18” x 24” art print
120lb cover stock
2nd Edition
Hand-number edition of 200

2nd Edition updates: Included a new settlement and history, as well as added trails and pathways that pre-date any colonization or white settlements.

From the ancient Algonkin, to the mysterious Mound Builders, to the land steward Seneca nation, to escaped slaves and wild frontiersman like Captain Sunfish and Ebenezer “Indian” Allen, to enterprising land speculators Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham, to Revolutionary War veteran southerners Nathaniel Rochester, Charles Carroll, and William F. Fitzhugh, Rochester has transformed itself over the centuries to become a diverse, storied, historic, and complex city by the river. And we owe everything to the Genesee.

The Genesee River, and her four rushing waterfalls, have been the draw of all white settlers, seeking to harness her power for economic gains. It is even recorded as the first act of a white settler: building a grist mill to process and refine grain which Ebenezer Allen completed, and through further development and growth, garnered us our most popular city nickname: The Flour City.

The map below features four ages of our great city:

· Competition, 1790s-1817: Eleven competing settlements (plus a proposed settlement)
· Legitimization, at 1845: The Lion becomes The Flour City
· Industrialization, at 1915: The Flower blooms in industry
· Reinvention, at 2017: A new direction for our city

Against an unforgiving landscape,
we survived early epidemic and strife,
ushered in unrelenting prosperity,
weathered economic uncertainty,
and we’re just getting started.