Now that the Corn Hill Festival is over for 2017, don’t wait for another year to go by before spending more time in this beautiful community. Just taking a walk and looking at the majestic old houses in the neighborhood is reason enough for a visit, but there’s actually so much more. A few weeks ago I took a walking tour of Corn Hill led by Jim DeVinney, Corn Hill Historian. The tour started, as does Rochester history, along the river. On this day there was lots of debris floating, signs of this year’s destruction from high water levels. The trail we followed away from the river is part of the Wegmans Passport to family wellness program so we had trail guide books with places for rubbings of historical markers. So many facets of Rochester history can be seen along this one trail.

1. Abolition & Underground Railroad – The AME church on Favor St. which has the printing press that was used to first  publish the North Star and also was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
2. Spiritualism – This obelisk commemorates the Plymouth Spiritualist Church, the Spiritualist movement in Rochester, and the Fox sisters, who claimed to hear rappings from the dead, their creed being, “There is no death. There are no dead.”
3. Jazz – Before the Jazz Festival there was the Pythodd Club on Clarissa St. where the Mangione brothers would come to jam.
4. The Arts – The Ralph Avery Mall between S. Plymouth Ave. and Adams St. is a space to relax, created in honor of Ralph Avery, a well-known resident artist. Just sit on a bench here and contemplate such words as these etched in the sidewalk.
5. Grab a Passport from Wegmans and take a stroll or watch the D&C for announcements of a guided tour. Either way it’s a great way to spend an afternoon stepping around Rochester.