A lonely stone pillar near the sidewalk on North Main Street is easily overlooked by passersby, yet it stands as a witness to the existence of a once-grand estate tied to an influential Rochester family. The Charles S. Chapman residence depicted in a hand-colored postcard. Situated on the property line between St. Philip’s Episcopal Church and the 714 North Main building (where the Denny's Restuarant used to be), the pillar is an artifact of the decorative stone fence that marked the … [Read more...]
Milo Prentice Newberry House Listed on National Register
Rochester House is Listed on National Register of Historic Places Michigan’s newest listing in the prestigious National Register of Historic Places is the Milo Prentice Newberry House in Rochester. The 1863 Italianate-Victorian farmhouse on Bloomer Road was listed in the National Register on October 9, after a yearlong process of application and review by state and federal officials. Milo Prentice Newberry was part of one of the Rochester area’s pioneer families. He was born in New York … [Read more...]
How Ludlow Street Got its Name
Street and building names in a town often memorialize the people who helped to create them, but as time goes on and memories fade, the stories behind those names can become lost. Take, for example, Rochester’s Ludlow Street. Do you know for what or whom it is named? The story of Ludlow Street starts with the Chapman family. William Clark Chapman and his brother, Charles Sherwin Chapman, grew up in and around Ludlow, Vermont. When William was 16 years old, the Chapman family moved from … [Read more...]
Christmas 1942 in Rochester, Remembering the Fight and Loss of the War
Virginia MacLeod and Christmas 1942 in Rochester Seventy-five years ago, Rochester’s Christmas season was a memorable one – for a tragic reason. The end of the first year of the Second World War brought with it rationing restrictions, worries about absent loved ones, and the shock of a wartime-related death that happened not overseas, but right here at home. There were no big, bright holiday lights on Rochester’s Main Street in December 1942. The news from the fighting fronts was … [Read more...]