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 February 09, 2009 and can be found here.
The following Subway story was submitted to us by Mr. B from Rochester...
"When I was 7 or 8, I would go to the YMCA on Monroe Avenue or the library next door after school. The Subway used to pass under the Monroe Avenue overpass
heading downtown. It must have been in mid june in 1955 or 1956. We were looking out the window at the library and the Trolley was parked or stopped under the overpass...
We climbed over the fence and along the concrete wall and jumped on the roof of the Trolley. Not 30 seconds later the Trolley started to move and we held on for dear life, riding on top for a mile or so until the conductor stopped the car near downtown. We had to sit on top until the police and the fire department came with a ladder to get us down. Every time I go down Monroe Avenue or go under that overpass, I smile."
We think this Subway story will make a few other people smile as well Mr. B. And we're glad you decided to share it with us.
In his email Mr. B. also mentions that when they finally shut the trolley system down and were pulling the tracks up, for some reason they didn't take them out on Park Avenue between Vick Park A and Vick Park B
. The tracks are still there under the ashphalt!
Mr. B. went on to say he was born in the Park Ave neighborhood and lived on East Avenue in the early 50's. In the late 60's the roadway wore away and the tracks were exposed for a while before the city paved over them again.
NOTE: Vick Park A and Vick Park B were originally the two straight aways for the Vick Park Horse Racetrack. The bend between the two is the Park Avenue section. James Vick
, for whom these streets are named, was one of the most successful horticultural seedsman, writers, and merchandisers of the late 1800's. The Vick Seed Company continued into the 20th century before being sold to the Burpee Seed Co.
