Rochester in 1984

I had about dozen shots left in the roll of slide film after arriving in Rochester, NY from Europe so I used it on photos of Rochester. There are street parades so I guess this would be Labor Day which fell on 3rd September in 1984. These photos were taken in the space of a single day so this is a snapshot of what this small city looked liked all those years ago. I may have remembered some things wrong, so corrections are welcome. – Author, Dec 2013.

The Eastman School of Music. This is the side of the building, the main entrance was at the far corner with Main Street E. The main campus was about 3 km outside the CBD and I used the University shuttle bus often. I would attend many excellent free classical and jazz concerts performed by faculty and students here in the next 6 years.

Firefighters parading their vehicles on Main Street (what else).

Marching band. Not surprisingly I can't find those businesses any more.

Flag waving dancers.

The Kodak building, probably taken in the vicinity of State Street, which runs north from Main Street.

These would be High Falls, near the Kodak building. The river is the Genesee, which drains into Lake Ontario. It provided power for early industry in Rochester.

More marchers. The building with the tapered columns is the Chase Tower, on Clinton Square. Probably taken from Stone Street.

Back on the main campus they were providing outdoor entertainment.

The glass building is the Wilson Commons or Union Building. It was designed by IM Pei. I was reminded of this when looking it up.

Rush Rhees Library, the main campus library. I borrowed a lot of books from here especially in the last couple of years, for general reading, not for my studies, as the department had its own library. The collection was quite esoteric due to generous endowments.

The Ray P Hylan building and Carlson Library attached on the right. Many of the names in Rochester are of benefactors or prominent people of industry, usually Kodak or Xerox.

The Genesee River near the main campus. That's probably the Elmwood Avenue bridge. You can tell from the late hour that I was eager to finish the roll of film and go home.

It would have been more interesting if I had taken photos of downtown Rochester on a working day. I get the impression from looking at Google Maps that the CBD has declined since I was there, like many other small cities and towns in the USA.