ROCHESTER, a city of New York, the county-seat of Monroe co. It is on Lake Ontario, the Barge canal, and on the New York Central, the Erie, the Lehigh Valley, the Pennsylvania, and the Buf falo, Rochester and Pittsburgh railroads.
There are five electric lines carrying passengers, express and freight into the city. The recently completed barge canal is an outlet for heavy freight, and has a harbor in the center of the city.
The city school system includes 47 buildings. In 1919 there were approxi mately 1,400 teachers with 42,876 regis tered pupils. The expenditures of the Board for 1919 were $2,927,933.43. There are 5 high schools, 32 parochial schools and many private institutions, including 4 academies, two for girls and two for boys, and one large institution for in struction of deaf mutes. The University of Rochester was founded in 1850 and has beautiful grounds in the eastern part of the city. There are also the Rochester Theological Seminary, Baptist, and St. Bernard's Theological Seminary, Catholic.
There are 16 banks in Rochester with a capital of $6,500,000, a total surplus of $15,916,000, and total deposits of $227,726,044.
The city owns its own waterworks system, bringing its supply from Hem lock and Canadice lakes, 30 miles S. of Rochester, through three large conduits. There are 5 daily newspapers, and a large number appearing less frequently.
The city maintains a large park sys tem. The Park Commission was created in 1888 and the park system has been enlarged year by year through pur chases and gifts so that now the total area of park territory is 16,049 acres. The five largest parks in their order are Durand-Eastman, located on the lake shore and the northern edge of the city; Genesee Valley Park, located on the S. of the city on both sides of the Genesee river; Seneca Park, to the N. of the city and E. of the river; Maplewood Park, to the N. of the city and W. of the
river; Highland Park, in which is lo cated one of the large reservoirs; also one of the finest arboretums in the coun try.
Rochester has a public library with 6 branches circulating 75,000 volumes. The city also has the Reynolds Library with 78,000 volumes. These are in addi tion to the libraries maintained by the school system and universities.
The manufacturing interests of Roch ester are large. There are 1,760 fac tories turning out 350 commodities. The city leads the world in the production of a large number of articles, including cameras, camera supplies, optical goods, check protectors, thermometers, filing de vices and office systems, enameled steel tanks, soda fountain fruits and syrups. The city leads in the country in the pro duction of high-class ivory buttons and is the headquarters for all nursery busi ness in the United States. It produceE. 60% of the typewriter and carbon rib bon made in the country. It ranks fourth in the United States in the production of shoes and men's clothing. The annual output of shoes in 1919 was $55,000,000 in the 56 factories of Rochester. The annual output of high-grade men's cloth ing in 1919 was $60,000,000 in 40 fac tories. The value of the annual wood working output is $14,000,000. It is a large machinery center, having several large plants devoted to the manufacture of machines and tools. There are also several automobile factories.
History.—The site of the city was occupied by a few colonists as early as 1788, but the first permanent settle ment was made by Nathaniel Rochester in 1810. The first frame house was built in 1812, and the place was incorporated under the name of Rochesterville in 1817. It received its city charter in 1834. Pop. (1890) 133,896; (1900) 162,608; (1910) 218,159; (1920) 295,750.