Rochester to change name of downtown park, shed 'undeserved and racist histories'

As Charles Carroll Park gets a new look as part of the planned overhaul at the waterfront, it will also get a new identity — one the mayor says is more fitting of the city and its diverse history.

Mayor Malik D. Evans announced Wednesday night during the "state of the city" address that officials would rename the park, a move first endorsed in 2021 by a City Council vote.

"We’re shedding old, antiquated, and in this case, undeserved and racist histories," he said. "Charles Carroll was not a Rochesterian, and is not a figure we choose to continue to commemorate."

Evans said the downtown park along the Genesee River will be changed to Austin Steward Plaza, who he identified as the city's first prominent Black business owner.

"An entrepreneur who not only gained freedom from slavery, but opened a successful business, operated the first school for Black children in Rochester, and wrote his memoir, Twenty-two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman," the mayor said. "That’s the history we need to celebrate. That’s the mindset we want to lift up and let it serve as inspiration."

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Who is Charles Carroll?

Charles Carroll was born into one of the wealthies families in America in 1767. The Maryland family owned over 1,000 people in slavery, derviving much of their money and influence from the work of these indivduals, according to historical research.

He was one of three men who would be credited with founding what would become Rochester with their land purchase in the Genesee Valley. The men, all from Maryland, were said to have brought slaves with them to New York when they settled here.

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Who is Austin Steward?

Steward was born in 1793 in Virginia, where he began his life in slavery and first came to New York as an enslaved person. As a free man, he would come to Rochester where he opened a general store, which would be the first Black-owned business in the city. Here he would also become an antislavery activist. It's been reported he also "briefly conducted the first school for Black children." His memoir was first published in 1861.

What is the plan for the park in Rochester's downtown?

The upgrades to the park are underway and part of the multiyear, multiphase Roc the Riverway revitalization project. The plan envisions a better connected riverfront by renovating and reimagining the 3.4 acres and improving access to downtown.

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The plaza reconstruction aims to maximize river views, improve walkability and safety and highlight recreation and open space and public art, according to the city.