Michael Leavy: 4 books

Some twenty miles south of Rochester lies what was historically the "crossroads of western New York." Lima and its neighbors in the Genesee Valley are unique in many ways. An excellent network of trails had been developed by the Iroquois long before the area attracted its first permanent settler in 1788....

When Rochester experienced the explosive growth generated by the Erie Canal, what began as a pioneer neighborhood of cabins quickly became an impressive ward of mansions for the city's social hierarchy. Today's generation knows it as Corn Hill, but it is actually the old Third Ward, an extraordinary...

Greater Rochester: A Century of Progress presents the glory years of Rochester in more than two hundred stunning images, beautifully crafted by photographers, engravers, lithographers, and illustrators. It reveals how pioneers built a wilderness town around a river and waterfalls, and how it grew into...

American cities and towns have always prided themselves on their grand avenues. The social elite and industrial captains often transformed normal thoroughfares into magnificent promenades lined with mansions to showcase their wealth. Post-Civil War America experienced a burst of this activity, but Rochester,...