Madison Square-West Main Street Historic District

Madison Square/West Main Street Historic District covers about 22 acres just west of downtown Rochester, New York. It takes in a stretch of West Main Street and the blocks north of it, where homes, shops and factories were built side by side beginning in the 1830s. Most of the 101 contributing buildings are modest frame or brick houses in Greek Revival, Italianate and Queen Anne styles, arranged around Susan B. Anthony Square, a park whose curved walks and silver maples follow a 1904 design by the Olmsted Brothers. The Susan B. Anthony House on Madison Street is among the buildings. Along Canal and Litchfield Streets stands the former James Cunningham, Son and Company carriage works, described as the largest surviving late-nineteenth century carriage manufacturing complex in the city; one of its buildings was designed by Harvey Ellis. A row of commercial buildings on West Main Street completes the mix. The district was listed because it preserves this combined residential, commercial and industrial pattern.