Midtown Plaza 1962 - 2008 Irondequoit Mall 1990 - 2005 Medley Centre 2005 - 2009

I love watching the videos of Midtown on Youtube each Christmas (I live in FL now and get very nostalgic). I will miss Midtown as it was an important part of my childhood - the monorail, Clock, fountain, etc. I feel like Salvatore in Cinema Paradiso watching the cinema come down.

Peter, thank you very much! I agree, but asbestos removal is supposed to take place at Midtown Plaza this summer. Almost the entire block is scheduled to be demolished in 2010. Rochester's Landmark Society could have saved it if they really wanted to. I blame them for not fighting hard enough. In 2008, I had an online petition here to save Midtown. Sadly, less than 30 people signed it. Some Rochesterians are not known for their fighting spirit when city landmarks are involved. Look at Silver Stadium. Almost everybody has accepted Frontier Field as their ball park except for me. There was nothing wrong with Silver and we sat back and watched her come down!

Hello! Although I have never been to this mall, i've seen your videos on YouTube.

It is very sad that a local business has to pack up and leave just so some big corporation can waste millions of dollars and build a world headquarters. That to me is just pointless and stupid because to destroy a building that is historic to Rochester is just stupid because the all the politicians in Albany care about is the benefits for this building, and not about the years of history behind it!

Keep it up with your fight to save this building (and the videos on YouTube!)

Hello Arcadio and thank you for those kind words. It saddens me that the entire Midtown Plaza block may disappear. Things are not looking up for Midtown Tower. As a PAETEC shareholder, I am disappoined with Arunas Chesonis. That building would have been ideal for his company. As for this website, I will keep it going as long as I can.

hi, just wanted to say that it saddens me very dearly to see the place where I mostly grew up in as a child in the late 70's early 80's till 1995 when I left Rochester... I love Midtown Plaza! I had soo much memories there growing up as a child.. It will always be remembered in my heart till the day I die.. I love your web site plz don't ever get rid of it I want to always come back and go back memory lane.. Thanks..

Thank you Barb! I had the pleasure of receiving an email from Dale Clark recently. He created our Clock of Nations. His stories about Midtown Plaza are quite interesting. At 85 years old, Dale is still working! If I hear from him again, I will ask about posting his responses on this website.

Thank you for the Midtown memories & videos. My Mom worked for Midtown Holdings from 1962-1978.I worked downtown until 1991.Living out of the area now, but it has been great to view your stuff on youtube. I have only good memories from childhood through adult.Hope they don't tear it down, Midtown was such a big part of my life!Great coverage David!

I guess PAETEC wants something new. They may be forced to keep that atrium right where it is. Our Preservation Society saved Midtown Plaza´s benches from being auctioned off, or so I was told. If PAETEC does not build their World Headquarters, what will become of Midtown? Duffy should have left well enough alone. I knew something like this was going to happen. As for Santa´s original chair and Magic Mountain, I also went looking for them. Came up empty handed, but they could still be around. I will send an email to City Hall and see what happens. The City of Rochester now owns Midtown Plaza. Thank you for your kind words!

I don't understand why Paetac needs to demolish the building. What a waste of money! Just get your employees in there and save the building! DUH!! The atrium is a historical site and should NOT be destroyed. I am in my mid thirties and remember magic mountain. Those were the good old days. Instead of spending millions to demolish this building, they should be using that money for our schools and keeping our streets safe. Paetac isn't even doing financially well right now. Johnson with the Ferry...now Duffy with Midtown~soooooo sad! I hope you find out about Magic Mountain and the original Santa's chair. Please keep me posted. I wanted to look for it during the auction but didn't know where to start looking. Too bad we can't go in there now and see what was left over. Maybe you should try to contact the owner of Midtown. I will check in tomorrow. Thanks so much for keeping this Mall "alive" man! You rock!