Events

Program Schedule 2012:

All programs are free & open to the public. See details below or on the Calendar.

The Rochester and Eastern Line

presented by Charles R. Lowe

February 21, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. located in the Fairport Historical Museum

Trolley car #163 in 1924

Image owned by NY Museum of Transportation

The Rochester and Eastern Rapid Railway and its successor, New York State Railways, Rochester and Eastern Line, connected Rochester, Canandaigua and 
Geneva with high speed electric interurban railway cars from 1903 to 1930.

This line will be the subject of a talk and slide show given at the Fairport Historical Museum on February 21, 2012 by Charles R. Lowe. Included in the general history of the R&E will be a discussion of the "battle" of three interurbans, including the R&E, fought for control of the bustling village of Fairport. By 1905 the battle was over and the R&E settled down to the business of rushing its passenger and express freight along its line.

Concluding the R & E history will be a short discussion of some landmarks of the line still to be seen in the Fairport area and where one can not only see the last remaining R & E car but ride an interurban trolley as well.

Mr. Lowe has been a nearly life-long resident of Perinton and has spent the last 30 years researching and writing a history of the Rochester and Eastern. A graduate of Syracuse University, Lowe is a N.Y.S. Professional Engineer and serves as a bridge inspector for New York State Department of Transportation. Lowe also coaches cross country and track at Fairport Central School District. He resides with his wife and son in the former Perinton District No. 10 schoolhouse on Turk Hill Road.

Fairport was one of the stops on the R. S. & E. line. The station is located at 23 North Main Street and is a village landmark. For information about this structure see the Trolley Station.

An Evening with Susan B. Anthony

portrayed by author Jeanne Gehret

Tuesday, March 20, 2012, 7:30 p.m. at the Fairport Historical Museum

Join us on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 as we welcome Susan B. Anthony to the Perinton Historical Society. Miss Anthony, as portrayed by author Jeanne Gehret, will relate tales of her struggles to help change United States laws regarding slavery, alcoholic beverages, and voting for women. Hear how Miss Anthony kidnapped a mother and child to save them from a violent husband, how angry mobs wanted to kill her and about her arrest for voting.

Jeanne Gehret is the author of Susan B. Anthony and Justice For All, a fascinating look at the woman whose drive and passion for equality made such a difference in the lives of women and African-Americans. Through painstaking research of primary sources such as diaries, letters, newspaper clippings and Ms. Anthony's own authorized biography, Ms. Gehret gives rare insights into the famous woman. While writing this book, she served as a tour guide of Ms. Anthony's homestead in Rochester, NY, traveled to many of the places that Ms. Anthony frequented, and included in her book some stories that have never been documented before.

Past Presentations of 2011/2012:

Underground Railroad - Genesee-Finger Lakes Area

presented by Dr. Preston E. Pierce

Jan. 17 - This program focused on the development and operation of one of the great social protest movements of the 19th Century. The slide presentation examined the development and rationale for the Underground Railroad at the national level, and looks at the regional people and places associated with it.

Dr. Preston Pierce is Regional Archivist for the Rochester Regional Library Council and Ontario County Historian.

Art & Life of Fairport Artist Carl Peters

 presented by Bill Poray, PHS Trustee

On November 15th, the Society hosted a special evening in celebration of Fairport's own master artist, Carl William Peters. The Peters family moved from Rochester to a small farm on Jefferson Avenue in about 1910, when Carl was a young teen. He lived in Fairport, painting landscapes of the Genesee valley until his death in 1980. In the summer months he could be found in the vicinity of Rockport, Massachusetts, painting nautical scenes and giving painting lessons.

A renowned muralist as well, his Works Project Administration era murals can be found in several Rochester high schools, as well as our own Fairport Historical Museum.

Bill Poray has been a member of the Fairport Historical Preservation Commission since its inception in 2007, and is also a Trustee of the Perinton Historical Society.

Read more about Carl Peters on our website.

Life & Letters of Kate Gleason

presented by Janis Gleason

October 18 - Susan B. Anthony called her the ideal business woman of whom she had dreamed of fifty years earlier. Playwright Eugene O'Neill saw her as the symbol of greed and emasculating ambition. Kate Gleason, ground breaking nineteenth-century industrialist, mechanical engineer, and real estate developer, was her own best invention.

The truth of her dynamic life, in all of its complexity, is revealed in Janis Gleason's biography of this legendary American woman. 

Folklore & Legends of Rochester

presented by Michael T. Keene

Sept. 20  - Born from the chill waters of Lake Ontario and the Genesee River, Rochester, New York has been the cradle of the modern spiritualist and anti-Masonic movements and many religious sects and utopian communes.

This unusual history has given rise to many strange legends and shrouded the city in mystery.

From century old tales of Native American folklore, the history of the Fox Sisters, the secrets of the Freemasons, and the murder of William Lyman, Folklore & Legends of Rochester, The Mystery of Hoodoo Corner, takes us on a journey into the past while unraveling the solution to an ancient mystery.

last year's programs:

Mount Pleasant Cemetery Tour

In June of 2011 Vicki Profitt, PHS Vice-President gave a talk about Civil War soldiers buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery 

History Tour

In May of 2011 the Annual History Tour featured homes in the "community" of Forest Hills. For the History of Forest Hills.