Living in Greece Stories

Stories and recollections from the people, places, and publications that document life in the Town of Greece.

These articles offer perspectives on what it was like to live in the Town of Greece in the past. Many are from the archives or newsletters of the Greece Historical Society. If you would be interested in learning more about the Town of Greece’s history, please feel free to contact us at (585) 225-7221.

(These stories are the property of the Greece Historical Society, which retains all right thereto. The contributors to these stories provide them for non-commercial, personal, educational, and/or research use only. Prior written permission from the Greece Historical Society and the individual authors must be obtained for any other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publications, or any reproductions or redistribution of any kind.)

Share Your Stories and Memories

We love to read stories and memories by you or your organization. Submit a local history story or memory of growing up in the Town of Greece by emailing a zip file with your story and photos to greecehistoricalsociety@yahoo.com. Use the subject line: Share My Story of Local History or Memories Of Greece N.Y. plus your story title. Include a brief bio and one photo for publication.

Your story should be no more than 500 words. We can edit for continuity, grammar, and punctuation. Stories may cover one span or multiple spans: 1800-1850, 1900-1950, 1950-2000, and 2000-Present.

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Four Miles Along the Towpath: Greece’s Junction Lock Offers a Glimpse of the Old Erie Canal

June 3, 2025 |
The words “Erie Canal” often brings to mind those engineering marvels we call “locks” that raise and lower boats along the historic waterway. However, the portion of the Erie Canal that runs through the Town of Greece is part of a 60-mile “long level” between the cities of Rochester and...
Categories: 1800-1850 1850-1900 1900-1950 1950-2000 2000 - Present Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories
Tags: “Clinton’s Ditch” Albert R. Stone Negative Collection Barge Canal Broad Street Bridge Court Street Dam Elmgrove Road Enlarged Erie Canal Erie Canal Erie Canal Aqueduct Erie Canalway Trail Genesee River Governor DeWitt Clinton Henpeck Park Junction Lock Long Pond Road NYS Office of Parks and Historic Preservation old Rochester harbor Recreational Trails Program Ridgeway Avenue Rochester South Greece Syracuse Towpath Unity at Ridgeway
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Murals Brought Awareness of Greece Erie Canal History

May 28, 2025 |
At Henpeck Park in Greece, NY, three murals beneath the Elmgrove Road bridge depict the Erie Canal's evolution: its construction, expansion, and the Junction Lock era. Commissioned by the Greece Chamber of Commerce and painted by Stacey Kirby, they were unveiled in 2010 to highlight the canal's local significance.
Categories: 1800-1850 1850-1900 1872 Common School Districts 1900-1950 1950-2000 2000 - Present Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1918-1920 Albion Cayuga Dave Pandina Elmgrove Road Erie Canal Erie Canal at 175 Erie Canal Bicentennial Greece Chamber of Commerce Henpeck Park Jodie Perry Junction Lock Mural Mania Orleans September 2010 South Greece Stacy Kirby World Canal Conference
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Area Photo showing current property lines Monroe County GIS

The City of Rochester in the Town of Greece: A legacy of the Erie Canal

February 9, 2025 |
The distinctive shape of Rochester, New York, is largely the result of various annexations over the years. Notably, in 1926, the city annexed a narrow strip of land, approximately 2 miles long and 130 feet wide, running parallel to Ridgeway Avenue in the Town of Greece. This land was part...
Categories: 1800-1850 1850-1900 1900-1950 1950-2000 2000 - Present Erie Canal Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1825 1918 1922 1926 1938 1956 390 Camegi Companies Charlotte city Culver Road Durand Eastman Park Erie Canal Erie Canal Commons Genesee Valley Park Geographic Information System GIS Greece Irondequoit Bay Junction Lock Lake Erie Latona Road Lee Road Monroe County GIS North NY-390 old Olde Erie Trail Plat Map population density property boundaries rail Rochester State Route 390 subway town trail Tyron Park weather patterns
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Parma Greece United Church of Christ

Parma Greece United Church of Christ

November 4, 2024 |
“About the year 1830 a small number of persons, residing near the town line in Parma and Greece, feeling the necessity of religious services, met together at what was known as the old red schoolhouse, east of Parma Centre, and agreed to hold bi-weekly meetings for mutual prayers and for...
Categories: 1800-1850 1850-1900 1900-1950 1950-2000 2000 - Present Churches Corinthian Guest Stories Hamlets of Greece Living in Greece Stories North Greece UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
Tags: 1834 1835 1843 1844 1848 1861 1888 1903 Albert Dunlap Ambrose Burlingame Asa C. Morrison Christian Conference of Western New York Cobblestone Cobblestone Church Elder Crocker Elder James W. Burgdorf Elder Joel Doubleday Elias Jones Erie Canal Ezra Smith Isaac Chase Jessilou Gage Vaccarelli Jonathan Morse Jonathan S. Thompson Latta Road Madison Thomas Manitou Road Orleans County Parma Parma and Greece Christian Church Parma Greece United Church of Christ United Church Of Christ William J. Grimes
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The Ridge Road Cemetery Association, Also Known as the Falls Cemetery

October 12, 2024 |  and 
The Ridge Road Cemetery Association, also known as Falls Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Monroe County, New York. It was established in 1811 by Daniel Budd and his wife Chloe Allen, who purchased land in what is now the Town of Greece. The north section of the...
Categories: 1800-1850 1850-1900 1900-1950 1950-2000 2000 - Present Ada Ridge Falls Cemetery Greece Cemeteries Hamlets of Greece Living in Greece Stories Pioneer Families Wagner Cemetery
Tags: 16 War of 1812 Veterans 1770-1850 1787-1871 1798-1879 1800-1881 1810 1811 1827 1836 1850 1900s 1963 25 Civil War Veterans 5 Revolutionary War veterans 5 Spanish-American War Veterans Asahel Tucker Budd Hotel and Tavern Chloe Allen Civil War Claude Hare Daniel Budd David Hare Jr. David Hare Sr. Diane Hare Dutchess County Established 1813 Falls Cemetery Fetzner Frederick Rowe Gordon Hare Greece Memorial Town Hall Hannah (Hopper) Bartholf John Williams Katie Meeson Korean War Veterans Latona Road Linda Crushman Dowell M. B. Loper May 1810 Mitchell Road Monroe County Deeds Niagara Falls Ridge Road Cemetery Association Stephen Bartholf Town’s Memorial Day remembrances Vietnam Veterans West Ridge Road William Fall William Falls Hotel World War I Veterans World War II Veterans
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Greece Public Library 1958 – Present

July 1, 2024 |
The Greece Public Library, established in 1958, began with a book caravan in the 1920s and temporary locations. By 1962, it had its own building. Over the years, branches opened and closed, and in 2000, a new library building was completed. Today, it continues to evolve, meeting modern needs with...
Categories: 1900-1950 1950-2000 2000 - Present Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1958 21st century library Barnard Crossing branch book caravan Dewey-Stone branch Greece Public Library interior remodeling library charter Lowden Point branch Mitchell Road Monroe County Traveling Library North Greece branch Olympia High School Paddy Hill branch Story Garden Town Campus Willis N. Britton School
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A House and Farm on Buckman Road

June 7, 2024 |
Jo Ann Ward Snyder has been researching pioneer families in the Town of Greece for two books. While researching the George Buckman family of Buckman Road, the author discovered that their childhood home was indeed the old Buckman homestead. George and Lucy Buckman raised their three children, James Burl, Homer,...
Categories: 1850-1900 1900-1950 1950-2000 2000 - Present Ada Ridge Hamlets of Greece Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 163 Buckman Road Alice Mitchell Bonnie Reilly Bonnie Stemen Fiser Buckman Burl Buckman Civil War Diane Newman Long George Albert Buckman George Buckman Homer J. Buchman Ione Reilly Newman J. Burl Jo Ann Ward Snyder Long Pond Lora Clarke Lucy Griffin Lucy Griffin Buckman Mary Katherine “May” Beck Reilly May Beck Reilly May Buckman May Newton Buckman Thomas Michigan Monroe County Oakland County Pioneer Families Reilly Family Veronica Reilly Ward Webster
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Greece Little League field on Latta Road.

Greece Little League – 70 Years Old!

March 4, 2024 |
Celebrating 70 years of Greece Little League program, starting in 1954 as Barnard Little League it evolved over 70 years to where it has expanded to cover all of the Town of Greece, parts of Charlotte and all of the Town of Hilton to the number of players and teams...
Categories: 1950-2000 2000 - Present Guest Stories
Tags: 3641 Latta Road Barnard Park Baseball Basil Marella Carter Park Challenger Charlotte D4 Championships Dorsey Field English Road Park Gary Biekirch Park George Badgerow Park GLL Greece Greece Little Leauge Greece Tornadoes Travel Hilton Innovative Field Rochester Red Wings Softball The Legion Post #486
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Clay tile lined well and pump base.

Eighty Years Later- Camp Sawyer’s Well

September 1, 2023 |
In the February Corinthian, I wrote a short story, "The Stories That Find You - Camp Sawyer's The Well", about a well and its pump that Boy Scout Troop 14 (from a 2018 article called A Civic Club's Legacy,) from Barnard School used at Camp Sawyer in the late 1930s...
Categories: 1900-1950 1950-2000 2000 - Present Corinthian Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1930s 1937 1943 1970 2018 Boy Scout Troop 14 Camp Sawyer Empire Clay Product Gilbert Holtz red sandstone Sawyer Park
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Longtime Agricultural Farmland Transitions

May 1, 2023 |
Back in early Greece history much of the farmland around Long Pond Road north of Maiden Lane was owned by the Britton Family. Opposite this land down at 1048 Long Pond Road stood a stone structure, the first location of the Greece school where the Greece Methodist Church organized in...
Categories: 1800-1850 1850-1900 1900-1950 1950-2000 2000 - Present Guest Stories
Tags: 1924 Maiden Lane Arc of Monroe Arc of Monroe Foundation Bill Murphy Britton Family Britton Farmstead Clarence and Adrienne Preston Earl and Anna Davis Frank and Julia Herman Gene Preston Greece Common School District #9 Greece Methodist Church Herman Farm John and Eva Easton Judge Frank Herman Kenneth Preston Preston Circle Preston Family Farm Rochester Public Market Rochester Telephone Company Town of Greece 2nd Ward Councilman Tracy Crosby Tracy Petrichick Willis N Britton
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The Cupola That Almost Got Away!

March 1, 2017 |
Our story begins more than sixteen years ago, at 2505 West Ridge Road near Long Pond Rd. A cupola on the ninety-year-old Greece Town Hall was about to be taken down with the rest of the abandoned building. The new Town Hall on Long Pond Road was dedicated with much...
Categories: 1900-1950 1950-2000 2000 - Present Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1997 1999 2001 2505 West Ridge Road Cupola Project Chairman Fred Meredith Greece D.P.W. Larry Zarnsdorf Long Pond Road Lorraine Beane Richard LaCroix Supervisor John Auberger Thomas Schommer Walter Berl
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