A Guide to Parks in Monroe County
THE BEAUTY WE LIVE WITH: A Guide to the Parks in Monroe County uThe beautiful is not to be stared at, but to be lived with." -Thomas Babington Macau ley ~ Thomas R. Frey Monroe County Executive MONROJfj~ COUNTY This page is blanl<. A CELEBRATION ... Treasures Forever Preserved: 100 Years of Public Parks A FAST DESCENT Workers water the toboggan slide at Ellison Park in this 1951 photo. Although the toboggan slide is no longer there, Ellison Park continues to be a popular wintertime park. The Beauty We Live With Just a little more than a century ago, most Rochester-area citizens saw little or no need for parks. It's not as surprising as it sounds; surrounded by the natural beauty that was the Genesee Valley, it was undoubtedly hard to imagine a time when only an act of government might preserve that beauty. But the need for parks, and places for people to play, was quickly becoming apparent. Dr. Blake McKelvey, City Historian Emeritus, explains the movement in A Growing Legacy, "Rowing clubs were appearing on the upper and lower Genesee River, properly garbed bathers of both sexes were congregating at Charlotte and Sea Breeze in the summertime, picnickers were flocking to Maple Grove at the northern end of the Lake A venue horsecar line, and skaters welcomed the clearing of ice above the Court Street dam for their enjoyment in successive cold winters." And so it is that today we celebrate the 100th year of the Rochester Park System, which began with the dedication of Highland Park. Throughout this century, we have continued to designate parcels of land as "forever wild" -creating parks in towns, parks in villages, parks in the City of Rochester, parks in Monroe County.
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