West Main Street is the part of Rochester's Main Street which runs westwards from the Four Corners at the center of the city. Four Corners is at the intersection of East Main Street, West Main Street, State Street to the north and Exchange Street to the south, and was the site of some of the city's earliest buildings.
From the Four Corners, West Main Street runs to Broad Street past multi-story office and retail buildings, including the famous Powers Block, the impressively colonnaded Monroe County Office Building, and the Cascade neighborhood of reclaimed industrial buildings. Ample parking and lunchspot restaurants share street frontage with banks and light industrial buildings.
At the intersection with Broad Street, West Main Street is overpassed by the Inner Loop expressway, the common boundary of "downtown". Near this wide junction are the Rochester City School District central office and Nick Tahou's Hots, a famous diner. Surrounding the junction are many 19th-century industrial buildings, built when the west landing of the Erie Canal over the Genesee River was here, and now converted to light industrial and residential use.
Westward from Broad Street, Main runs to its end in the Bulls Head neighborhood just past Genesee St. at the intersection of West Main, Chili Avenue and West Avenue. Named for a local tavern, Bulls Head has been the site of St. Mary's Hospital since the 1860's. Along this stretch of West Main Street, a recent resurgence of boutique shopping and ethnic eateries has brightened some storefronts among the numerous underdeveloped plots.
