Directory: Published by the Negro Business League Directory, Rochester NY (by Negro Business League)
Vintage directory of Black-owned businesses
1926
Source: Rochester Public Library (digital archive)
City Directory of Negro Business and Progress (1939-1940) (by Howard W. Coles)
Awesome history and inventory of Black-owned businesses, land, and people’s occupations
1939-1940
Source: Rochester Public Library (digital archive)
For 100 years, the Latimers have handled death for Rochester families (by David Andreatta)
The oldest Black-owned business, Latimer Funeral Home originally located on Clarissa Street, still running in Rochester turns 100 years old.
September 27, 2022
Source: City Magazine
Rochester’s longest African American business to celebrate 100 years (by Isabel Garcia)
Features interview with Monique Latimer, owner of Rochester’s longest-established African American business.
August 10, 2022
Source: News 8 WROC-TV
Rochester’s Clarissa Street was pivotal to the Green Book’s legacy (by Lowell Rose)
Businesses along Clarissa Street were listed in the book designed to keep Black travelers safe. George Fontenette interviewed.
February 4, 2025
Source: 13-WHAM
Montgomery Neighborhood Center Records
Lists items in collection of this neighborhood asset, once located on Clarissa Street. In 2025, the Center serves elders who were once youth in their programs in yesteryears.
1959-1968
Source: Rochester and Monroe County
RIT’s decisive moment (by Sally Parker)
What led to RIT leaving downtown Rochester to Henrietta, includes images (second image is a more detailed downtown campus map)
November 21, 2018
Source: Rochester Beacon
50 Years in Henrietta (by Taylor Synclair-Goethe (‘19))
Student reporter looks at RIT’s time in the Third Ward and since.
February 2, 2018
Source: RIT’s Reporter Magazine
Downtown Campus Map (by RIT)
Simple map of RIT in the Third Ward pre-highway construction
1960s
Source: Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Libraries Digital Collections
Browse entire yearbooks (shared by art professor Luvon Sheppard who attended RIT when it was located downtown and graduated in 1969 (see pg. 129), one year after RIT moved to its Henrietta campus). The 1968 yearbook includes images taken in the Third Ward neighborhood.
1910s-1990s
Source: RIT Alumni digital archives
Timeline includes that RIT (originally called the Mechanics Institute) opened its own Eastman Building on Plymouth Ave. and Broad St. (then the Erie Canal Aqueduct) in 1901 and when RIT decided to leave downtown Rochester in 1961
1829-2025
Source: RIT.edu
