So I’ve been trying to do a little bit of research about the property. For example, we really didn’t know if there was ever a house there or not. If there was, we may very well be digging up old foundations or debris someday. Well, the first (and best) place to go was the spectacular Monroe County Map Collection. From there I checked out all of the plat maps, but I’m going to paraphrase the three primary ones here.
First is the 1875 Plat Map.
Here we can see there was already a house on the property, and it was relatively small. Interestingly, it is on the corner of Plum Alley, and not Beaver Street. Further, Eagle Street ends halfway to Adams Street. This will be the case for some time.
Fast forward to 1900.
The house is much larger and more elaborate. I don’t know if this is a result of additions to the original house, an all new house, or the addition of detail to the plat map. Records from the time period aren’t great, so it may be difficult to ever find out. We’re now at the corner of Beaver Street, though.
Finally, let’s take a look at 1926.
The house is the same shape as in 1900, but a garage has been added. One of the interesting things to me throughout these maps is how many houses front Beaver Street. These are all gone and replaced with garages or empty land now.
As you can see, even in 1926, Eagle Street ended before it ever got to Adams. With some further digging at the also excellent Fulton History, I found that 94 Adams was torn down in 1968. Even more interesting is the fact that the house at the corner of Adams and Eagle Streets was moved there from 411 Exchange Street in 1976.
Here is that house from 1927:
And here it is today:
I’ll have more to write about that house in a future post.
In the meantime, Eagle Street must have been extended between 1968 and 1976, or moving the house to that corner wouldn’t have been possible. I have been completely unable to find a record of when 37 Eagle Street was torn down, but Miss Edna Berry died in her home at 37 Eagle Street on May 19th, 1960, so the house was there at least until then. There are no more recent newspaper articles referencing 37 Eagle Street that I have found yet.
I will continue to research the history of the property and update when I find out more.
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Hi 37 Eagle owner!
Fascinating story about your efforts to build on (or move an existing historic home to) your property at 37 Eagle. Just a thought regarding trying to nail down the timeline of the property — could you request from the city the taxes paid on the property year by year going back to say, 1950? Assuming there would be a dramatic drop when it went from home to empty lot.
I look forward to following your progress and thank you for investing in the City of Rochester!
Cheers,
Tom
Thank you, that’s an excellent idea! Also, the next time I am in Rochester, I may try to hit the library and check daily newspapers. There really should be an announcement about the tear down, as there was for the houses on Atkinson. I suspect it was right around the same time too, so that’s probably where I would start.