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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The Grand Erie Yacht Club

May 4, 2024 |
Laurie Eisele explores the remnants of the Grand Erie Yacht Club, founded in 1982 by marina members seeking camaraderie. Bought for $1, operational hurdles were overcome by community support, culminating in a bustling hub of activities until its closure in 1992 due to disagreements and regulatory challenges. Despite its derelict...
Categories: 1950-2000 Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories
Tags: Capt. Jeff’s Marina chicken barbecues Commodore Erie Canal Fleet Captain Henpeck Henpeck Park Monte Carlo nights New York State Rear Commodore Ross Gates Secretary spaghetti dinners steak roasts The Grand Erie Yacht Club treasurer Vice Commodore
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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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A Vineyard in Greece

December 7, 2023 |
The Fetzner family, German immigrants to Greece, originally established their reputation through making and repairing transport vehicles. Later, J.P. Fetzner ventured into the liquor business, founding several successful companies including the Rochester Liquor & Distilling Company and the Lake Ontario Wine Company. However, following J.P.'s death in 1909, his businesses...
Categories: 1850-1900 1900-1950 Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories Pioneer Families Uncategorized
Tags: Arthur Fetzner Baden Blacksmithing and Painting Bruschal Cider Mill Germany J & F Fetzner Carriage Makers Jacob Fisher Jo Ann Ward Snyder Joseph Peter “J.P”. Fetzner Josephine Neidert Lake Ontario Wine Company Long Pond Road Mary Hutte Mill Road New York Pioneer Families Podunk Road pulmonary tuberculosis Rochester Liquor & Distilling Company Untergrombach Wayne County Wendell Fetzner William Aeberli William Hutte William Kipp
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Judson S. Kenyon

November 4, 2023 |
An ashtray artifact at the Greece Museum led to the discovery of Judson S. Kenyon, a notable personality from Greece, New York. Born in 1872, Kenyon was highly active in local politics and the Greece Baptist Church, earning a dedicated ashtray from the Greece Republican Party in 1948. He passed...
Categories: 1850-1900 1900-1950 1950-2000 Corinthian Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1872 1920 1948 1963 Arthur Rickman Ashtray Barry County clerk deacon Deborah Cole Myers elephant Elizabeth L Rowe English Road Falls Cemetery Greece Baptist Church Greece Grange Greece Republican Party historian Juddy Kenyon Judson S. Kenyon Kate (Rickman) Justice Long Pond Rd Michigan Pioneer Families Rhode Island Rochester Business Institute teacher treasurer trustee Willard H Justice Williams James Kenyon
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Greece Special Police, the Former Civil Defense Auxiliary Police

July 1, 2022 |
The Special Police Unit of the Greece Police Department was also known as Auxiliary Police. In 1951 the Federal government passed legislation that civil defense would be a vested joint effort between the federal government and states, to protect against communist government attack of the United States with atomic bombs...
Categories: 1950-2000 Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories
Tags: Defense Emergency Act of 1951 Greece Auxiliary Police
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Milton H. Carter Park

February 1, 2022 |
What’s the story on….Milton H. Carter Park? Carter Park is a 12-acre recreational landscape located on Long Pond Road near The Mall at Greece Ridge. It hosts a playground, baseball fields, basketball, and tennis courts as well as an open pavilion. It is a representation of the long tradition and...
Categories: 1900-1950 Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1931 1960 1968 1970 Edna Carter Gordon A. Howe Greece Police Greece Volunteer Ambulance Milton H. Carter Milton H. Carter Park Ridge Road Fire District The Mall at Greece Ridge World War I World War I Veteran
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Bible School Association of Greece

March 1, 2021 |
Last year the Greece Historical Society acquired a handwritten book containing the secretarial notes and minutes of the Bible School Association of Greece dated 1905-1921. Kate Huppé, a recent graduate from SUNY Geneseo, offered to write this story about what she discovered reading these minutes. This year marks the one-hundred-year...
Categories: 1900-1950 Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1905 1906 1921 A. E. Truesdale Bible School Association Bible School Association of Greece Democrat & Chronicle Dewey Avenue Reformed Church J.J. Kelly Kate Huppé Mary Moall Michael Oberg Reverend J.J. Kelly Sunday School
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The History of Jazz 90.1 WGMC-FM

November 1, 2020 |
Did you know that one of the nation's last 24/7/365 public jazz radio stations resides in Greece, New York? Jazz 90.1 FM (WGMC-FM) has been an important part of the town's history since 1971, providing jazz and big band music, community events, concerts, public service programming, and instructional opportunities for...
Categories: 1950-2000 Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 24/7/365 2500 watts 47 years Board of Education meetings German Radio Program Greece Athena High School Greece Central School District Greece Town Board meetings Jazz 90.1 FM public jazz radio stations WGMC -FM
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The Rochester Park Band at Manitou Beach in 1906

July 1, 2020 |
1900s Manitou Beach Postcard Want to have some fun? Let's go on a company picnic to Manitou Beach in the summer of 1906. We'll join the nearly 1,000 employees of James Cunningham & Sons, a huge company with several factories, which, in 1906, was still making horse-drawn carriages, but by...
Categories: 1900-1950 Charlotte Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1890s 1906 1920 1920s 1924 19th Century 20th Century 54th Regiment Band amusement park at Manitou Beach Automobile Club Baseball Braddock Bay Canal Street Chralotte Elmheart Hotel Fred Zeitler James Cunningham & Sons. Manitou Beach Manitou Beach Hotel Manitou Beach Trolley Manitou Hotel Manitou Trolley New York Central train station Odenbach Hotel Orphans Day Rochester Park Band Theodore Dossenbach William Bausch
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Greece Link to the National Football League

February 1, 2020 |
As we celebrate Super Bowl LIV and the NFL's 100th season, we might want to consider the very "focal" Greece's con­nection to the game. Joseph McShea was a talented athlete who grew up on his family's farm on Dewey Avenue, just north of Latta Road. His great-grandparents emigrated to the...
Categories: 1900-1950 Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1920 1928 1963 1965 1976 American Professional Football Association Charlotte High School Joseph Maurice McShea Joseph Maurice McShea Jr. Leo Lyons Leo V. Lyons Marie Villone Poinan Mary McShea Miss Marguerite McShea National Football League NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame Rochester Jeffersons Tom McShea Tom Sawnor
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Bill Bartling’s – Memories of Dewey Stone Area

May 1, 2018 |
This is what it was like in the 1940s growing up in Greece in the Dewey Stone area. When I was 5 we moved to 22 Dalston Road. It was the first house on the street behind Sarvey's Gulf station. Across Dewey, one block toward the city, was Shorty Junker's...
Categories: 1900-1950 1950-2000 Guest Stories Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1940s Barnard Fire Deparment Barnard Fire House Barnard School Bill Bartling Chief Carter Cowan's drug store Dewey Ave Dewey-Stone Esler's Gypsies Hart's grocery Hope Lutheran Church Jackson's Bakery Johnny's Diner Milton Carter Sarvey's Gulf station Shorty Junker's Barnard Grill St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic The Dutch Mill Veltri's shoe repair
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