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.

61 stories
Reset
Sort stories by:
Published date Title Last updated Random Comments

A Farewell to Frear’s Garden Center

August 21, 2022 |  and 
Frear's Garden Center Frear's Garden Center 1892 to 2022 130 Years of Local Gardening Expertise Gallery of photos at the end of the story The Frear family has been part of the Greece landscape for 130 years, 93 of them over four generations as proprietors of one of the town’s...
Categories: 1850-1900 1900-1950 Corinthian Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1892 Arthur Frear Barnard Crossing Clarence Frear E. Frear & Sons. Ernst Frear German immigrant Greece Maureen Whalen New York Stone Road Vick’s nurseries Warren Frear
Read Story

The Dutch Mill – A Community Gathering Place

May 1, 2022 |
The Dutch Mill - April 17, 2022 Every community or neighborhood has a gathering place. Over time many come and go, they may change hands or change their name, but eventually something happens and the old place becomes nothing but a memory to the local old timers. Then there are...
Categories: 1900-1950 Dewey-Stone Area Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1932 1947 1948 1984 2016 2022 Ann Marie and Bob Simmons Barnard Fire Department Bertha Cox Chester and Sharon Ventura Cinema Restaurant Clam bakes Donald Hall Leon Cox Odenbach Peacock Room Old Mill old windmill Thomas Brierly Jr. Thomas Brierly Sr.
Read Story

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
Read Story

The Ridgeway Air Park

January 1, 2022 |
For years during the 20th century, many communities in our area had their own airports ranging from grassy fields to paved run­ ways with hangers to store airplanes. Hilton had the Hilton Airport on Burritt Road. The Brizee airport in Pittsford was on Marsh Road. In Henrietta, there was the...
Categories: 1900-1950 Living in Greece Stories
Tags: "Power Puff Derby" 1947 1948 1955 1956 Army Air Corps veteran Britton Field Brizee airport Burritt Road Erie Canal Genesee Airfield Greece Aero Club Greenleaf Flying Club Henrietta Hilton Hilton Airport Honeoye Falls Hylan Airport Jim Earl Koda Vista Kuhn Road Latona Tract Lee Roads Leroy Marsh Road Monroe County Pittsford Richard (Dick) Kaiser Ridgeway Air Park Ridgeway Avenue Roy DeVal Salt Lake City Scottsville Road Shoremont The Greece Press Town of Greece Woodward Field World War I World War II WWI WWII
Read Story

Greece Demanded Decency- No Topless Bathing!

October 1, 2021 |
"Your Bathing Suit Must be Right Kind in Greece or You'll Visit the Judge" This was a headline in an August 1934 issue of the Greece Press newspaper. Of course, it was about modesty, but you may not have guessed it was directed towards men. It seems in the early...
Categories: 1900-1950 Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1930s 1933 1934 1937 Chief Carter City of Rochester Public Safety Commissioner Democrat & Chronicle Greece Town Law Milton Carter Milton H. Carter The Greece Press Walter Cox West Coast
Read Story

Briarcliff Club Memories

July 1, 2021 |
Ration coupons, victory gardens, salvage drives, saving cooking fat, "buy bonds today." All familiar words to a home front generation during World War II. Unlike our wars since, World War II affected every single person in this country, and no matter what your occupation or financial status, everyone had to...
Categories: 1900-1950 Dewey-Stone Area Hamlets of Greece Living in Greece Stories
Tags: Barnard Except Home Barnard Exempts Boxart Street Briarcliff Club Briarcliff Rd clam bake Dewey-Stone Strathmore Drive Strathmore Drive Athletic Club Valleywood Club Victory Gardens World War II
Read Story

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
Read Story

Leaving a Message for the Future

February 1, 2021 |
John J. WalshGreece Press1939 It is quite common here at the Greece Historical Society to receive a phone call or email asking a local history or family-related question, which we are always happy to help with. We also get calls about donating some precious antiques, family heirlooms, or other objects....
Categories: 1900-1950 Living in Greece Stories
Tags: COVID-19 Democrat & Chronicle Gordon Howe Greece Democratic Party Holy Sepulchre Cemetery John J. Walsh Justice of the Peace Rochester OPA (Office of Price Administration) Control Board St. John the Evangelist Church Supervisor The Greece Press Times-Union Typographical Union No. 15
Read Story

Rotobowling Never Quite Caught on in Greece

January 1, 2021 |
In the late 1940s, as bowling was becoming more popular, the residents of Greece had several choices of where to bowl, including Boem's on Edgemere Drive and the Charlotte bowling hall on Stutson Street. Along the Ridge, there was the Lyon's Den, Damm Brothers, and Ridge Bowling, but with no...
Categories: 1900-1950 1950-2000 Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1940 1946 1954 1956 1957 1960 AMF Barnard School Boem's Charlotte Cramer's Drug Store Damm Brothers Dewey Ave Donato Fasano Edgemere Drive Ernest Fasano Fasinos Frear Estate Gambling Lyon's Den Maiden Lane Maiden Lanes McCall Michael Fasano New York State Northgate Plaza Orville Whittle Pin Boys Pin Spotter Ridge Bowling Ridge Bowling Hall Rotobowling Sam Mink Schantz Construction Stone Road Stutson St.
Read Story

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
Read Story

A Community That Saved a School

May 1, 2020 |
During the 1920s and '30s Greece experienced an increase in population, especially in the Dewey-Stone area. Among that increase were very many Catholic families; so in 1926 St. Charles Borromeo School on Dewey Avenue opened with a planned enrollment of 250 students. By 1938, with some modifications, the school had...
Categories: 1900-1950 Dewey-Stone Area Living in Greece Stories
Tags: Barnard Fire Department Bishop James Kearney Catholics City of Rochester Hose Company 24 Democrats Dewey-Stone Easter Break Good Friday Eve Holy Thursday Jews North Greece Fire Department Protestants Rabbi Philip Bernstein Republicans Rochester Diocese Sheriff Albert Skinner Simon Stein St. Charles Borromeo Parish St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic St. Charles Borromeo School Temple B'rith Kodesh The Greece Press Western New York
Read Story

A Milk Pail, A Photo Album and the Fleming Farm

March 1, 2020 |
The Fleming House, a stately brick farmhouse on Latta Road in Greece, was owned by the Fleming family for over 160 years. Joseph E. Fleming was the first to purchase the property in 1853 and completed the double-wall farmhouse in 1854. The farm had milk cows, goats, pigs, chickens, a...
Categories: 1800-1850 1850-1900 1900-1950 Fleming Family From The Historian's Files Living in Greece Stories Pioneer Families
Tags: Joseph Fleming Pioneer Families
Read Story

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
Read Story

“Apples, Pine Trees and Boxing Gloves!”

September 1, 2019 |
We've explained apples and pine trees...... What about boxing gloves...? Mr. Edward Sturm had once been in the furniture business on Joseph Ave. and knew well how to greet custom­ ers and run a successful retail venture. The tavern business was a bit different, but Edward slowly built the Pine...
Categories: 1900-1950 Living in Greece Stories
Tags: 1225 Ridge Road West 1914 1920 1928 1933 1948 1964 Alice Conroy Apples Bankruptcy Bowling Boxing Gloves Clement Versluy Cuba Democrat and Chronicle Edward Sturm Europe Henry Clune Joseph Ave. Lake Ave Man­itou Road Mexico Mike Conroy Pine Tree Inn Pine Trees Shale Gans Shales (Sol) Gans Speakeasies
Read Story