r/Rochester • u/time4meatstick Rochester • Apr 26 '26
History Historic Backyard Gravesite
Graveyard for Ezra Rogers and His dog in Irondequoit Cemetery; located in a backyard in the neighborhood built on what was his peach orchard. Irondequoit has a couple relic graveyards that are now in seemingly odd locations.
Edit: word
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u/transitapparel Rochester Apr 27 '26
Its completely closed off, right? I did a talk on graveyards/cemeteries last year and this one came up in my research. Didn't seem like any real public access to it.
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u/time4meatstick Rochester Apr 27 '26
No. Stuck in between two backyards and wrought iron fence all around. Is the one on Hudson by Walmart closed off?
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u/transitapparel Rochester Apr 27 '26
Saint Casimirs is still technically accessible (pathway near Walmart parking lot) but no real parking. Evidently it still accepts burials if you're Polish Catholic and part of the parish on Simpson Rd.
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u/time4meatstick Rochester Apr 27 '26
Thanks for the info! The history in this specific area is quite interesting to me.
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u/ColdBrewShakes Apr 27 '26
It's basically in my neighbor's backyard, so not accessible without permission.
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u/RalphMacchio404 Apr 27 '26
The one by the Hudson Walmart makes me just feel sad
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u/transitapparel Rochester Apr 27 '26
It's still active! I wouldn't be surprised though if the burials are exhumed and reinterred at Holy Sepulcher at some point since the current cemetery is landlocked and getting swallowed up by development.
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u/time4meatstick Rochester Apr 27 '26
I’m sure there are plenty under us that we have no clue about as well
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u/ChimeraChartreuse Apr 27 '26
Highland Park alone has hundreds that most of us aren't aware of.
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u/whim_sea Apr 27 '26
Huh really! Where abouts in the park?
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u/transitapparel Rochester Apr 27 '26
Where Beikirch Park is currently (the South/Highland part of Highland Park was renamed in 2021 after one of our local Medal Of Honour veterans). It was at one time the site of the Alms House (anyone who couldn't support themselves), asylum, and a penitentiary, Deaths from any of those institutions were generally buried on the grounds and as the park has been developed, more remains have been found (1984 mostly). There's a memorial garden between the LIlac Arches installation and Adventure Zone parking lot.
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u/Deezle_Gnome Apr 27 '26
Pinnacle Hill was St. Patrick's Cemetery. They moved the burials to Mt. Hope but a handful of headstones remain.
And wasn't the location of the high school on Monroe Ave a cemetery at one point?
Not suggesting that there's unmarked burials at either of these locations... it would be creepy though.
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u/transitapparel Rochester Apr 27 '26
Monroe High was the site of the East Cemetery, established in the 1820s, and burials were reinterred at Mt. Hope in 1873. As with the case of St. Patrick's, there's no guarantee that all souls were moved and there's a more than 0% chance there are still remains on the school grounds.
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u/No_Enthusiasm4539 Apr 30 '26
The smaller cemeteries that got remains moved to Mt. Hope include the currently Highland Park, Monroe High School's sports field, Eastman Theater/Gibbs Street, even Pellegrino's on Mt. Hope were moved across the street.
Those are the ones that come to mind for me.
Interesting fact, after looking at old maps of Rochester, the Costco in Brighton used to be a sanatarium.
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u/whim_sea Apr 27 '26
And his dog 🥹
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u/time4meatstick Rochester Apr 27 '26
Yes. The dog is the reason he was not placed into the cemetery on Culver.
“It could not be closed because of an old agreement with the town negotiated because Ezra Rogers has his dog buried with him and the dog could not go with him to the Culver Rd Cemetery.”
My kinda guy
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u/JohnCalvinSmith Penfield Apr 27 '26
Back when Rochester was incorporating every little town around it the local little cemeteries the dotted every other block were all excavated and moved to Mt Hope after the cholera outbreaks in the 1830s.
Most of the smaller cemeteries were full and moving them to sacred ground centralized the city as a whole.
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u/nomad-1995 Apr 27 '26
I suspect one of the first small ones an out-of-towner will stumble over is Whitaker Cemetery on the corner of East Henrietta and Calkins. Doesn't look big enough for more than an extended family, but might be due to plenty of cholera and children before vaccines.
TIL it is named on google maps.
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u/birdonthemoon1 Park Ave Apr 27 '26
Every now and then, there's a thread on Reddit that restores my hope for the platform. This is absolutely one of them.
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u/whitecoathousing Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
I once was driving down I believe it was Pinnacle Rd in Henrietta and just saw what appeared to be a cemetery hidden under some trees and bushes. I turned around and got out my car and found it was a small cemetery with even at least one Revolutionary war veteran buried there. It was pretty hidden from the road too with no signage.
I tried finding it again one time and couldn’t find it. I don’t remember exactly where it was but somewhere either on Pinnacle or somewhere in that vicinity.
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u/transitapparel Rochester Apr 27 '26
Tinker Cemetery on Castle Rd. It's a family/farm cemetery that was established in 1810, and includes the family of the Tinker Homestead cobblestone house that became Tinker Nature Park.
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u/whitecoathousing Apr 27 '26
That looks right. But why is it so far from the house? I guess all the land was theirs at that time
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u/transitapparel Rochester Apr 27 '26
The land was owned by Chandler Maltby, and my educated guess is that it started as a Maltby family cemetery, but as the area expanded and people wanted a centralized place to bury their relatives, the Maltbys opened their cemetery as a community burial ground. I think the Tinker name was just coincidental because they have the largest gravestone.
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u/whitecoathousing Apr 27 '26
I never went to the Tinker homestead, but looks like the family donated the property to the town of Henrietta in the 90s.
For whatever reason the Tinker cemetery remained small.
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u/transitapparel Rochester Apr 27 '26
Tinker Cemetery has more families than just Tinker. Theres more Maltbys buried there than anyone else.
My guess on why Tinker Cemetery never grew is because it was landlocked, and with Mt Hope opening in 1830s, along with larger cemeteries in town like Maplewood opening in 1896, there was less need for family burial grounds and burials/loved ones could be centralized to larger areas for keeping track of them and better maintainence of grounds.
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u/whitecoathousing Apr 27 '26
So whats the history of the Maltbys? How long were they in the area?
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u/transitapparel Rochester Apr 27 '26
No idea, probably just a pioneer farming family that claimed land here, offered their family burial site as a community cemetery, and faded into history. I dont believe theres a thoroughfare named after them so they are just another name on a plat map.
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u/willxthexthrill Apr 27 '26
I recognize that tree! I've been aware of this cemetery for a while but never been able to spot it. did they take down a fence or something?
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u/AnonnonA710 Apr 26 '26
Makes you wonder what the layout of the land looked like ~200 years ago