The Rochester I Know; 125; Stuart Bolger

Time presents the Rochester. I know a series of interviews with notable residents of Monroe County and contributors to this area's rich history. Your host is William Pierce. Hello and welcome to the Rochester I know my guest today. We were there well you're only the director and architectural historian of the Genesee country museum near Momper New York. Stuart welcome to the program. For those folks who are watching and haven't been out to the Genesee country museum I can tell them they are missing a beautiful historical setting. What tell us what it is. Billings kind of the buildings people and the great people in the building talking about the culture of the country and talking about it with the knowledge and with the preparation that makes them good company to listen to and I found a fascinating period and it really is. It is about this area about the early days of this area from about when to when

it's about the Genesee country if you want to bracket that by the Finger Lakes and the front from eighteen hundred to eight hundred seventy three quarters of the 19th and you cut it off. You wouldn't take anything after the turn of the century. Well we haven't thought Bill but we've already extended our time zone from civil war up to 1870. So we might be ready for the do it. You started to get it he country museum. What year 1966. Think you think you won out what reported to a vacant lot and decided this is where you're going to build what they the Genesee County Museum. Well that's a site that really was selected by exactly whose idea was that. Jack had seen in the post-war years the gradual architect to the building and thought before

somebody better get all of these villains and give them a safe home that was really his his vision to preserve the building. Not Jack Whaley is Hill. He's chairman of the board of the Genesee County new term of the board of the Brewing Company. And really it was was it his. It was a singular idea. And how did you get started in this business. I had been in restoration work through the grapevine through the publisher to brighten it up for both of their other publications and who has always been interested in the same things the old bill and the old edition with Bethlehem Pennsylvania much like the Tennessee company. Well no bill those were there we were working with Billings which had always been since before the revolution the Moravians had put up a

self-sufficient early 17:00. What was left of the subject of restoration. How did you start and how did you get interested in this I know you didn't. You're not from Rochester you grew up in New York but that's what our research tells us. But you but early on you started with this planning the village planning business. Tell us a little about it. You mentioned earlier when we were warming up David Tuttle lived across the street from me. David now lives in Rochester. He's teaching the region and the students he wills roads as I write and rebuild together miniature miniature villages from the boat. How did you get interested in that that's

where you had the blocks where the raw materials that were built. And you've stayed in that business you both stayed in in the building of your life that then how did you progress after that. When I came back to Assistant Professor years this came back in 1950 architectural history and the importance of the Earth at some point I thought that the couple came back went to work for third party went off to Bethlehem and good luck.

And star of the Genesee County Museum is sick sick sick sick sick. So when did when did it open and when did you get your first paid visitor. Put it that way. After 10 years of that we opened in 76 so that with my design for the bottle I think we would have opened anyway but that was good because there are a couple building from this area no one specifically from Rochester that is at the country museum and I want to tell us a little about that building what it is where you're located and how you found it and maybe will lead into how you locate buildings. Somebody else found that for if it had been in the Third Ward in what is now Thornhill. Yeah. They wish they had it back now than what they have learned to use the boys.

It was taken to make way for the boys. The rights of historical the packet away for about 15 years. Blaine packing away a billion because of a very large house and the name of it is the Livingston Backus house. It was built on the 18 20 to 40 so it's a fine example of an urban architect. Dr. Sibley Watson was the guardian angel saw to it that it was a local art. That was when it was taken recorded. The whole process helped us win. Did you take those building down board by board board by board and let it go. But it was stored in a warehouse in the truck till it was made available.

In this case were putting together something some of the it was a little bit circular but the Livingston Backus house was right in our own Third Ward. Now at the Genesee County Museum. And how many rooms does it have and what kind of a the floor through floor. Column building where the kitchen back of the Father must be to the big room. Interesting it was on Livingston part. We have George at some point in life after his father died he lived live in the park and the mother took boarders in a house on Livingston park so he would have seen the live in the back of the young man and to

live and learn from it. And now we have the birthplace of what's to come from Waterville went to New York with you. And then it came to the Seventh Avenue and then when it didn't fit in with the long range plan it was made available to us. We're glad you took it apart again and removed it in three big chunks. When was that. You're still looking for buildings and you're still restoring buildings. How do you go about finding a building that you're interested in or you get stumble on the more does someone say. Stuart there's a building over here. Look at that happens a lot of volunteer bird dogs out there. But most of the

highways and byways of the country. Local who sometimes called into a building to inspect it and the suitable available in the price. We'll get to that. If you personally stumbled upon any building you'd like to tell us about that was quite poor too it it. Yeah most them of have come that way. But there are some surprises I remember seeing a building which appeared to be taken out and there are birds and stone searched and went up to look around it pushed my way through the weeds and underbrush and noticed the cat in the window. The poor cats trapped in there. So I approached the house threw open the window and the owner of the cat a woman who lived as a recluse did and

she died a few years later and that time we got home. What kind of a house wasn't wanted why did it take the little Greek Revival cottage a simple thing but it was a good example of rural Greek revival architecture that was very suitable for our needs. Now you travel around and look for a building today what your eye like most on the lookout for something that represented some architectural style or activity for example or guns or cabinet maker makers. So anyone who's watching this program now in knows about a gunsmith shop or or a wheelwright saddle maker what was and what was the fourth. Some cabinet maker cabinet maker and those are missing from your.

Yeah they're not represented in the 1930s build in styles that aren't there that cut it would be a real addition to our second empire the little building which is an area well known for gunsmith writes of the great guns. Jerry swung at the front. Perhaps the local expert on the rights of 30 guns. Have a couple examples of their work. We'd like to get us together and tell the story of the guns. Well how would you tell a story. Would you have you. Would have advocated gun shop alone. Well the idea of been able to in many cases get a structure that actually was used for that purpose. We've looked around for so just yet. We might find one that was similar but guns brother could be utilized but which. Well Bill and. Then gather up the

equipment that tool them for so many things. Got the gunsmith and something new we had the clothing industry other than the photography and we had the the flower fellow you are and then the industry growing up here and all the seed dispensing organization of the world and the gunsmith you're the first one in this series tell us that this was a famous town for. And why was that. Bill I don't know the market musta been one of the best buildings the two to win long period of time and train gunsmith who went off on their own to go to someplace with the gun. When one was billing center I think you

I'm not sure of that I would say from 30 up through the Civil War and I think you provided some of the moments of some of the arms. That's something modeled on you know how about your other the other avenues that you're pursuing cabinetry what kind of cabinetry would you would you look for in this area. Or the cabinet maker are pure as in the early part of the 19th century it was often time to undertake that. There are one and the same person. He made the coffee. Table. You might turn out and find her but I think the country that would come to you for answers and coffins. You look around you obviously studied architecture for many years and you look around Rochester what has struck you about the architecture of this city that we live in.

And that's the centennial year getting uglier and uglier from your point of view. Oh I don't know. Well I think the modern tradition of good expression for instance. Well do you want to talk about some of the more modest. Well. The big buildings and to please the middle and really going to the mountain to read one of them as you know. Now why are those particularly pleasing. We know that last year that the Lincoln tower had a little trouble with their marble with the skin the color veneer of marble all the form of the rusting dramatic and the

color of that absolutely. Picked up the pick the lock the mood of the moon the same thing with that look different colors different times with your theory. Through a haze of movement in the beautiful form of being eyed and non artists and with kind of a drab dark out the way they anticipated what what you're I think in a different mood. Night time and totally different structures of the floods and putting them where the where the sun is where you are and you're right and the atmospheric conditions and the get up in those buildings and look out over the grate. And your other skyscraper would be Marine middle and. It's not of.

Birth with the structure of Lincoln but I think in its own way it's something about the modern to this and that isn't stated to the very pleasing one. Because one of the real pioneers was for the victors ruined in the pre peak of his career. I guess that was the first guy scraper and that's about what Earth's 1062 something with that the tallest building in Rochester. I think it was for a time except perhaps for that. Why was that unique and rather concept of the plaza less than the birds hotel atop that I think was something that hadn't been done that stuff was caught. Now we've built one other rather large building here and the river and main street called First Federal tower with a revolving

restaurant on what and what the very first thing though once again it's a building with a million moves it picks up lights from different directions and reflects some of its neighbors the good the good addition to the skyline and to the streetscape in terms of skyscrapers What would you like to see in Rochester that might might enhance it a little bit a little more. What would you put up now blasting to be popular in any other city that we well I the good the glass of the glass going to Bill and I'd like to through something with more architectural detail something. Going back perhaps with some of the maintenance and to do that with the rich decorate whether or not that's compatible with today's economics that with the. Functional requirements that something sounds to me like you're you're you're you hope for something that would require some skilled artisans that may mean that you're right. Well that's a large large number of you. Be an example of that around Rochester. The thought of the well the while the building.

Which is the four corners of that exchange in Maine. Which state in exchange for one something that rich the powers of course get that will stand for a long time. Building keeps coming up again and again and again as one of the treasures of the area. Now you talked earlier about the more modest building who would leave the skyscrapers and said there's there's an interesting architectural design in Rochester and more modest buildings what would they be. Well let's let's take a good example of that. Dramatic build and low profile meets the museum's need that they're going to extraordinary successful. The more you think the more you think that it's realized that the real

addition to the architects of modern art that that was completed in the fall of eighty one thousand eighty two I believe a couple years ago just opened you know after it was completed went out what other buildings like that and you think that's a trend that we can hope for in Rochester. I think of those the demand for architects right here in the city without shopping around New York or Atlanta or someplace or. Other designed for the buildings I think we have our own tradition to build upon and I think there are capable architects in ruts a little going to exploit the tradition and turn out something fresh. And exciting for us. The new convention hall is probably less than a year from completion to come. They've made quite a bit of progress on it. You've seen we haven't seen it completed yet but it will be soon. Well what what's your opinion. It's one of horror.

Yeah that's a good word. Good. What you can see of the bones of it but more than that I think hold promise. That you see that kind of architecture is a trend that where we go to get the building for the for the museum's director of the future sometime and in the distant future 100 years from now they're going to be looking for buildings that were built in nineteen nineteen seventy eight in 1980 or 1984. Whatever to put to put them in this setting. Well if you weren't difficult to predict I guess what those buildings will be. Well if you're thinking about domestic architecture you might want to think well what if we could ever move the mushroom house from part of the month.

But that would not be typical of the time. Well those people may be watching would explain where the mushroom house is and what it is. But the house up like most rooms are joined together that belongs to Bob until the very adventurous and extremely dense with them. Because of the example of what can be done to them. That's in powder milk park near and near Bush. Go through the park and you look quickly. But now your but your country museum. Typical homes of the right middle of the 19th century that the pod house wouldn't be a typical home. You know the mid or late twentieth century what homes would you pick out now to put in a museum a hundred years

and something like that would be plenty of those around the issues from a hundred years from now and then when you start your new museum. The second that you're you're looking you are looking for a grist mill. Also. Yeah why is that so and what when you see the completion of the country museum what you need to complete it so that you have I guess the rep what everything you feel was representative of the area. Well on that time certainly many of the villages throughout the country grew up around a water power site. Weather was for us and for transportation was improved and

the needs that were provided by the local groups could be imported by a more recent law to transfer. So the growth was very much a part of the scene and that required in most cases water power although. Pittsford for example without a lot of power had a steam gristmill in one instance. There are even a couple examples of driven by burning wood or coal. Probably cause we've seen a couple of examples of wind driven the gristmill that is one out west of here that was. Considered by us but that was a terrible said we didn't get into it but these would also be represented the mid 19th century. Yeah the steam there was around steam. Posting power was that often replace the water powered

sawmill. But the early part of the 19th century we would be thinking of water power more than likely we can figure out a way to get some water power up on land. How would you do that that would be quite an undertaking to build a stream that has a waterfall where I would build a mill pond. Difficult to find the falls and transport it somewhere else. Yes and all that through. We're only a block a block and a half I guess. As we sit here from the Genesee River and we're just we're on Mill Street and Brown's race and it would seem to meet right through here there must have been dozens of Mills and water wheels we know there are still some water wheels right here by the by the Upper Falls. Anything in that area that interests you at all. Do you remember your goal they found in one of the burned out that was a mill wheel it was a mill

and I don't know whether they've ever figured out just what all the ramifications were built but that could have driven the works in two or three different buildings conceivably the power generated by that could have been transmitted up and for stored Bolger director of the Tennessee country museum with the great having you here today to learn about some of that history and the architecture of our area. You have our best wishes for your search for a new old building. The gristmill the gun shops and cabinet maker shops and all those things. Thanks for joining us. I'm Bill pare. Join us next time on the Rochester I know. For a VHS copy of those programs and 1995 plus three dollars and fifty cents shipping and

handling to the Rochester on no tape offer. Post Office Box 21 Rochester New York 1 4 6 0 1. Include a note with the name of our guest on the program number shown at the bottom of the screen.