Charlotte (Rochester, New York)

 neighbourhood, draw only border

 Upload a photo

Founded before Rochesterville, Charlotte was established as a port by the U.S. Congress in 1805. The confluence of Lake Ontario and the Genesee River forms a natural port that attracted international trade. A port master and a customs house, as well as an iron ore processing plant, the Charlotte Iron Works, all could be found there. However, its commercial usefulness diminished with the arrival of the Erie Canal in 1823.

By the end of that 19th century, the commercial port doubled as summer retreat. Widely advertised as the "Coney Island of the West," the area's popular strand, hotels, boardwalk, and amusement park attracted vacationers via the New York Central railroad. A genuine Dentzel menagerie carousel, built in 1905, remains a landmark today.

The village of Charlotte was annexed to the City of Rochester in 1916 and known for many years as the 23rd Ward. Charlotte’s four corners or Main Square were at Stutson Street and Lake Avenue. Grand summer homes sprang up on the beachfront and smaller cottages on the nearby streets. City residents who could afford it owned summer cottages along Lake Ontario’s shore. “Rochester’s better-off owned second homes in the Beach Avenue area.

The Great Depression affected the small businesses surrounding the park as well as the popularity of the attractions. The New York Central Rail suffered financially during the depression, causing many problems that resulted in its scaling back transportation to the park. Additionally, as Rochester grew industrially water treatment plants unloaded massive amounts of waste into the Genesee River, creating a heavy drop in water quality at the beach at Charlotte.

For the past 50 years or so, mostly recreational vehicles have dominated the seascape. Houses on residential streets range from large turn-of-the-century homes and small cottages alongside post World War II houses and apartment complexes. The neighborhood is blessed with undulating topography; many residential streets are built on small ridges with valleys in between. Lake Avenue, the neighborhoods main thoroughfare, runs along the Genesee River.

The neighborhood is bordered on three sides by open space: Turning Point Park along the Genesee, Ontario Beach Park on the lake, and the extensive Riverside and Holy Sepulchre cemeteries to the south. Turning Point Park was created in 1977, in part a result of the advocacy neighborhood community associations to halt the construction of oil tanks in the undeveloped land along the river. The Genesee River Trail, designated as a national recreation trail in 2006, is nearing completion in its southern route from downtown Rochester to the port.

A major landmark is the Charlotte-Genesee lighthouse, built in 1822. The lighthouse tower used to be located next to the lake, but in order to prevent sand bars from forming at the Genesee River’s mouth, piers were built and sand was layered alongside them in 1829, forming Ontario Beach. The sand created such a large beach, it was necessary to move the lighthouse tower farther away from the lake. It sat idle for nearly a century until its restoration as a museum by the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse Historical Society in 1984.