The late summer sun shines gently through Washington Grove's canopy of oak, hickory and ash trees.
Three bustling thoroughfares are near the grove, which is part of Cobb's Hill Park: Culver Road to the west, Highland Avenue to the east, and Monroe Avenue to the south. But in the first few steps down its berm trail on the edge of Cobbs Hill Reservoir, the sounds of traffic melt away. At the bottom of the grove, the chirps of crickets, the hammering of woodpeckers, and occasional call of songbirds overtake the distant city noise.
“If you're crossing the street, you really have to be on alert,” said Kristy Liddell, the secretary and former president of Friends of Washington Grove. “But out here, if you feel comfortable, and not everybody does at first, but if you get familiar with a space like this, you can really just let go of a lot of internal noise as well.”
Washinton Grove is an old-growth forest in the center of an urban environment, and it is a unique piece of the Rochester landscape. Now, the city is seeking to recognize that and preserve the natural oasis for the future.
This month, the Rochester City Council will vote on turning Washington Grove and Cobb’s Hill Park into a historic preservation district, dubbed the Cobb’s Hill Park Preservation District. That designation would mean that changes within the park would have to first be approved by the Rochester Preservation Board, giving a binding layer of protection to the site.
Rochester currently has eight designated historic preservation districts, including East Avenue, Corn Hill, and the Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood. The Cobb’s Hill Park preservation district would be the first new entry in 32 years.
East Avenue was the first historic preservation district, established in 1969. The last entry was the South Avenue/Gregory Street District, established in 1993.
A portion of Cobb’s Hill Park was designated as a landmark property in 1972. But the new district would include all of the park, spanning about 128 acres.
Tom Kicior, manager of special projects for the city’s Department of Environmental Services, said the designation creates a more public and judicious process for any major changes proposed for the site.
“Neighbors would be notified surrounding the park, and the project would go to the Rochester Preservation Board, and then the board would review the project,” Kicior said. “They might have comments as to whether they think whatever was that we were proposing was appropriate for the site, they would review the history of the site, kind of the context, the design. These reviews are different every time.”
Cobb’s Hill would also be the first historic preservation district in the city to be made up entirely of parkland. While Mt. Hope Cemetery and Highland Park are named a historic preservation district, the boundaries include swaths of residential areas surrounding them.
Parks like Washington Grove already have some level of protection under state parkland alienation rules. Those rules generally mean a state review would need to be done before the city could allow any major developments by a private entity to happen at the site.
But those pushing to create the preservation district noted the cultural heritage of Washington Grove and Cobb’s Hill, and have said that demands additional protection. The preservation district application was submitted by members of Friends of Washington Grove, the Indigenous People’s Day Committee, the Olmsted Park Alliance, the Landmark Society of Western New York, and various neighborhood associations surrounding the park.
“Through this designation, we aim not only to safeguard the history and character of this place but also to honor the land’s deeper story and its rightful caretakers,” the application reads. “We invite all who visit to reflect on these histories and join us in fostering respect for the Haudenosaunee and their ongoing contributions to the well‐being of this land.”
A letter of support for the designation from three members of the grassroots Indigenous People’s Day Committee notes Cobb’s Hill is the mid-point between the Genesee River and Indian Landing, a critical indigenous trade point found in what’s now Ellison Park.
“Imagine the variety of styles of canoes that Cobbs Hill has seen as people came and went from every part of Turtle Island (the world),” the letter reads. “Seeds from South America, shells from both coasts, are just a few of the items brought along this portage trail. Whether the carriers were Haudenosaunee coming home or people from other areas, I'm certain they all climbed Cobbs Hill to get a view of their homeland or to gaze upon it for the first time, just as visitors and Rochesterians do today.”
A 25-acre plot of undeveloped woods, Washington Grove was purchased by the city in 1912 from a group of private citizens who had bought the land to protect it from being turned into a gravel pit. It was formally named after George Washington on the 200th anniversary of his birth in 1932.
Today, the plot is a hub for urban naturalists and, and for Rochester’s art community. Atop a hill on the western side of the grove, two massive, abandoned water towers have become an ever-changing public exhibit of graffiti art.
Meanwhile, the Friends of the Washington Grove estimate 142 bird species have been spotted in the forest over the past 18 years. Deer, well-acclimated to humans and without any predators present, flourish in the park.
“I think it helps to preserve spaces like this, where it's just so much clearer to us, this is nature, but there's no ‘not’ nature,” Liddell said. “The world is one world, and so we can maybe observe out here and connect that a little more to even our urban spaces.”
City Council members are scheduled to vote on the historic preservation district designation on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
