A detailed account of the local remains of each of Rochester's twenty or thirty nurseries would he lengthy indeed, but it is worth recalling a few of them. When driving out between the giant elms of East Avenue one should not forget that the Genesee Valley Club House on our right with its spacious grounds is Aaron Erickson's old estate, somewhat reduced in size, where many of the flowers and fruits which took amateur prizes at the horticultural shows of ninety years ago were grown. Incidentally this was approximately the site where the Englishman, Alexander Gordon, started the first nursery on the east side in 1833. A few blocks further on and we note on our right the home of J. J. Bausch standing on a portion of the famous Hooker Nurseries which extended back across Park, Brighton, and Harvard streets, on both sides of Oxford at some points, almost to Monroe Avenue. Indeed it was here that Electus Boardman first planted his tree nursery just a hundred years ago, selling it to Bissell and Hooker a few years later. Almost adjoining this old nursery on the east was James Vick's seed garden, from a portion of which Vick Park A and Vick Park B were subdivided. A block or so beyond, near present Buckingham, stood the main group of greenhouses built by Hooker and sold to William S. Little as the Commercial Nurseries. The grounds extended on both sides of the avenue over a wide acreage, rented in part from Oliver Culver, the pioneer farmer at this point. Almost adjoining this nursery, across the tracks on the left, was a small nursery of John Carlton, facing on University Avenue. Further out East Avenue, where the Auburn branch of the railroad crosses, stood the Monroe County Nurseries whose proprietor gave his name to Gould Street. Still another nursery was located where Clover Street crosses the avenue.
Driving off to either side one can almost encircle the city as it was bounded in the late 1870's without passing out of sight of some former nursery location. Turning right and proceeding along Highland we pass outlying grounds of the Gould nursery on the right, the Hooker nursery on the left, and then the Beckwith nursery which apparently extended on both sides, recalled today by Beckwith Terrace. Once we reach Monroe Avenue we are in the Ellwanger and Barry territory, for their grounds practically lined this avenue as far west as Mount Hope. Their nurseries extended to our north especially along South Avenue between Goodman and Mount Hope; as already noted, Highland Park once comprised a portion of their nursery grounds. Turning left as we approach Mount Hope we come upon Dagg's nursery on the left just before reaching Elmwood. Proceeding west on Elmwood and crossing the river we come upon the site of the extensive Genesee Valley Nurseries of Frost and Company which covered a considerable portion of the area now bounded by Genesee, Brooks, and Thurston Streets and Genesee Park Boulevard. Turning north on Thurston we pass the site of Dr. T. C. White's nursery on our left.
Unless we are willing to note such private gardens as Judge Gardiner's on Gardiner Avenue we must travel northward on Glide Street or Mount Read Boulevard almost to Lexington Avenue before we reach another nursery site. Here, however, was a branch of the Moulson Nurseries, established near the western end of the oldest nursery in the county, that of Asa Rowe. We cannot help but regret as we turn east along Lexington that its name has not remained as originally designated, Rowe Street. If we turn north after reaching Lake Avenue we pass the site of the Hanford's Landing Nursery, where Kodak Park stands today, later acquired by R. J. Donnelly and renamed the Lake Avenue Commercial Nurseries. A mile or so beyond, where Riverside Cemetery is now located, stood the Lake View Nurseries, originally started in 1850 as the Charlotte Plank Road Nurseries.
Slightly to the north and across the river was another late branch of the Moulson Nurseries. As we journey south on St. Paul we pass the site of the nursery of C. P. Reynolds on our left near Norton Street. Further ahead to the right is the site of Hooker's Genesee Falls Nursery which once provided a fine view of the middle falls. If we turn east on Norton Street we soon pass the site of the original unit of the Moulson Nurseries on our right facing the ball park; today a short one-block street bearing the name of the original proprietor helps to preserve the memory of the Old Rochester Nurseries. Proceeding east on Norton and to the right on Waring we pass the old location of another of W. S. Little's Nurseries. Merchants Road takes us past the location of T. C. Wilson's East Side Nurseries and we find our-self entering the Browncroft district, the city's most recent and most famous nursery subdivision. It is now only a short two miles back to East Avenue, but we must pass yet another nursery Site, that of the East Avenue Nurseries of W. M. Hoyt, before we have completed our extended circuit.
The Brown Brothers Nursery, started in 1885 on a nursery site already partly developed by Stephen M. Corwin, became the leading establishment of its kind in the city by the second decade of the twentieth century. Already the older nurseries had largely subdivided their grounds and contracted even those activities which they had moved to fields more distant from the city. Brown Brothers likewise determined at last to move their nursery further out and to subdivide the old grounds, but in doing so they landscaped their home lots with a generous use of ornamental trees on a scale never before dreamed of, so that Browncroft stands, in somewhat the same sense as Highland Park, a popular monument to the nurseries of Rochester. But while most of the nurserymen turned their attention to real estate, their earlier occupation has not entirely deserted the city. At least seven nursery and seed firms located in Rochester have today extensive acres near the outlying villages of the county, while as late as 1930 the Census enumerated sixty-one local firms engaged in the sale of trees, plants, vines, seeds, and bulbs. But the receipts from such sales, which incidentally were much more inclusive than the items covered by the 1900 Census, were only $349,789. Six of the counties in the state exceeded Monroe's Output in 1930, several of them many times over, among them Monroe's old neighbor, Ontario. The state's nursery production has at the same time fallen to second place, trailing behind California, the new leader.

from:
The Rochester Historical Society Publications XVIII, 1940
Part II - Nurseries, Farm Papers, and Selected Rochester Episodes
Blake McKelvey, Editor