History of Irondequoit Bay

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"I would not take it as a gift for it is worth nothing. It is full of wolves, panthers and other

inhospitable inhabitants"  James Wadsworth (1795) who explored the woods of Irondequoit Bay

with the view of purchasing a large amount of land for speculation.

Before white settlers arrived in the area, the slopes and uplands of Irondequoit
Bay were highly favored as hunting and camping grounds by the Seneca Indians,
and the Bay waters provided them with an abundance of fish. The first white
contact with the Bay was recorded in 1610. In 1669, the French explorer
Chevalier LaSalle, on route to explorations of the Mississippi River, entered the
Bay with a fleet of nine canoes. In 1687, during the French and Indian Wars, the Marquis de Denonville entered the Bay with a much larger fleet in his campaign against the Seneca Nation. His actions helped to strengthen the friendship between the Seneca’s and the English, however, leading ultimately to the demise of French influence in the area. The French destroyed many Seneca villages and left for Canada, returning thirty years later to set up a trading  post near the opening to the Bay. The English too set up a post at the Bay, in 1717, calling it Fort Schuyler. The trading post operated for one year and then was abandoned because of the high expense of its maintenance. The English returned to the Bay during the French and Indian War in 1759, but it was not until the American Revolution that any permanent settlements were established.

During the revolution, white settlers began to arrive from New England and eastern New York and settled on lands that were part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of 1788. The purchase consisted of 2.6 million acres of land from the
Pennsylvania border to Lake Ontario, with Seneca Lake as the eastern boundary
and the Genesee River as the western boundary. In 1796 settlers founded the
Town of Northfield, now the present towns of Webster, Irondequoit, Brighton,
Pittsford, Perinton, Penfield and Henrietta.

Original white settlement along Irondequoit Bay was concentrated at the
southern end at Indian Landing, in large part because Irondequoit Creek was
already a mill and transportation site. The Genesee River, with its steep falls,
was virtually impossible to navigate. Early Northfield entrepreneurs established
the Town of Tryon at the landing in 1805. They set up commercial enterprises
and enticed new settlers to the area. Commercial vessels sailed into the Bay
and traded at Tryon, which was expected to be the metropolis of the area. The
building of the Erie Canal, however, provided a more reliable water route to the Great Lakes and Tryon gradually diminished in importance. Today it is almost obliterated, with only a few houses and paths to recall its former promise.
As Rochester began to grow, so too did Monroe County. The Town of Irondequoit was founded in 1839 from land divided from Brighton, and Webster was founded in 1840 from land that was once part of Penfield. These towns were based on a primarily agrarian economy. Farmers settled south of Lake
Ontario and concentrated on growing fruits and vegetables. Extensive mill development occurred along Irondequoit Creek in Penfield, in the present-day area of Linear Park. The area was opened up for further development in the 1870’s with the introduction of railroad lines, including a line across the LakeOntario outlet.

In the final decades of the 19th century, many technological and laborsaving developments helped to make leisure time available to a larger segment of the population. Recreational activities, once thought of as frivolous, now had a place in the lives of the middle class. Resorts and parks were developed, offering an escape from the everyday routine of work. The local result was an enthusiastic interest in lakeside and bayside recreation and resorts. Hotels began appearing
along the shores of Lake Ontario and Irondequoit Bay. As the lakeside became known as an attractive vacation spot, subdivisions were created and seasonal cottages were built, with the greatest construction occurring in the 1920’s.
After the Depression of the 1930’s, development around the Bay did not boom again until the Bay was fully opened to Lake Ontario by the USACE in the mid-1980’s. Unrestricted boat travel between the Lake and the Bay created a
renewed interest in living around the Bay and a renewed impetus for shoreline development.

The previous historical information was taken largely from Cultural Resources Survey of
Irondequoit Bay Outlet Crossing, by J.B. Higgins and Associates, with Bero
Associates, Architects and the Rochester Museum and Science Center (1990)

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