Genesee Memorial Hospital Foundation Inc history

The first Holland Land Office in Batavia was a two story log cabin built in 1802.

Busti’s suggestion, it was named Batavia in honor of the Dutch land owners, the name coming from the Republic of Batavia, which was the area of the Netherlands before 1806.

Henry W. was born in Buffalo in the 1850’s and learned his trade from practical experience rather than from a formal education.

Founded in 1857, St Mary’s was the first hospital established in Rochester.

In 1866 the Village of Batavia was selected by New York State as a site for a new school.

Concerts have been played in the park since the late 1880’s and children still take advantage of the gentle sloping surface for winter sledding.

The bell hs been in use since 1901, when it first called members to worship. (It was originally installed at the second church, which was located on Liberty Street). Two years later the Memorial Hall was built for small group meetings and as a recreation area.

St Mary’s was founded to serve the western half of the Village of Batavia, and the first Mass was held on February 19, 1906.

In 1909, when the rectory was no longer needed by the church, it was sold to the Batavia Lodge No.

In 1911 the Moose Club held a fair here and displayed the first aeroplane to visit the community, a Curtis bi-plane.

In April of 1916 the Federal Government purchased the corner property at West Main Street and Jerrerson Avenue.

In 1917, the Sisters of Mercy opened St Jerome Hospital after Batavia resident Rose Jerome willed her family home on Bank Street to the order for use as a school or hospital.

The cost for this project was $15,000 (the county paid $10,000 and the city $5,000). The monument was dedicated on August 5, 1919 to the sacrifices made by Genesee County during the Civil War and the foreign wars thereafter.

By 1920, Flexner approached Doctor Benjamin Rush Rhees, then president of the University of Rochester, with the idea of establishing a medical school at the university that would utilize his revolutionary ideals in medical education.

The URMC was founded in 1921, and George Hoyt Whipple was recruited from the University of California at San Francisco to become the first dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Worden joined the Keck Studio in 1922 and through his education, hard work,and talent he became the chief designer and director of the studio.

The park opened in 1931 and featured a softball diamond, open play area and a rock garden.

The small buildings were created in 1932 to aid the blind children with understanding proportions and shapes.

With builders starting to use painted plaster or metal for walls and doors and due to a decline in contracts during the Great Depression, the company closed its doors in 1939.

Built in 1949, this architectural style was considered Modern.

The museum was reopened in 1950.

The park was not always appearance as the “forgotten park”. The park was trimmed back in 1953 to accommodate parking for the Post Office and City Hall.

In 1955 the building was expanded, and this annex was designed by Charles Ivan Cromwell of LeRoy.

The school was used to educate elementary children until it closed in 1956, when the new John Kennedy School opened on Vine Street.

In 1961 the Holland Land Office became a Registered National Historic Landmark.

The remodeling cost totaled $89,910 and the offices opened in September of 1963.

The top of the tank is painted in a red and white check design. [As a further note a second water tank was built in 1967 and is located at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center.]

As St Joseph’s church was replaced with a modern building in 1970, St Mary’s is the oldest Catholic Church in Batavia.

In 1973, during the congregation’s 100th Anniversary, the bell tower was constructed to honor the founding members.

In 1974 the residential section became the offices for the sheriff’s department.

Since 1976 the state began “mainstreaming” blind students into local public schools.

On October 27, 1984 the Paolo Busti Cultural Foundation of Genesee County dedicated a monument in honor of Paolo Busti, the General Agent of the Holland Land Company.

The lobby fell into disuse until it was incorporated into the Edward G. Miner Library as its reading room during an extensive renovation in 1987.

Since 1988 Genesee County and the City of Batavia have been working jointly in developing a compliance plan.

In 1997, St Mary’s Hospital merged with Park Ridge Hospital (now Unity Hospital) to form Unity Health System.