but soon after found an able associate in the person of the late P. Barry, and in 1840, the first eight acres of ground were bought to establish the well known Mount Hope Nurseries. On this original ground the office building, greenhouses and trial grounds are still located. From this rather small beginning the nurseries have grown rapidly. Over 1,000 acres are now planted to young trees and shrubs.
Mr. Ellwanger has always paid personal attention to details in the nursery department. For a life time he himself selected all the scions for budding and grafting to avoid the mixing of varieties. He was up early and late. Where ever gangs of men were at work in the fields, often many miles apart and away from the home grounds, Mr. Ellwanger would be sure to pay them a daily visit, to see how the work progressed.
For more than a year old age compelled him to stay away from business cares. Last summer he was at times able to be out in his own spacious private grounds, enjoying the grand old trees, which he had planted and nursed with his own hands years ago. But as the cooler autumn days approached, and the leaves one by one began to fall, his strength, too, failed visibly, and when at last the storms had shaken the last remnants of foliage to the earth, from whence they sprang, he also got ready to pay his tribute to mother earth. Mr. Ellwanger had four sons, three of whom died before him. The fourth son, William D. Ellwanger, is the one surviving him. J. B. K.
MEMORIAL ON MR. ELLWANGER’S DEATH.
At a meeting of the directors of the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company held November 27, the following memorial was adopted: “Seldom has the span of human life given a record of accomplishment equal to that of our late associate, George Ellwanger, whose death occurred November 26, in the ninetieth year of his age. One of its charter members, this Institution owes its existence and In large measure its success to the foresight and energy of Mr. Ellwanger and a few of his associates. Those of us who have served with him on this board for these many years v/ell know the value of his business Judgment and counsel, while his uniform courtesy and kindness of heart has endeared him to all. The history of his life for nearly 70 years is almost inseparable from that of the city of Rochester. His contributions of time, money and thought toward the city’s beauty, its material and moral advancement, have been equaled by few and exceeded by none of her many public spirited citizens. Out of respect and reverence for his memory, It is ordered that this slight tribute be spread upon our minutes and a copy be sent to his family and the public press.”
Or they will at least until, I have time to give both fuller coverage here. These are currently on display from 9 am until 5 pm weekdays in the waiting area of City Hall, The exhibits (The Arboretum That Became a Neighborhood as well as Reflections of a Neighborhood:A Virtual Scrapbook)will only be there until August 27th, 2009. Catch them while you can…you can even convince me to come down and take you through at a time that we can agree upon.
Please note that many of the items on display already have found a home here or eventully they will show up here as Scrapbook Pages and that we plan a complete on-line “installation” of The Arboretum That Became a Neighborhood very soon now…and right on this very site! Until then…please consider a trip downtown…you may even find yourself in the exhibit if you look close!
Envelope from Ellwanger & Barry's Mount Hope Nurseries
Recently for sale on Ebay was this postal cover with a local flavor. Collecting this beautiful envelope from the 1800s with a Cameo Embossed Return Address for Ellwanger & Barry’s Mount Nurseries would have set you back at least $89.
Within a decade of its opening in 1840, Mount Hope Nurseries remained the dominant local plant nursery and the focus of Ellwanger & Barry’s enterprise until the late 19th century. As competition grew, (some competitors were original purchasers of nursery stock from Ellwanger & Barry), the Ellwanger & Barry real estate business moved to the fore. Starting in the 1850s, the Real Estate company originally built modest homes for its nursery workers. But by the turn of the century, now incorporated as a separate entity called the “Ellwanger and Barry Realty Company”, it was subdividing former nursery acreage into entirely new sections of the city. The 20th Century brought with it the developments of core areas of our neighborhood including Crawford, Linden, Mt. Vernon, Meigs, Mulberry and Rockingham Streets as well as, eventually Highland Parkway.
The transition is documented quite abruptly when examining the name listings and ads purchased within The Rochester Directory during the second decade of the last century. For in the 1913 edition, the nursery business makes its final appearance…ads having been placed for Mount Hope Nurseries in the publication since the early 1840s.
Entries in 1913 Rochester Directory for Ellwanger & Barry
Contrast the above with the 1914 edition of same publication…no longer does the nursery business have ad space allocated, athough in the index section, both companies are referenced. For the remainder of its existence, the Ellwanger & Barry Realty company will now advertise homes in “The Finest and Healthiest Part of the City”
Entries in 1914 Rochester Directory for Ellwanger & Barry
For more information see: The Flower City by Blake McKelvey and
Ellwanger & Barry: Background and Scope of the Collection
by John Richter – Crawford Street
A story from my experience here on Crawford Street. This story concerns my experience with the creation of the condominiums.
Jan 1979: On New Year’s Day, we moved into our new home on Crawford Street. With two small children, ages 6 and 2, I was anxious to get out of my apartment and into a house of my own. I was a bit naive back then and didn’t realize 
what problems were in store for me as a result of living next to a school that had just closed. I now realize why the former owners, the McAllisters, had sold it. My first year initially seemed very quiet compared to Berkeley Street, but the problems soon began. Abandoned schools quickly attract kids, who like to loiter and vandalize, and there was plenty of that. Worst of all, there was a basketball hoop in the parking lot that attracted all-night parties, complete with loud music from portable boom-boxes. Even on Saturday mornings, we’d awake to the sound of thump, thump, brawang, as the ball bounced off the backboard. All the neighbors adjacent to the parking lot were on edge from all this constant commotion. There was no relief from this. The picture below shows our proximity to the parking lot.
At this time there were proposals circulating concerning the fate of the closed school. One concerned turning the school into a strip mall. This involved tearing down the kindergarten building, now Joan’s house, and extending the parking lot with egress onto Crawford Street. The other proposal was to turn the school into condominiums. There were several town meetings where these proposals were thoroughly discussed. I was dead-set against living next to a parking lot, so I advocated for the condos, although, surprisingly, there was a lot of opposition to it. Fortunately for me, the condo proposal prevailed and Lowell Colvin, a local developer, was hired to do the renovations. We knew of him from other projects in the East Ave. area and knew he had a reputation for high-end quality projects.
Meanwhile, back at the parking lot, the parties were continuing, even on weekdays. One day, as I was walking the kids back to my house, a beer bottle that had been blindly thrown over the fence, just missed us. My fuse was lit, and I chased the kids away, at least temporarily. They rode by my house a few days later, yelling obsenities at me. The battle was on! Police were called many times to break up the late-night gatherings.
The construction workers, who were working on the condo renovation, also got into the act of playing basketball during lunch hours. One day, when Lowell Colvin visited the site during lunch hour and caught his men playing ball, he immediately got out a cutting torch and cut down the basketball hoop, ending all of the misery that the neighbors had endured the past year. The silence was deafening! At last, the neighbors could smile again.
This was the single-most important event that happened in the 30 years that I’ve lived here. The condominium project was a huge success for the neighborhood. The condo units initially sold for $100K, when the homes in the area were going for $50K, so the values in the neighborhood soared. Best of all, the architectural nature of the school was preserved and peace and tranquility prevailed.
The Cinema Theater at Clinton and Goodman has been operated by Joanne Morealle since 1985. This retired earth
Cinema Theater
science teacher from Edison Tech lives across from the theater and has struggled to keep it going but the motivating force for her is her love of movies and the neighborhood. In the Fall of 2005, it looked as if the Cinema had shown it’s last movie. In the spirit of community partnership, a number of committed individuals and companies led by Highland Park Neighborhood resident Bill Wynkoop stepped in and helped keep its doors open. The Friends of the Cinema is still operating http://www.cinemarochester.com/ It’s always a pleasure at the Cinema where you can enjoy a double feature for $5.00 and concessions can be had at a modest price. Did you know the cinema can be rented for birthdays, special events , etc.? They have a digital projector which can project DVDs with surround sound or be connected to the internet. A couple recently was engaged via a special video the future groom created. And of course there’s always “Princess” the theater cat who may come and sit next to you to share a movie. Support the Cinema, Rochester’s Oldest still operating theater.
by Michael E Tomb
I spent quite a bit of 2008 working with other volunteers to design several “takes” of an exhibit which uses vintage maps of the City of Rochester and our Neighborhood to tell the story of how the Ellwanger & Barry nurseries evolved into Our Neighborhood (among several) and Highland Park. That exhibit is titled “The Arboretum that Became a Neighborhood”and the design work will continue soon with on-line version of the illustrated time-line that we developed. Along the way I found no suitable current map of the area. Even Google Maps and other on-line sites have missing street names…as do the only one that I could find online at the City of Rochester site. Working with an enhanced version of a Map-point slide created by Michael Thompson, Marcoa and I designed a 2009 version that now includes every street name we could find within the Highland Park Neighborhood. Please contact us with any comments. or corrections . I doubt that this will be last version we create! The image below is linked to a larger version of the map, suitable for printing.
Map of the Highland Park Neighborhood Today
By Ruth Danis & Paul S. Brookes, Mulberry Street
These are pictures from the 2008 “Mulbaby” St. block party. The story is simple. Five babies were born within one block and we renamed the street. (I do not like being in pictures, but my neighborhood never listens-Ruth)
The Contis Return To Highland Park to Celebrate Year Fifty
A half a century ago, Sam & Pat Conti of Fredonia, NY were on the their honeymoon when they stopped at the Lilac Festival in Rochester. In May 2008, during their 50th anniversary celebration, they returned to Highland Park and toured the Neighborhood’s exhibit as part of the festivities.
