Third Ward Historic District

Tucked into the inner southwest corner of Rochester and cut off from downtown by Interstate 490, this seven-block residential neighborhood holds about 126 structures, mostly brick houses. Styles run from heavy Greek Revival temple-fronted homes to Italianate villas with cupolas, Gothic houses with towers and cresting, and early twentieth century apartment buildings. Between about 1830 and 1880 it was the city's choicest residential district, set apart from the business area by the Erie Canal. Its residents included millers Hervey Ely and Benjamin Campbell, lumber merchants Amon Bronson and Emmet Hollister, mayor Charles J. Hayden, and for a time the young Leonard Jerome, grandfather of Winston Churchill. Local architect Isaac Loomis built a Carpenter Gothic cottage for himself at 42 Atkinson Street. After decay in the early twentieth century, urban renewal and demonstration rehabilitation by the Genesee Landmarks Foundation revived the area, and about two-thirds of its buildings have since been rehabilitated.