The Landmark Society of Western New York
Thursday, July 24th
Landmark Society Tours Index

The Landmark Society offers many different kinds of tours including guided tours, online tours, house tours and trips to other cities. This section of our website features our online walking tours of Rochester. For information about our other tours follow these link:

  • Out-of-town tours, as listed in our events section.
  • Local guided tours such as Coffee Walks and our Architecture for Lunch series of tours, as listed in our events section.
  • House and Garden Tour
  • Inside Downtown Tour


    Just added is a driving tour featuring Cobblestone Architecture and another tour from Charlotte to downtown . Also new -- walking tours of Highland Park and Seneca Park.

    The downtown tours are adapted from our 1990s publication Images of History: Walking Tours of Downtown Rochester. The neighborhood walking tours are being developed as resources permit, based upon the Landmark Society's extensive archives on area architecture, and we are looking for support to develop additional tours.

    Downtown Tours

    Index Map for Downtown Tours

    1. Central City
    This tour is a 4/5 of a mile loop. This section of Rochester crosses the Genesee River and shows a mix of historic buildings with contemporary office and hotel buildings.

    2. Hundred Acre Tract
    This tour is a 3/5 of a mile loop. This historic center of Rochester contains government offices and some of our city's oldest structures.

    3. High Falls-Browns Race District
    Welcome to Kodak's neighborhood, where you will see the early industrial heart of Rochester with the High Falls that made us the Flour City.

    4. Southern Gateways
    This 3/5 of a mile tour (one way) begins at Rochester�s downtown arena and ends at the Strong Museum, with a view of what was Rochester's famed Erie Canal Aqueduct.

    5. East End and Cultural District
    This 3/5 mile (one way) tour begins at Rochester's world-renowned Eastman Theatre and Eastman School of Music, visits an in-city residential neighborhood and features the city's vibrant East End.

    6. Liberty Pole and City East Loop
    This entire tour, including 18 stops, is just under a mile loop, with a visit to a fabulous banking temple, former department store buildings and other reminders of what was Rochester's commercial core.

    Neighborhood Walking Tours

    Corn Hill
    Rochester's oldest residential neighborhood contains some of its most interesting domestic architecture. The buildings in this tour, which can be done as a 1 or 1.5 mile loop, span over 160 years of Rochester's history.

    East Avenue Beginnings
    Rochester�s aristocratic East Avenue is older than the city itself. In 1911, Brighton town officials hired Orringh Stone and other early settlers to build a road from Brighton to the Genesee River. This walking tour covers a portion of that early road from Alexander Street to Arnold Park. You�ll also take a short detour down Prince Street. The entire tour is one mile.

    East Avenue from Arnold Park to the George Eastman House
    This walking tour is the second in a series of self-guided leisurely strolls down Rochester�s historic and fashionable East Avenue. This one-mile loop starts and ends at Arnold Park.

    Genesee Valley Park
    When Frederick Law Olmsted first saw the land upon which he would later design Genesee Valley Park, he proclaimed it "almost ideal" for a city park. Despite the bisection of the park by the Canal and the Expressway, much of the original design survives, exemplifying Olmsted's "pastoral" style. Today the park is also the hub of a vast network of trails popular with bikers and hikers.

    Seneca Park
    Seneca Park has been called the �jewel on the Genesee,� one of Rochester�s greatest historic treasures. During this approximately one-mile loop (with an optional 3/4 mile extension), you will be amazed at how much wilderness survives so close to home. Even frequent park visitors will be surprised; it's different every season!

    Highland Park
    Highland Park is one of the oldest public arboretums or "tree gardens" in the United States. We hope you enjoy the walk and some wonderful aromas through the witchazels, honeysuckles, smoketrees, dogwoods and azaleas.

    Driving Tours

    Charlotte Tour
    Settled in late-18th century; a resort in 1874, and having been considered "Coney Island of the North;" Charlotte is a wonderful "village" that boasts charming architecture and a rich history.

    Cobblestone Architecture
    Cobblestone is a type of construction nearly unique to our area. Of the more than 600 such known buildings, almost 90 percent are located within a 70-mile radius of Rochester, and many of those are in nearby Rochester suburbs on both sides of the Genesee River. This article will help you embark on two cobblestone discovery tours: one in Henrietta and one in the towns of Wheatland and Chili. Please view all of these properties from the public right-of-way.

 
Select a Tour: