Microcosm of America

Rochester’s recent history is like time travel. 

When I first arrived, dairy cows lived in the Great Oaks subdivision. The Paint Creek Tavern stood resolute, and across the street, the Oak gas station was not much more than a phone booth beside the railroad tracks. Railroad tracks? The divided the town along what is now the Paint Creek Trail. There are still a few mile markers if you know where to look. The Morse-Ferry Seed Farm was open fields. I don’t know if they were still in business, then. Mitzelfeld’s anchored the business district.

True, some of the icons of an earlier epoch remain.

Knapp’s Dairy Bar remains very much as it was. The Home Bakery still looks the same. Green’s Artist Supply and the Arizona Saddlery appear unchanged by the times. The Rochester Grain Elevator is still standing, although I don’t know how. I remember passing the Sign of the Black and White Cow. The Van Hoosen farm was there, too, but looked on the verge of ruin. Yates Cider Mill is a few miles out of town, but I consider it part of the town’s ambience.

Some of the buildings remain intact, but have been transformed with the rising status of the town. The D&C Dime Store has transformed twice: once to Andiamo’s  and now to Rojo. The Cooper’s Arms, while visually much the same, is now the Rochester Chop House. I think the menu is still the same. They just crossed out the old prices and doubled them. The old Library on University transformed once into Hepplewhite’s and later into Updog Yoga. The old post office has held a succession of restaurants, none of which seem to stay very long. The A&P stood vacant forever before becoming a fitness center.

Does anyone remember the Hills Theater?

I lived for a time in the neighborhood just west of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church. The houses were built just after the war. The last time I drove past, the area looked exactly the same as when I moved out.

Some things have changed dramatically. Stoney Pointe and its kin have populated the land north of what was once Parke Davis with McMansions. The Great Oaks Mall has come and gone. The Western Woolen Mill is now the Rochester Mills Beer Company. The library, post office and Park Place Hotel occupy prime locations along Paint Creek.

As I write stories set in and around Rochester, I can use these shifting times and scenic elements to anchor my readers in a specific era. If I wanted to, I could go back to the interurban era and restore the tracks down the brick Main Street.

I won’t though. I don’t remember what it was like then. It’s before my time.