Welcome to the High Falls

Rochester grew around the four falls of the Genesee River and their power potential, with the High Falls, dropping 96 feet, recognized as early as 1807 as capable of supporting an important settlement. The early settlement of Frankfort stood on the river’s west high bank, and this area became the engine of Rochester’s industrial growth. A first mill built there in 1807 and powered by the High Falls was ill constructed and had only one run-of-stone, the two millstones used to grind grain into flour. Matthew and Francis Brown, brothers from Rome, New York, saw the industrial promise of the falls area, purchased 200 acres on the high bank in 1812, and established Frankfort. They built a man-made water race 1,300 feet long and 30 feet wide in 1,500 days at a cost of $3,872, carrying Genesee River water along the top of the high bank to supply water wheels for mills and factories built there over the next 100 years. Frankfort was incorporated into the Village of Rochesterville in 1817. By 1851, ten flour mills with fifty run-of-stone along Brown's Race could produce 500,000 barrels of flour each year, and together with mills at the other Genesee falls, they made Rochester the leading flour producer known as The Flour City. Waterpower on Brown's Race also drove factories making edge tools, fire engines, shoes, and goods from distilleries and foundries. In 1879, Brown's Race had a power capability of 3,670 horsepower, and at the turn of the century Rochester still shipped more than 500,000 barrels of flour annually. As steam engines rose and electricity arrived, companies moved away from the High Falls area, but the race remains in use today, supplying power to a hydro-electric plant on the flats below the high bank, one of three operating in Rochester.

Rochester, New York · United States