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  • East Rochester History inquiry

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

 #1395557  by mike157
 
A friend is fleshing out a story based on a partial newspaper clipping from 1900 – 1910’ish time frame. She’s looking to add more to the story and understand it better. If anyone can add to the background. It’s from a clipping. No date. No newspaper name. Can anyone lend insight? Where were they going? The route? What is the RS&E?
Mike

Titled: Maplewood’s first party

… ladies of the Despatch social whirl (apparently this was the Despatch Hotel/Restaurant/Bar where the East Roch Technoplex is now) … about twenty boarded the R.S.&E. cars … proceeded to Maplewood (maybe a restaurant/bar with dancing?) to enjoy a dance and supper. The dance hall …
 #1395572  by BR&P
 
RS&E would be the Rochester Syracuse & Eastern, an interurban line. Gordon's book might tell where their Maplewood was - I'm sure it was NOT the BR&P/NYC West Shore interchange since that was in the middle of nowhere and had no establishments for revelry.

And at one time Despatch was the name of the village which we now know as East Rochester, I presume the "social whirl" referred to the municipality.

FWIW there used to be a Maplewood Inn on East Avenue, just west of St John Fisher college. That lasted until maybe 5 or 10 years ago and now has been developed into condos. But it used to back up to I-490 between the 441 and East Rochester exits. Not sure if the trolley line went by there or not but I'll bet that's the place.
 #1395608  by CPSmith
 
The old East Rochester Hotel (it's gone now) was located where the village offices are today on Commercial St., right down the street from the Technoplex. Whether it was the former Despatch Hotel, I don't know. The building was taken down in the 70's IIRC. You should be able to find photos on the net.

The former Maplewood Inn on East Ave. still survives - it is now the Back Nine Grill. The condos are elsewhere on the property. And since tracks of various entities ran in the former 490 and 590 beds, I agree with BR&P - a reference to the "Maplewood" in all likelihood was to the spot aforementioned.
 #1396150  by mike157
 
Gentlemen - requests from the lady ...
1. Do you know where I might find a map of the Rochester, Syracuse and Eastern route?
2. What is Gordon's book?
Mike
 #1396153  by BR&P
 
William R. Gordon wrote several paperbound books on the Rochester area's interurban lines. Amazon has it:

https://www.amazon.com/Rochester-Syracu ... 26+Eastern" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Word of warning: Gordon had great amounts of maps, photos, anecdotes, news clippings, etc on each of the two lines I have his books on. (I don't have the RS&E book). However, he had absolutely NO organization. Not geographical, not chronological, nada. They are more like scrapbooks than a traditional book. You will still find a TON of info for your friend, but just a heads-up that it may take a while to sort it out.
 #1396161  by TB Diamond
 
Another great book about the RS&E and associated lines is TRAVELECTRIC by James R. McFarlane. This is Bulletin 143 of the Central Electric Railfans' Association, published in 2010. Hardcover with DJ.