This 1928 photo from the Democrat and Chronicle was taken from Cobb’s Hill, looking west toward Pinnacle Hill.
Note the campus of what was then called the Hillside Children’s Home, now Hillside Children’s Center, part of the Hillside Family of Agencies, nestled on the side of Pinnacle Hill.
Pinnacle Hill is the largest of a four-mile-long chain of small hills and egg-shaped bumps extending from the University of Rochester and Mt. Hope Cemetery through Highland Park, Pinnacle Hill and Cobb’s Hill to Winton Avenue.
This chain was formed by glacial deposits during the last part of the Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago. And it has had a profound impact on Rochester’s history.
For example, when the Erie Canal was built, it took a roundabout, L-shaped route, north out of Pittsford, before turning west to enter Rochester; this was to avoid the prohibitive cost of trying to cut through the Pinnacle Range or build over the top of it.
When the Erie Canal was abandoned in the early 1920s, its unused bed became the logical place to build Rochester’s subway, which lasted until the mid 1950s. And when the subway was abandoned, the eastern portion became the logical place to build the expressway we know now as I-490 to connect downtown with the Thruway.
All because of a big pile of debris left by a glacier!