Browncroft Historic District

Browncroft is a planned residential neighborhood in southeast Rochester, about three miles from downtown. Its 12 streets were laid out as a subdivision beginning in 1914, on land that had earlier been farms and then a commercial nursery. The district holds 524 contributing resources, mostly large single-family houses and rear garages built between about 1914 and 1929 in Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Craftsman, Prairie and related styles. Some were designed by the local firm Gordon & Kaelber, and a block of Browncroft Boulevard was built by Cusamano around 1929. Four older vernacular farmhouses recall the area's agricultural past. The neighborhood is also valued for its designed landscape: broad planting strips, rows of Norway maples, flowering shrubs, sandstone curbs, brick front walks, deep setbacks and concrete streetlights. Two churches, a public elementary school and a small rose garden complete the district. Together these features show how a nursery business became a cohesive early twentieth century suburb.