This Month in Rochester History

Fifty years ago this month, the attention of Rochester residents was focused on a special election held on December 8, 1964. The purpose of the election was the consideration of a $190,000 bond issue to fund the village's portion of an urban renewal project for East Third Street.  The proposed project would relocate 33 families to other housing, raze substandard buildings, grade the land and install new water and sewer lines. The course of Paint Creek would be straightened and new bridges would be built.  After all of the work was completed, the lots in the area would then be sold for industrial use.

The East Third Street area had been devastated by a flood in 1946 when the old Western Knitting Mills dam was washed out. The area had never fully recovered from that disaster, and with the assistance of federal funding, was ripe for redevelopment.

The cost of project was estimated to be $709,000, three-quarters of which would be paid by a federal urban renewal grant.  The remainder of the cost was to be borne by the village through a bond issue.  The question passed on a vote of  357 to 149, setting the stage for a year of great changes for Rochester in 1965.