This Month in Rochester History

Fifty years ago this month, in February of 1961, Rochester residents were saying goodbye to a familiar business on Main Street. Verne Sutton, who had operated Sutton's Market on the southwest corner of Third and Main (where Mind, Body & Spirits is today), announced his retirement in the February 23, 1961 edition of the Rochester Clarion.

Sutton told the Clarion that some of his original customers who had started out with him when he opened the market in 1934 were still with him after 27 years, and he would miss them. The day of the small grocery store was fading fast, however, as more chain supermarkets came on the scene, and Sutton's was one of the last to leave the downtown business district. Verne Sutton sold the building and liquidated his grocery inventory, and soon after a gift shop called The Dants opened in the former Sutton's location.

This view of Sutton's Market is from the collection of Marjorie and the late Walter Dernier.