On-line Walking Tour/ Kodak Office Tower

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The 16-story Kodak Office Tower was built in 1914; three more floors, roof and cupola were added in 1930. Today, Kodak Office Tower is encased in additions, with numerous other Kodak facilities located throughout Rochester.

Kodak Office Tower is located in what originally was Frankfort, a 200-acre tract laid out in 1812 by Matthew and Francis Brown. In 1815-16 they created the area's first power canal, Browns Race. In 1817 the newly incorporated Village of Rochesterville was founded by combining Frankfort and Colonel Rochester's adjacent 100 acre tract. Francis Brown became first president of the Village Board, while Matthew Brown, in 1821, became the first chairman of the Board of Supervisors of the newly formed Monroe County.

Kodak founder, George Eastman, was a bank clerk and amateur photographer when he set up a home workshop to manufacture a practical dry plate ready to sell to photographers. His original factory was farther south on State Street; he moved to this location in 1882. Eastman's Dry Plate and Film Company, which operated here in a four-story building, was organized in 1884.