History

Rochester in the 1930s was a city whose public institutions reflected the values of its industrial patrons — Eastman Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Xerox’s precursor companies — and a tradition of philanthropic investment in civic life that stretched back to George Eastman’s gifts to the University of Rochester and the Eastman Theatre earlier in the century. Maria B. Rundel’s bequest to the Rochester Public Library continued this tradition, providing the capital for a new central library building that could serve the city’s growing population from a site with genuine civic presence.

The architects Gordon & Kaelber chose the Art Deco Moderne idiom — rational, horizontal, stripped of historical ornament but not of dignity. The limestone-clad building they produced sits at the edge of the Genesee River gorge, its river-facing facade presenting a composed, austere elevation that reads as public and permanent. The building was completed in 1936 during the depths of the Depression, one of many WPA-era and philanthropically funded civic structures that left lasting marks on mid-sized American cities during this period.

The library has been expanded and renovated over the decades, but the original 1936 building retains its architectural integrity. Its placement at the river’s edge, with the gorge dropping away to the west, remains one of the most distinctive settings of any library in upstate New York.