Remembering the Old Rochester Monroe County Airport and Murals

This article was scraped from Rochester Subway. This is a blog about Rochester history and urbanism has not been published since 2017. The current owners are now publishing link spam which made me want to preserve this history.. The original article was published August 23, 2015 and can be found here.

     By       Mike Governale

I received an email last week from George Conboy, Chairman of Brighton Securities. He asks, "Have you seen anywhere a photo of the transportation mural that was behind the long ticket counter at the old airport? I remember it as a vaguely Art Deco theme of general transportation with an emphasis, of course, on air transport."

Mr. Conboy explained that he used to fly a lot during the "glory days" of air travel back in the 1960s when he was a kid. "I just liked that old mural. I used to see it all the time and it has always been in my mind."

This is a great question. I had been told of this mural before but have never seen it myself. Photos of it online are practically non-existent, so this one will require some digging...

   First, let's take a look at the airport terminal Mr. Conboy is talking about. It used to be known as Rochester Monroe County Airport, and in 1953 the building shown above was built on     Brooks Avenue

to replace a few smaller ones on     Scottsville Road

.

   The red-brick, single-level passenger terminal is a pretty typical example of post-war modernist architecture. The style would be familiar to most suburban grade-schoolers today. But at the time this was a very exciting improvement, and undoubtedly a state-of-the-art facility.

   An acre or more of concrete permitted planes to taxi right up to the terminal. Parking for cars was, of course, ample with plenty of open space to expand.

   Visitors could have a bird's-eye view of the airfield from an observation platform located on the roof (seen just left of center in the photo above).

   From inside, huge picture windows provided great viewing of the planes as they landed and departed.

   If you weren't in a rush, a restaurant called Horizons offered fine dining to the public and passengers awaiting their flights.

   And this iconic brick clock tower high above the terminal reminded passengers just how much time they had to buy their tickets and board their planes.

But what about the mysterious mural? We still have no idea what that looked like or where it was. Well, with the help of a few friendly librarians at Rochester's Central Library, I found this...

   On June 21, 1953 the brand new terminal was dedicated. This brochure was given to guests in attendance at the ceremony.

   Inside was a floor plan of the new building, AND... drumroll please...

   A two-page spread detailing the new airport murals.

   The murals traced the history of transportation in North America from the horse-drawn vehicles of the pioneer days to the 1950s era of aviation.

   I'm not entirely sure if the images shown here are of an artist's concept sketch, or if these were photographs of the actual finished mural. But the description does read:    The technic used is designed to harmonize with and complement the beautiful furnishings and color scheme in the Administrative Building. This technic is an adaption of calligraphic line combined with careful and restrained use of solids, all in five colors which repeat the colors used in the furnishings and other elements of decor.

So I     think    this was only a sketch, but the finished piece was probably pretty darn close to this.

   Some of the vehicles and scenes depicted include a packet boat gliding through Rochester on the Erie Canal, the old trolley line to Sea Breeze, the Wright Brothers "flying machine," and the Empire State Express steam locomotive setting a     record speed of 112 mile per hour

in 1893.

   The murals were created by Marjorie Lapp, Elmer Lapp, and Walter O'Brien for Clifford P. Hayes of the Hayden Company. Hayden Company was a highly regarded cabinet and furniture manufacturer based in Rochester from 1847-1955. The company also handled the interior design and furnishings for the terminal.

Click on the panels below to see larger views of each...

   Horse and horse-drawn wagons.

   Waterways and the Erie Canal.

   The trolley line to Sea Breeze and the bicycle.

   The early days of the automobile.

   The railroads.

   Aviation. This panel was over 100 feet long.

   As far as photos of the mural inside the terminal building, this was all I could find. This photo was taken in 1953 a little bit before the terminal opened. To the right of the big picture windows, and behind the pile of boxes, there is a set of doors. Those doors led out to a great covered porch with a view of the airfield. On the wall just above the doors, an outline of the mural can be seen.

   Looking closer, this would be the "railroad" portion of the mural.

If anyone reading this has a photo of the mural or the old airport itself, please drop a comment below or email      [email protected]    .

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