Reynolds Arcade - Rochester Wiki

The four-story, brick building "featured an ingenious design like that of a twentieth century enclosed shopping mall," Joseph and Robert Barnes explain in Rochester History quarterly.

"The arcade proper was a lofty sky-lighted corridor of generous proportions which divided the building through the middle. Shops and offices opened onto the corridor at ground level and at a second balconied gallery level."

Reynolds Arcade "was destined to serve as the center of Rochester downtown life for more than a century," the Barnes explain, or, as McKelvey put it, "the focal center of the community."

This was where John Jacob Bausch began his optical business and our first mayor, Jonathan Child was inaugurated in 1834. This was also the meeting place for abolitionists and the founders of the local YMCA.

By the 1930s, however, the aging Reynolds Arcade was considered a firetrap. Alas, it was demolished in 1932 and replaced with the current ten-story Art Deco incarnation, which was also one of the first buildings in Rochester to have central air conditioning. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Located in the Four Corners neighborhood.

Current Tenants

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