About Rochester, NY
History
- 1803, Rochester was purchased from the State of New York by Col. Nathaniel Rochester, Maj. Charles Carroll, and Col. William Fitzhugh, Jr., who named it Rochesterville.
- 1823, with 1,012 acres of land and over 2,500 residents, the Village of Rochesterville became known as Rochester. Also at this time, the Erie Canal aqueduct over the Genesee River was completed, and the Erie Canal east to the Hudson River was opened, giving Rochester water travel from Lake Ontario all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1830, Rochester's population reaches 9,200
- 1834, Rochester is re-chartered as a city.
- 1847, Frederick Douglass founded the abolitionist newspaper, The North Star.
- 1861, German immigrants John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb launched Bausch and Lomb, an eye health supplier and leader in contact lens technology.
- 1888, Inventor and entrepreneur George Eastman founded Eastman Kodak, a revolutionary of photography and film.
- 20th Century, Rochester became a center for the garment industry, particularly men's clothes. It was the base of enterprises for such companies as Bond Clothing Stores, Fashion Park Clothes, Hickey Freeman, and Stein-Bloch & Co.
Facts and Stats
- Rochester is a city located in Monroe County, south of Lake Ontario in the State of New York.
- Known as The World's Image Center, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City.
- Rochester is the county seat for Monroe County.
- Rochester was one of America's first "boomtowns" and rose to prominence initially as the site of many flour mills located on the Genesee River, then as a major manufacturing hub.
- Rochester is the third most populous city in New York after New York City and Buffalo. It has a population of 210,565 people according to the 2010 Census.
- Rochester was ranked as the first 'most livable city' among 379 U.S. metropolitan areas in the 25th edition (2007) of the Places Rated Almanac.
- The Rochester area also received the top ranking for overall quality of life among U.S. metros with populations of more than 1 million in a 2007 study by Expansion Management magazine. In the same study, Expansion Management rated the area's public schools as sixth best nationwide.
- In 2010, Forbes rated Rochester as the third best place to raise a family.
- In 2012, Kiplinger rated Rochester as the fifth best city for families, citing low cost of living, top public schools, and a low jobless rate.
- Rochester has the least expensive real estate prices of any city in New York; the median house price is $83,186, considerably lower than the state's median housing price of $306,000.
