A Future of Hope
David Pacific
By Dr. Linda L. Day
Our family moved to 19 Loomis Street on Rochester’s Northeast side in 1951 when I was 8 years old. Loomis is a dogleg street that runs north from Clifford Avenue, one block east of Joseph Avenue, and then makes a 90 degree turn to the west and forms a T with Joseph. Houses on the west side of Loomis backed up to the rear of the Joseph Avenue lots. B’nai Israel synagogue at 692 Joseph Avenue is on a lot that extends through to Loomis. It was an open and green play space for neighborhood kids. To my delight, I could see and distract my schoolmate Sandy through a window while he was in Hebrew School.
Sandy and the other Jewish kids that I knew were second and third-generation Americans; their families stayed in this immigrant neighborhood to be able to walk to the synagogue. They sent their kids to Number 22 school, perhaps because they believed in public school education. Sandy told me that his grandfather had operated a junkyard and how proud he was of his family’s hard work. Another school friend who lived in a duplex on Wilkins Street showed me the tailor shop in the attic where her grandfather once had his business. These kids had pride in humble origins and were not biased toward others whose families had not accomplished the security they enjoyed. I was not made aware of our differences in social class and religion. With my classmates, I never felt that I was “less than” because my mom supported us with a factory job.
I’m a retired professor; my degrees are in architecture and urban public policy. I discovered the Joseph Avenue Arts and Culture Alliance when researching worker housing, such as our 1895 cottage built by a German immigrant laborer. The research brought back memories of the friends who made a difference in my life prospects by example, and it brought the Joseph Avenue Arts and Culture Alliance to my attention. The Joseph Avenue Arts and Culture Alliance gives me hope that my old neighborhood can be an affirming part of the history of today’s neighborhood kids as it was for me.