The Town of Brighton was established in 1814 on the southeastern border of the City of Rochester, Monroe County, New York. The eastern and central portions of Brighton have long harbored residential neighborhoods, commercial real estate and light industry. In contrast, West Brighton has an agricultural history, for several reasons. First, West Brighton rests on a flood plain on the eastern shore of the Genesee River. Until the construction of the Mt. Morris Dam by Letchworth State Park in 1952, the region was subject to frequent flooding that discouraged urban development. The area still harbors many permanent and seasonal wetlands (marshes, swamps, vernal pools). Second, transportation corridors directly connected eastern and central portions of Brighton to downtown Rochester but largely bypassed West Brighton. Finally, large land acquisitions by the City of Rochester and educational institutions left relatively little property in the hands of private Brighton citizens. For these reasons, West Brighton maintains a rural landscape of fields and forests despite its close proximity to residential and commercial areas as well as the Rochester International Airport.
The original homesteader of West Brighton was Thomas Warrant, an English coppersmith who established his home in 1819. Thomas Warrant is perhaps most famous for his involvement with the Underground Railroad. The Warrant Homestead—which was moved during the construction of the Erie Canal to its current location at the intersection of East River Road and West Henrietta Road—was a hiding place for escaped slaves seeking passage by boat into Canada. In total, the Warrant family had nine children, many of whom married local residents and established new homesteads in West Brighton. The Crittenden’s, the Pryor’s and many of Brighton’s other famous families were connected to the Warrant family at some point in the 1800s and 1900s.
The soils of West Brighton are well-suited to agriculture, and by the late 1800s, numerous farms and nurseries had been established in the vicinity of Crittenden and East River roads. The Warrant lands had apple orchards, for example, while the Crittenden property had a dairy and the Baker family raised sheep. The Baker farm was located on what is now the Genesee Valley Park, which was established by the City of Rochester in 1888 via a controversial land acquisition. Genesee Valley Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to maintain small areas of forest, however, the majority of the land was maintained as open grassy fields suitable for sporting activities and picnics. Agriculture persisted in West Brighton through the 1950s and 1960s, at which time young kids would wait under the watchful eyes of milk cows at bus stops along East River Road. As agricultural activities become less economically viable, however, farmlands were divided into smaller parcels and eventually transferred to the City of Brighton, the Catholic Church, Monroe County and/or the University of Rochester.
While the UR River Campus and the UR Medical Campus are located on the southern boundary of the City of Rochester, the university recognized early on that it had limited opportunities for growth to the north, east, or west. Thus, in 1948, the U of R purchased the core area of the South Campus from Cora Warrant, a great-granddaughter of Thomas Warrant. This area represented a considerable portion of the western Warrant homestead. Subsequent purchases of small farms and other agricultural lands extended university property southwards to the vicinity of Lantern Lane. In 1982, the University of Rochester obtained St. Agnes’s School (now the Alumni & Development Center) and associated forested land from the Sisters of St. Joseph. This acquisition rounded out the South Campus boundaries, which now extend from East River Road southwards to the vicinity of Crittenden Road, and approximately one-half the distance from the Lehigh Valley Trail to West Henrietta Road. A later land donation extended University of Rochester property south of Crittenden, including wetlands and second growth forest adjoining the Town of Brighton’s Lynch Woods property.
South Campus land acquisitions do not appear to have been motivated by conservation intentions but the area nonetheless has significant ecological value. The majority of the land had been used for agriculture—orchards, dairy farms, annual crops—yet some areas represent old-growth. The latter areas were impacted by small-scale timber harvest but were never cleared or converted to agricultural use. No longer subject to plowing or other human disturbance, South Campus green space reverted to nature in the 1950s and 1960s. Wooded areas developed into mature forests, low-lying areas become swamps and marshes, and agricultural areas developed second-growth forests. Today, the West Brighton landscape harbors several old-growth stands embedded in a matrix of wetlands and second-growth forest. The University of Rochester owns one of the old-growth areas as well as the lion’s share of secondary growth and wetland habitats east of the Lehigh Valley Trail.
