Highland Park

Rochester residents George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry donated 20 acres of nursery land to the city in 1883. A few years later it would become the site of Highland Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The nature of the existing sloped grounds, already abundant with plants and home to the city’s reservoir, led to the park being turned into an arboretum. The hillside was planted with a variety of shrubs and the hilltop was accentuated with a three-story wooden structure called the Children’s Pavilion, built in 1890 and demolished in the 1960s.