Best Web Design in Rochester, NY (2026)

Web Design for Rochester, New York

Rochester sits on the Genesee River, which unusually flows north and drops over three waterfalls inside the city on its way to Lake Ontario. It was America's first boomtown, milling so much wheat it became the 'Flour City,' then reinvented itself as the nursery-rich 'Flower City.' Home to Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb, and the adopted city of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, it also gave the world the Garbage Plate and a near-religious devotion to Wegmans.

AppWT works with Rochester, NY businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Rochester

Also known as. Flower City. Flour City. The Young Lion of the West. World's Image Center.

History. Completion of the Erie Canal aqueduct over the Genesee River in 1823 connected the village to the Hudson and turned it into America's first boomtown. By 1838 Rochester was the largest flour-producing city in the United States, earning the nickname 'the Flour City.' As wheat milling moved west, the Ellwanger and Barry nursery business (begun 1839) grew to control over 500 acres and made Mount Hope the world's largest nursery by 1888, birthing the 'Flower City' name. Frederick Douglass lived in Rochester from 1847 to 1872, publishing his North Star newspaper, sheltering freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad, and allying with suffragist Susan B. Anthony. George Eastman founded Kodak here and endowed the Eastman School of Music, cementing Rochester as a global center of imaging and photography.

Local economy. Birthplace and/or home of Eastman Kodak, Xerox, Bausch & Lomb, Wegmans, Constellation Brands, Gannett, Paychex, Western Union, and Ray-Ban. The imaging and optics legacy made the region a global center for science, technology, and research and development. After late-20th-century deindustrialization, the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) became increasingly central economic drivers. The Eastman School of Music ranks among the top music schools in the United States.

Culture and community. The Garbage Plate, invented and trademarked at Nick Tahou Hots: a heap of home fries, french fries, macaroni salad, and baked beans topped with meats and sauces. White hots, a regional pale hot dog most associated with local company Zweigle's. Deep local loyalty to Wegmans, the grocery chain founded in Rochester, whose Pittsford flagship spans about 130,000 square feet. The Rochester International Jazz Festival, established in 2002, one of the largest jazz festivals in the U.S., drawing over 200,000 visitors. The Lilac Festival in Highland Park, billed as the largest free festival of its kind in North America, running about 10 days each May.

What makes Rochester distinct. The Genesee River flows north through the city and drops over three waterfalls within Rochester's limits. From 1927 to 1956, Rochester was the smallest city in America with a subway, built in the abandoned bed of the old Erie Canal. It is called the birthplace of amateur photography (Kodak) and of the copy machine (Xerox). The city carries two rhyming nicknames, the Flour City and the Flower City, reflecting back-to-back industrial eras. The Garbage Plate name is legally trademarked by Nick Tahou Hots, so imitators must call theirs something else.

Rochester Landmarks and Local Life

• High Falls - a roughly 96-foot waterfall in the historic Brown's Race district, viewable from the Genesee Brewery
• The Middle and Lower Falls of the Genesee - downstream from High Falls
• Susan B. Anthony Square with the 'Let's Have Tea' sculpture depicting Anthony and Frederick Douglass.
• Highland Park - the Frederick Law Olmsted-influenced park that hosts the Lilac Festival
• The Eastman School of Music - founded and funded by George Eastman