Fernwood Park Historic District

Fernwood Park is a 1947 garden apartment complex on a triangular 10-acre plot in northeast Rochester. It holds 38 two-story brick and vinyl-clad buildings with four units each, 152 apartments in all, arranged in three clusters around lawns, walkways and a children's play area. Each apartment has its own entrance, and the buildings are offset so that rooms receive light and air. The complex was the first of three projects under the Rochester Plan, a postwar effort in which eight local banks formed a non-profit corporation to build low-rent housing for veterans on city-provided land, financed by an FHA-insured mortgage. Architect C. Storrs Barrows designed the vernacular Colonial Revival buildings, and landscape architect Francis Hastings Gott planned the grounds. Buildings and landscaping take up roughly 30 percent of the site, leaving 70 percent as green space. Its design reflects Garden City Movement ideas and the federal garden apartment model, which is why it is recognized for both its planning and its architecture.