Midtown Memories
By: Dave McKinley
Updated: October 16, 2007
Okay, okay,...it should be stated for the record that Rochester's MidTown Plaza was NOT the first indoor mall in the United States. It is a myth promulgated by some media even to this day. (except for WROC TV"s News 8 Now which debunked this oft repeated but hardly accurate assertion in a story aired in November of 2006)
Still Midtown has its place in local lore at least, for generations of people whose earliest memories of Christmas shopping are of going downtown to ride the monorail and gaze at the giant Christmas tree.
It's those memories which came flooding back today for many, when they heard the news that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is willing to pledge millions of taxpayer dollars for demolition of the mall so that PAETEC Inc. can build a new world headquarters on the site.
While Midtown is far from the bustling retail center it once was, news of its impending demise caught many by surprise and caused more than a few to wax nostalgic.
Click on the video icon to watch our entire story and see vintage film footage of MidTown from "back in the day", exclusively through the archives of Rochester's first TV station.
