Your Memories of Midtown

My parents and I always went on a yearly holiday pilgrimage to Midtown Plaza even after its the bustling years of it and all of downtown in the were over in the early 1990’s with the closing of Sibley’s department store across the street and the opening of Irondequoit Mall (now Medley Center) in 1990 and the 1994 closings of McCurdy’s and B. Foreman’s and merger and expansion of Long Ridge and Greece Towne malls into The Mall at Greece Ridge Center. Midtown and all of downtown were especially bustling throughout the 1970’s and ‘80’s.

We always enjoyed shopping at most of the stores and crossing the Skyway bridge over Clinton Avenue to the Chase Tower to see the model train displays and shops there. The bridge was always filled with the soothing sounds of radio station WEZO and the voice of their announcer, Jerry Warner, over its speakers. I went on Santa’s lap and the monorail until I grew too big. Favorite shops at the holidays at Midtown were McCurdy’s, B. Foreman’s, Wegman’s and its successor, Record Theater, and Scrantom’s and its successor.

On Christmas Eve of 1991, a young, homeless man greeted my mother and I as we were entering the Wegman’s store, saying “Merry Christmas! God wanted me to say that to you.” The last two years, my mother took me to lunch at Top of the Plaza, with its great food, service, and breathtaking surrounding city views. At the top of the escalator from the underground parking garage below, a “Happy Hanukkah” banner, complete with a menorah, would greet us entering Midtown.

I had always thought that Midtown was not worth visiting any other time of year until we took field trips there with the summer school of the special ed school that I was attending in the mid-1980’s. I was disappointed when the teachers relayed a question and answer between myself and a clerk that there were no toy stores in Midotwn of surrounding area at the time. On one such field trip, we went there solely to visit the studio of the former WVOR 100.5 FM to see how a radio station worked and were awed by the spectacular views from the window that extended as far as Lake Ontario. In the summer of 1989, my mother, godmother, and I once came to Midtown, when downtown and the now-dormant Cornerstone Park, were still thriving, with the park’s water fountain was still running and we enjoyed marveling at the “loud” and colorful summer fashions of the day at McCurdy’s.

My elderly father remembers being shook from his bed while staying at the former Ritchford Hotel (now 50 Chestnut Plaza) by the blasting for Midtown and the parking garage and seeing the large construction trucks look like little, tiny ants in the hole.

My last memories of Midtown were participating in discussions at both forums and in the local media on what to do with the future of Midtown, now that it was mostly vacant, with the food court at lunchtime, the only time and place that it was ever “bustling” anymore in the mid-2000’s. I remember listening to the Urban Land Institute making recommendations for the Center City at a breakfast forum sponsored by the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation in June, 2005, with demolishing Midtown to make way for other uses among the recommendations. I did not know what to think of it at first, but agreed with it later. My last memory of Midtown was participating in the Downtown Design Charrette in January, 2007 on what to do with the future of Midtown Plaza and all of downtown Rochester.

I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS LITTLE RIDING ON THE MONORAILS AND AT CHRISTMAS SANATA CLAUS AND BEFORMANS AND KAUFMANS AND SEVERAL OTHER THINGS THERE.TIMES CHANGED SINCE THE 1960'S AND 1970'S I REMEBER RIDING THE RTS THERE WITH MY MOM ALSO GOING TO MIDTOWN ITS REALLY SAD TO LOOSE THE BUILDING YOU GREWUP WITH.