Susan B. Anthony (Rochester, New York)

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The Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood is named for the legendary suffragist and abolitionist, who called the neighborhood home from 1866 to her death in 1906. Her residence now is a National Historic Landmark Museum. The legacy of Frederick Douglass, escaped slave, abolitionist leader and statesman, also looms large over the neighborhood. He was a close friend and political ally of Anthony during his time in Rochester. The Susan B. Anthony Square features an engaging sculpture of Susan and Frederick Douglass having tea. Adjacent to the square is the Frederick Douglass Resource Center on King Street; the Center is open by appointment and offers information on Douglass’ life and legacy.

The area was a great transportation hub for early Rochester. Nearby were two canals, the Erie and the Genesee Valley, the largest turning basin for the canal boats. Also nearby was the Tonawanda Railroad, Rochester’s first rail, which carried passenger trains to Batavia in 1837 and beyond to Buffalo in ensuing years. The proximity of the railroad also attracted industrialists looking to easily ship their goods. Cunningham, a carriage and auto manufacturer, was one of the city’s biggest employers and was known internationally.

The Susan B. Anthony neighborhood is the only surviving example in the city of an early-nineteenth century tract development that retains its original public square and alley configuration, commercial strip and industrial area, as well as the majority of its residential buildings. Built primarily in the Greek Revival and American Four Square styles, homes here were occupied primarily by middle- and working-class residents, The homes were built between 1820 and 1930, although most are pre-Civil War.

The Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood is centered on the Madison Square-West Main Street Historic District, a remnant of the "boom town" era that ran from the 1830s to the Great Depression. West Main Street forms an active commercial border between the Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood and Changing of the Scenes (formerly known as Mayor's Heights).

There are pending plans to convert some remaining factory buildings in the neighborhood for residential and mixed-use development.