Visits to Museums

NSG Visit June 25, 1999

Rochester Historical Society

by

Donovan A. Shilling

A smiling Meghan Lodge, administrator for the Rochester Historical Society, met the members of the New Society of the Genesee on Saturday morning, June 25, 1999, in the Society's home, at 485 East Avenue. Among the Genesee Society members present was Sheldon Fisher, who served for six years as director for the Rochester Historical Society prior to 1940. He was much interested to see again the artifacts he'd known so well in their former home at 100 Lake Avenue.

Many of the city's rare mementos are now housed in "new" quarters on East Avenue. That's the massive-square-style Greek Revival mansion completed in 1841 for Siba and Silas O. Smith. Silas, an early Rochester pioneer, ran a dry goods store trading for potash. He expanded his enterprise into a block-long arcade-like structure across from the Powers Building on (Buffalo) West Main Street. The home's woodsy location, just beyond the city's early boundary, was responsible for its name, "Woodside."

Woodside's central hall displays a graceful "S" shaped newel post in honor of the first owners. It's from this stairway vantage point that one's eyes follow an elaborate spiraling staircase to a large, powder-blue circle some fifty feet above. That circle is the ceiling of the cupola atop the building, an architecturally unique feature in Western New York.

Meghan led us from the main hallway into the front parlor, furnished in Empire style. Its most striking piece is a pianoforte built in Rochester by Frederick Starr with keys not of ivory but of iridescent mother-of-pearl. Atop the sheet music rest was a copy of "The Woodside Waltz," written by Marion McGregor. "Not every home has its own waltz," Meghan proudly boasted as she began a tape of the waltz. As we listened, members of our party inspected a painting of the High Falls above an ornate marble fireplace. It was one of several paintings, done locally, to raise money at an 1865 bazaar. Meghan told us that Woodside contains more than 400 paintings and over 10,000 photographs.

In the adjoining second parlor a painting of Rochester's first railroad station showed a vintage locomotive and passenger cars that took travelers between Rochester and Auburn in 1840. Meghan pointed out in this room two lily-shaped wall sconces whose bouquets served as Victorian gas lights.

Returning to the main hallway, we were treated to "Coming Through the Rye." What made that tune so special was that the music was played by an 1860 steel-roller music box equipped with nine bells, each of which were struck at appropriate times, by nine bee-shaped hammers.

In the dining room a fashionable table was elaborately set with French china initialed R D C. The set once belonged to a wealthy Chili wheat farmer. The initials were those of Rosetta Downing Carpenter. A handy dumb-waiter, formerly connected to the basement kitchen, held more of the 92-piece china service. Mrs. Willard, a later owner of Woodside, could summon her maid by stepping on a small button beneath the dining table.

Pointing to a portrait of Mrs. Gilman Perkins, above the sideboard, Meghan told us that when Mrs. Perkins married her first husband there were 350 wedding guests in the house. The menu included partridge and aspic of tongue. Mrs. Perkins re-energized the Rochester Historical Society in 1888. The historical society was originally founded by the noted anthropologist, Lewis Henry Morgan in 1861, but it lapsed during the Civil War.

Down the side-hall stairway our group went to the reference library in the basement which contains all the standard works on local history plus a huge repository of records, diaries and papers dating back to 1800. Documented records of over 13,000 early settlers are a part of the archives and are of vital interest to those seeking their genealogy. Near a wide doorway between rooms hung a circular framed diploma of a Mr. Goodman from George Washington Eastman's Business School. Signed in ornate Spencerian script was the signature of the school's instructor-George Eastman's father.

In a basement corner Sheldon Fisher spotted an early candle mold. He declared it had been made by Calvin Wilcox, a Bloomfield potter, sometime between 1816 and 1860. Hearing this, Meghan ran for a pen to record Sheldon's documentation. In another side room Sheldon discovered two cycles, one an 1886 high wheeler, another a three wheeler, built by Punnett, a local cycle manufacturer. He recalled that he'd purchased these antiques from a Mr. Towner prior to 1940.

Also at Woodside are wood plates used to print fractional currency notes issued by the city through the Monroe County Bank in 1862 during the Civil War. (See pages 20 and 21.)

After climbing the stairs to the second floor, we entered a room where a canopy bed was surrounded by a wide assortment of child's toys. Near the bed Dolly and Teddy were enjoying a miniature tea party complete with an entire table setting.

Across the hallway, the 1889 "Rabbit Room" was truly a man's retreat where cards and games of whist could be played, cigars smoked and good spirits enjoyed. Its walls were covered with embossed leather. New Society of the Genesee member John Topham described how he had treated those walls someyears ago with lanolin and neatsfoot oil.

Another second floor room was an "armory" of weapons and military regalia. Most unique was the rifle that had belonged to Mary Jemison-it was a foot taller than she was. A corner held certainly the oldest man-made object in the house, perhaps in all of Rochester. It was a blocky, iron anvil brought to America in 1632, just thirteen years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Meghan informed us that the anvil was so rare at the time, it was worth more than gold to the early settlers.

Other upstairs rooms were stuffed with boxes and frames containing period clothing, some 2000 costumes, an array of fashions covering 160 years. Seeing this we felt strongly that a sprinkler system would be a timely investment for the Rochester Historical Society. Moving on to the attic, we found it held rows and racks of more than 400 irreplaceable portraits and other paintings of the Rochester locale. Some of the members even tried the steep circular stair that rose into the cupola. Sheldon Fisher climbed the steps for a look out across the roofs of the neighborhood.

By now it was time for our luncheon appointment at the Spring House. Each made a donation to the Historical Society and thanked Meghan for showing us so many memorable things. We've reported on only a small amount of the treasures at Woodside. There is far more to be seen and discovered at the Society's Headquarters than one visit will reveal. Woodside might be considered to be "Rochester's Attic."

© 1999, Donovan A. Shilling

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