a quiet neighborhood of renaissance
In 1827,
Josiah Bissell stood at the east end of Rochester’s new Main Street, the spot
where the Liberty Pole now stands. Looking to the north, he noted a lovely
small hill crested by a grove of trees. Soon, that hill was the site of Josiah
Bissell’s home, the first residence in what was to become known as the
neighborhood of Grove Place.
It was
the early nineteenth century. Animals outnumbered people in some neighborhoods.
And for a time on Josiah Bissell’s 100-acre tract, cattle were the primary
residents, roaming over the rolling meadows. Before the century progressed very
far, however, Grove Place became home to some of Rochester’s most prominent and
noteworthy citizens.
Dr.
Orrin Gibbs, for example. A prominent physician, Dr. Gibbs named the west
boundary of his property for his father, establishing today’s Gibbs Street,
address of the Eastman Theatre and one of Rochester’s most attractive
residential neighborhoods.
Later in
the century, George B. Selden developed the first internal combustion engine in
his Uncle Samuel Selden’s carriage house located in Grove Place. After a
lengthy legal battle, the patents for Mr. Selden’s engines were awarded to
Henry Ford. But today, the attractive street where Uncle Samuel’s carriage
house stood is named Selden Street.
And
while George B. Selden contributed notably to the family name, it was Uncle
Samuel Selden and Levi Ward, Sr., who most dramatically influenced the
character of Grove Place during the nineteenth century and beyond.
From
1840, when the two became the primary landowners in the area, the descendants
of the Ward and Selden patriarchs built gracious homes and raised their
families in Grove Place for more than a century.
One of
these descendants—a Grove Place citizen—was Levi Ward, Jr., first president of
the free school system and one of Rochester’s first mayors.
The Ward
family was represented in Grove Place for nearly 150 years—an era that ended in
1973 with the death of Mrs. Hawley Ward.
In fact,
Clayla Werner Ward—one of Rochester’s most active and visible citizens—spent
most of her life in the home at 18 Grove Place, almost directly behind the
MetroCenter YMCA. The house, one of the oldest in the neighborhood, dates to
1850. Along with Levi Ward’s former home at 164 Gibbs Street, renovated in
1974, Mrs. Ward’s house stands as a tribute to the families that dominated what
is now the Grove Place neighborhood.
Religion
also played a significant role in the development of Grove Place. In an era
when churches were centers of community influence, Grove Place built four in an
area encompassing five square blocks.
In 1836,
the Mount Hope Nurseries’ George Ellwanger was one of the founding members of
the Zion Lutheran Church. The church still stands on Grove Street as the Jewish
War Veterans David J. Kauffman Post.
In 1852,
Levi Ward funded the building of St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church on the
southwest corner of Gibbs and Grove. Although the congregation dissolved in
1923, the bells that summoned Grovetown parishioners for more than half a
century ring today from the Colgate Rochester Divinity School. Temple B’rith
Kodesh built its first synagogue in Grove Place at the corner of Gibbs and
Grove Streets in 1893.
Sixteen
years later, the temple was destroyed by the great Gibbs Street blaze of 1909.
Three other Grove Place churches and 70 homes were damaged by the fire as 40
mile-per-hour winds carried the flames through Grove Place.
Amidst
the rebuilding, yet another institution came to Grove Place—the Young Men’s
Christian Association. The original “Y”, built in 1914, still stands behind the
new Chester F. Carlson MetroCenter YMCA completed in 1983.
Like
many Rochester neighborhoods, Grove Place— temporarily forgotten during the
mid-twentieth century—has been rediscovered. The efforts of past and present
residents, as well as those of the City and the Downtown Development
Corporation, have combined to erase signs of urban wear.
The
Grove Place Neighborhood Association, initiated in 1968 by the late Melville C.
McQuay, a longtime resident, and the Rev. Walter B. Freed, pastor of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation, has been active in preserving
the historical ambiance of the neighborhood. Fittingly, Clayla Werner Ward was
the association’s first president.
The
Neighborhood Association was instrumental in forming a development company,
Grovetown, Inc., as a vehicle to purchase, restore and sell its
nineteenth—century homes to a new generation of downtown living devotees. Since
the corporation was formed, more than 13 homes dating from the 1850’s have been
restored.
Several
of Grove Place’s most notable residences—the townhouses at #128-#152 Gibbs
Street and the carriage house at #3 and #5 Selden Street—have been recognized
as historic landmarks. Although not a landmark, the “skinny house” at 137 Gibbs
Street remains a local attraction, noted for its 15—foot width.
The new
YMCA building and modern townhouses at #173 and #175 Gibbs Street, along with
the recently completed townhouse residences on Selden Street, have added a
touch of 20th century flair and contemporary urban landscaping to
Grove Place. Combining a rebirth of
nineteenth-century stateliness with an eclectic touch of contemporary design,
Grove Place celebrates this Sesquicentennial year much as it celebrated the
City’s first birthdays—as a thriving downtown neighborhood.
(Today,
the Grove Place neighborhood is bordered by Main Street on the south, Delevan
Street on the north, Scio on the east, and North Street and Liberty Pole Way on
the west.)