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 July 10, 2012 and can be found here.
I love collecting fun little bits of Rochester history. So a few years ago I bought this Rochester jigsaw puzzle on eBay. Well somehow it slipped behind my sofa and I just recently found it again. It's like Christmas in July!
Entirely hand drawn, this 513 piece puzzle is jammed with local landmarks, businesses, and fun historic facts. Now I realize I'm a total geek-dork, but I could stare at this thing for days picking stuff out--it's THAT much fun...
Here's a close up of the High Falls neighborhood. There's Kodak headquarters and WXXI studios. And see that crowd of people and the little bear looking over the edge of High Falls? They're watching the first famous American Daredevil, Sam Patch
jumping over the falls. On Friday November 6, 1829, in front of an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 spectators, Patch went out onto a rock ledge in the middle of the falls. He first threw a pet bear cub over the falls and the cub managed to swim safely to shore. Patch then successfully jumped after the bear. Nut job.
Above we can see the Liberty Pole, Eastman Theater and the Rochester Public Market. See the old Silver Stadium in the upper left? This puzzle was produced in 1992. The Red Wings moved to Frontier Field in 1997.
Here's a view of I-490 and the South Wedge. Cinema Theatre is in the center; Looks like The Memphis Belle
with John Lithgow is playing tonight. It must be 1990! The German House, Monroe High School, Colgate Divinity School, and a "Punch's Nuts" truck driving in to deliver "nuts to everyone". Hee hee, punch's nuts.
Rochester's many great museums and galleries.
Looking out over Irondequoit and the Seneca Park Zoo there's Toronto in the distance! I'm not sure why that fisherman is getting swallowed by a shark in Lake Ontario... but if this puzzle is telling the truth, then the Empire State / Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Derby
is the largest in the nation. Hmm.
And no portrait of Rochester would be complete without these local legends; from left to right: Sam Patch
and his pet bear, Hiram Sibley
(founder of Western Union), Ebenezer 'Indian' Allan
(city's first miller), Col. Nathaniel Rochester
(city founder), Frederick Douglass
(first mayor, 1834) and George Eastman
.
The box doesn't specify a minimum age, but my 5 year old daughter and I were able to crack it in about 2 days of off-and-on play. She did most of the heavy lifting.
