Park Ave

This lively avenue is lined with specialty shops, small businesses of every description, and local restaurants and cafes that extend onto the sidewalks during the summer months. West of Culver, upscale shoppers love the mod furniture, fine art, designer jewelry, and hand-dipped chocolates. Neighborhood residents enjoy convenient access to daily necessities. Right on the Avenue are banks, salons, a pharmacy, bakeries, florist, bars, coffee shops, a veterinarian, a mailing/copy. Each August the Park Avenue Merchants Association hosts one of the oldest neighborhood festivals in the city, the Park Avenue Summer Art Festival, and each December rings in the holidays with the Park Avenue Holiday Open House.

On the east side of Culver sits the well-known ABC streets neighborhood, named in recognition of its alphabetical collection of names of famous scientists, naturalists and inventors. In orderly fashion, streets commemorate Audubon, Ericsson, Faraday and Girard. The ABC Streets Neighborhood Association publicizes events and shares information among neighbors both social and practical, including a “Contractors We Like” page. Its many social events include an annual summer picnic, winter holiday party, neighborhood caroling, as well as wine tours and beer tastings. Residents also grow community spirit through communal planting days and events like the “Morrison Park Weed and Feed” where residents met to weed the Park and later share a meal together to celebrate work well done.

All along Park Avenue and down its side streets are handsome homes of all shapes and sizes— single-family houses, beautiful brick apartment buildings, and converted multi-unit dwellings. From sprawling Tudor mansions to modest Princess Anne cottages, from the stately apartments to elaborate Queen Anne homesteads, nearly every block of the neighborhood holds historic treasures.

Both sides of Park Avenue feature pocket parks, graceful flower-filled medians, and spectacular tree-lined streets. While nearby Cobbs Hill offers plentiful green space and picnic grounds beside Lake Riley, the neighborhood takes proud ownership of a small triangular-shaped green space located on the corner of Culver Road and Harvard Street, first listed in the City of Rochester Parks Directory in 1917.

The City’s Francis Parker Elementary School #23 on Barrington Street is an idyllic neighborhood school; eminently walkable, with hardwood floors, high ceilings, and huge windows. Residents can claim the George Eastman Museum, as well as the Rochester Museum and Science Center and Strasenburgh Planetarium, which also houses the Genesee Community Charter School. The area also provides easy access to the Monroe Village and Neighborhood of the Arts business districts, as the many cultural offerings of Center City including the East End.

Resources:

Southeast Neighborhood Service Center

Park Avenue Merchants Association

ABC Streets Neighborhood Association 

Monroe Branch Library

Field Street R-Center

Not finding what you’re looking for? Try the next closest neighborhood, or reach out directly to a REALTOR®.

These organizations have units for rent in this neighborhood:

Rochester Apartment Living