Saturday, March 29, was a perfect day for a bus tour, with the sun shining brightly, but it was still just a bit too cold to be standing outside. As we boarded the big bus for the Landmark Society's City Living Bus Tour, we were each handed large manila envelopes filled with info. If I ever really get to seriously considering purchasing a home, I'm heading to the Landmark Society first. Their "Home Room" is a homebuyer's dream resource.

We began in Corn Hill, headquarters for the Landmark Society. An upper-class neighborhood, it used to be known as the silk stockings and ruffled shirts district. Built before automobiles, there are few driveways, with most residences having service alleys in the rear. We then crossed town via Court Street, the street with nary a court house on it. Apparently, the guy who owned the land hoped that by naming it such, one would be built. Oops!

Traveling up Monroe Avenue, which used to be a stagecoach, and then an electric streetcar route, we passed the long-ago City boundary of Goodman Street. Before Rundel was built, the Italian Renaissance-inspired Monroe was the showcase library. I always knew there was something special about that place. Passing over the expressway, we were told it used to be the old Erie Canal, the same canal that transported our flour to NYC to sail across the pond to England to feed Queen Victoria, as well as travel to countless other places.

Crossman Terrace was a nursery turned neighborhood. Built before electricity, the porches are wide to serve as summer living rooms. The identity of the architect who designed No. 50, which looks Frank Lloyd Wright-ish, remains a mystery.

Passing Cobbs Hill we learned that the two gatehouses were designed my J Foster Warner, the same man who designed George Eastman's house.

Turning onto Highland Avenue, the boundary between the City and what was once our first housing development - Home Acres - we were told it was an old Native American footpath. Apparently the First Unitarian Church on Winton is something architects drool over.

1816 East Avenue is one of the city's oldest houses, and it's for sale! Traveling through the Park/East Ave areas we learned the rector in charge when Asbury First Church was built is buried under its altar. With the building of East Boulevard came driveways. The property of the Frank Lloyd Wright house used to include the two properties south of it, which were once gardens. The Memorial Art Gallery used to be the Averill Memorial Art Gallery, and sits on what once was the UR campus, Cutler having been the student union.

We took a short respite at Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Park to fill up on snacks and let the facts settle.

There were just so many little tidbits of interest, and I could only scribble so many. Rockefeller had something to do with the building of Colgate Divinity. UR used to be Oak Hill Country Club, and more soldiers died in the Civil War from surgery than from bullets. The 19th Ward is the city's largest single neighborhood and "urban by choice" is its motto. Many of its houses were built during the tuberculosis epidemic, and most have side or back sleeping porches to take in the fresh air. St Mary's was the first hospital in the city, and Susan B's sister was the first female school principle, having the audacity to ask for the same wage as a male. There's a kit house at 32 King Street. Nick Tahou's used to be a railroad station. Rochester Art Supply has a reputation as one of the best art supply stores in the world.

All that in three hours for the bargain basement price of free.

Next up: An Evening Tea