Rochester Public Library history

On November 6, 1869, during a performance of “Black Eyed Susan,” a massive fire destroyed the theater and all its effects, toppling two walls and gutting the interior.

Not all of its offerings were high art, however. It opened on May 12, 1871, with a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore.

Rochester's first library was founded by the Rochester Literary Society in 1872.

One memorable performance on September 27, 1875, was an early Buffalo Bill Cody production, Life on the Border.

Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in Drummondville, Ontario, Canada in 1882, the same year that the village incorporated under its current name of Niagara Falls.

Established in Pennsylvania in 1894 as the Ruthenian National Union, the Ukrainian National Association was founded to provide insurance benefits to members who had lost relatives to mining accidents.

Rochester Public Library Attn: Acquisitions Department 115 South Avenue Rochester, NY 14604-1896

After its early stints in the local store and city hall, the library was able to open its first official location in 1898.

After Frederick Cook died in 1905, his partner Jacob Gerling inherited his share of the business.

At the last meeting, on June 28, 1909, attendees agreed to donate three-days salary toward the house of worship’s construction, from which $415.50 was raised.

Nor would the city have its iconic culinary dish—the Garbage Plate, first concocted by a Greek immigrant in 1918.

In 1920, the library even began sending out a “story lady” to perform readings for local schoolchildren to share the wonders that wait inside of books.

The effort was revived in 1921, and by August of that year, two small houses had been purchased at the corner of Kelly and Joiner Streets.

Seeking to bring further recognition to African American folk music, Dett developed and led a choir of singers at Hampton, and in 1930 took them on a tour of Europe, where they performed spirituals for such luminaries as the king and queen of Belgium to great acclaim.

An October 1932 advertisement for the Family Theater promoted a performance by “Miss New Orleans and Her Living Models” for men only.

Dett persevered and he and his family moved into 577 Plymouth Avenue South in 1935.

After obtaining a loan from the Ukrainian Workingmen’s Association of Scranton, Pennsylvania, crews broke ground for the “Ukrainian Civic Center” (as it was then called) on Joseph Avenue, between Eiffel Place and Avenue D, on July 26, 1936.

The Loew’s Company purchased the building in 1937 and reopened it as the Embassy Theater, offering burlesque performances.

Former City Historian Blake McKelvey published the first quarterly issue in January 1939 with the goal of expanding the knowledge of local history.

In 1941, the city enlisted Dett to organize a musical program for the re-dedication of the Frederick Douglass statue, then being relocated from St Paul Street to the Highland Bowl.

The theater shut down for good after the May 1952 performances by Rose La Rose (real name Rosina De Pella). The theater was to close thereafter for the summer and then reopen in the fall but never did.

Manning carried on the venue as a party house with live music for a couple years before leaving the business to open up the Blue Gardenia Restaurant in 1961.

In 1962, the building was expanded with an endowment from the Grace Currey estate.

While the idea took over two decades to come to fruition after it was first conceived under the stewardship of librarian Lucille Gottry, the first Rochester Public Library bookmobile was put into action on October 24, 1966.

John H. Fenyvessy, “The First Ninety Years: A History of Rochester’s Opera House” (Ms., typescript, 1982).

When state statutes were established in 1985 that allowed for the organization of public libraries, Burt W. Eaton began a push to formalize the Rochester Public Library.

For the next three decades, the UFCU operated out of the Civic Center building, but in 1987 the directors purchased a former health spa at 824 East Ridge Road in Irondequoit, to which it relocated the following year.

In order to help the library keep up with increasing demand, the Library Board created the Rochester Public Library Foundation in April of 1996 to help raise the funds the library needed without requiring an increase in public contributions.

The Mayo Clinic has also played a crucial role in funding the Foundation, beginning with a $250,000 endowment in November 2002, backed up by five years of matching the first $50,000 donated to the Foundation each year.

Just how large is the community? A Ukrainian National Association survey in 2018 (the most recent year for which figures are available) indicated there were 169,929 persons of Ukrainian descent in New York State.