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It's time again to test your Rochester knowledge

Jim Memmott
Jim Memmott is once again ready to test your knowledge about Rochester.

So you think you can relax because it's summer. No way. Here's another Remarkable Rochester Random Facts memory-lane quiz drawing on info from previous columns.

As always, if you get eight or better on the quiz, treat yourself to an Abbott's custard. If you score less, ease your pain by having an Abbott's custard.

Questions first, then the answers

1. Some of the rioting that broke out here 50 years ago took place in what was then the Third Ward. That area is now known as: a) Bull's Head; b) Corn Hill; c) Swillburg?

Kim Batten

2. Hiram Sibley of Rochester was the first president of: a) Sibley's department store; b) The University of Rochester; c) The Western Union Telegraph Co.?

3. Curt Gerling's 1957 book on Rochester was titled: a) Smirktown; b) It Ain't Irondequoit; c) Smugtown?

4. Bridgehead, a secret Cold War project at Eastman Kodak Co., created film that could be used to a) spy on Russia; b) photograph bridges; c) disappear if captured by the enemy?

5. Rochester women first voted in a) 1917; b) 1918; c) 1920?

Mitch Miller

6. Mr. Necktie was a) the winner of an annual Fashion Week contest; b) a clown popular here in the 1960s; c) a five-story painting on a building in downtown Rochester?

7. Olympian Kim Batten and musician Mitch Miller graduated from a) School of the Arts; b) Greece Athena High School; c) East High School?

8. The Eastman Kodak Co. once used a calendar that had a) 13 months; b) eight-day weeks; c) pictures of George Eastman hunting big game?

Fee Brothers is known for its line of drink mixes and syrups, but it has another claim to fame with a celebrity who is a descendant of the company’s founders.

9. One of the descendants of the founders of Fee Brothers Inc., longtime Rochester makers of drink mixes and syrups, is: a) Jon Stewart; b) Stephen Colbert; c) Ellen Degeneres?

10. The Brighton Cemetery is in: a) Brighton; b) Penfield; c) Rochester?

Do you know where Brighton Cemetery is located?

Answer key

1. B: In 1964, the area now known was Corn Hill was then the city's Third Ward. The city ward system of government ended in 1967 when the Monroe County Legislature was created and the county, including the city, was broken up into legislative districts to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court's one-man, one-vote ruling.

2. C: Hiram Sibley, a Massachusetts native who settled in Rochester, became wealthy as the first president of the Western Union Telegraph Co.

3 C: Journalist Curt Gerling created a mild sensation with Smugtown, a book that criticized newcomers to Rochester who put on airs.

4. A: Bridgehead was a clandestine Kodak project conducted for the U.S. government from the 1950s to the late 1990s. It created film carried on planes and satellites that spied on Russia and other countries. It also developed the film here in Rochester. For years, workers had to keep their participation secret.

5. B: Women in Rochester first voted in 1918 because the New York state government had enfranchised them before the passage of the 1920 amendment to the U.S. Constitution that gave the vote to women.

6. C: The Superba Cravats Inc., a Rochester company for years until early in the 1970s, had a painting of Mr. Necktie on its Andrews Street building downtown. From time to time, it changed the necktie to feature a new style.

7. C: Both Kim Batten (class of 1987) and Mitch Miller (class of 1928) graduated from East High School.

8. A: From 1928 through 1989, Kodak operated on a calendar that had 13 months of 28 days generally with an extra day at the end of the year. George Eastman found the calendar to be much more predictable than the Gregorian calendar that is in general use.

9. B: Stephen Colbert is a descendant of one branch of the Fee family.

10. C: Because of annexation by the city in 1905, the Brighton Cemetery on Hoyt Place off South Winton Road is in Rochester.

On Remarkable Rochester


Remarkable Rochesterians

Democrat and Chronicle staffer Bill Alden suggested that the name of this playwright, whose The Philadelphia Story is now on at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the Lake, be added to the list of Remarkable Rochesterians.

Philip Barry

Philip Barry (1896-1949): His writing career was launched at the age of 9 in his hometown when he had a story published in a Rochester newspaper. He went on to graduate from Yale University, deciding not to help run the family marble-and-tile business but rather to make his living as a playwright. He was the author of more than 20 plays, many of them comedies of manners among the upper crust. The most popular was The Philadelphia Story, which debuted on Broadway in 1939 starring his friend Katharine Hepburn, who would also star in the 1940 movie version.