2009 Photo, BradMandell
The Mercury statue, a landmark of downtown Rochester, was created in 1881 by J. Guernsey Mitchell. Mitchell was commissioned by his brother-in-law, William Kimball, the owner of the William S. Kimball Tobacco Factory, located at the corner of Court Street and Exchange Street, to craft this statue out of riveted copper plates. Once the 21 foot tall statue was completed, it was installed atop one of the factory smokestacks and quickly became a hallmark of the Rochester Skyline.
In 1951, the factory was demolished to make way for the Rochester War Memorial. The statue was placed in storage until 1973, when it was re-introduced in the Rochester skyline — this time atop the Aqueduct Building, one block north of its original home.
Notes and References
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![[WWW]](http://rocwiki.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/sycamore-www.png)
Labor Photos of Restoration 2 reserved right images on Flickr Photos
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![[wikipedia]](http://rocwiki.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/inter.png)
Ralph Avery painted a number of famous paintings of the statue.
Photos
 City Hall Photo Lab on LibraryWeb.org |
