Upper Falls (Rochester, New York)

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The Upper Falls Neighborhood has its origins in Rochester's immigrant German community. Its earliest settlers built a brewery by the Genesee River's 96-foot High Falls. One of Rochester's oldest employers remains a vibrant part of the neighborhood. The Genesee Brewing Company at 445 St. Paul Street traces its lineage back to Aqueduct Spring, Rochester's first brewery, built in 1819. It is one of the largest and oldest continuously operating breweries in the US, best known for Genesee beers as well as the J.W. Dundee line of craft ales and lagers. The neighborhood is also home to the High Falls Brewing Company.

By the 1950's, the area was a rich mix of cultures. After the 1964 race riots, a triad of problems - degraded housing stock, poverty and crime - buffeted the area for several decades. Upper Falls is considered part of Rochester's Crescent of Poverty.

St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church on North Clinton Avenue remains the major architectural landmark of the neighborhood. Its tall steeple (the 10th highest building in the city) looms 220 feet above a gothic stone church built in 1890 that is still partially enclosed by an original 19th century wrought iron fence. It remains a vibrant parish today. On the fourth Sunday of every month, Eastman School of Music students hold musical concerts at the church.

The stations for Amtrak and Greyhound are located on the neighborhood's very edge, within quick walking distance from downtown. Green spaces include Baden Park, Lomb Memorial Park, and Quamina Park.