When Rochester experienced the explosive growth generated by the Erie Canal, what began as a pioneer neighborhood of cabins quickly became an impressive ward of mansions for the city's social hierarchy. Today's generation knows it as Corn Hill, but it is actually the old Third Ward, an extraordinary neighborhood that rivaled Charleston, Savannah, and Natchez in elegance and importance. Rochester's Corn Hill: The Historic Third Ward offers the first comprehensive pictorial history of this ruffled-shirt district from its humble beginnings, to its Victorian peak, through its eventual decline and subsequent rehabilitation into a landmark ward.