Rochester
Updated July 14, 2024
On Sunday June 23, 2024 there was a Mass in memory of Father Gaetano Tantolo at Saint Padre Pio Chapel. Dozens of VVL descendants from Rochester and Toronto attended. Special guests included Leonard Lippa the mayor of VVL, Vittoria DiPonzio the Deputy Mayor and Antonio Bianchi the Councillor.
The mayor is the gentleman in the blue suit. Vittoria had limited English. Luckily there were many Italian speakers to facilitate communication.
Crucial to any gathering of Italians is the food, especially the desserts.
Rocky’s Restaurant
Rocky’s on Jay Street opened in 1949 originally as a beer garden. Still only open for lunch–better get there early–and Friday evening fishfry. Now the oldest continuing Italian restaurant in Rochester since Romano’s closed.
St. Patrick’s
St. Patrick’s was Rochester’s first Catholic Church, founded more than a decade before the city of Rochester was established. A larger church was built and dedicated as a cathedral in 1870. Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Rochester in 1868, with Father Bernard J. McQuaid as its first bishop. The campus included a school and a cathedral hall that was converted to a high school. This school later moved and became Aquinas Institute. By 1937, the diocese decided to sell the cathedral and much of its adjoining property to Kodak. St. Patrick’s remained an important downtown church for decades. Kodak workers worshiped there during their lunch hours. By the 1970s, though, St. Patrick’s days were numbered. It’s closure was announced in 1976. The parish, which had been called “the cradle of Roman Catholicism in western New York,” was dissolved, and the final church was demolished.
St. Patrick’s was the Tomasso family church and school until everyone moved out of the neighborhood.
Holy Family Church and School
Holy Family parish was formed in the Summer of 1864. The church was built in 1868 and closed June 29, 2008
This was the parish for the D’Agostinos and Tomassos of Campbell Park.
Holy Rosary Church and School
Holy Rosary Church, dedicated in 1891, started as an offshoot of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. A second and then third church (1916) were built to deal with the burgeoning membership, with the final version having a distinct look Spanish mission style that was unusual for Rochester. It included a red tile roof, an arcaded pergola and a “rose window.” The complex was listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 2012.
The original small school run by the Sisters of St. Joseph and expanded twice. A huge fire in 1981 heavily damaged the school. The site now includes apartments and single family homes.
Holy Rosary was the parish church and school doe the Tomassos of Kestrel St.
