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In contrast to its sprawling suburbs, downtown ROCHESTER is a salubrious place, with its central office-block area bordered by well-heeled mansions on spacious boulevards. High-tech companies such as Bausch & Lomb and Xerox have brought capital to the city, but by far the most conspicuous names on view are those of Kodak and its founder, George Eastman. Legacies throughout the metropolitan area include Kodak Park, the Eastman Theater, and above all the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, two miles from downtown at 900 East Ave (Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat 10am-5pm, Thurs 10am-8pm, Sun 1-5pm; $6.50; tel 716/271-3361). In the modern annex at the rear, a first-rate exhibition of photographic history ranges from high-quality Civil War prints to modern experimental works, plus a space which houses temporary exhibitions, as well as an arthouse cinema. The house itself, fussily restored to its early twentieth-century glory, is mildly interesting; upstairs there's the fun, hands-on Discovery Room plus an informative exhibition on Eastman's. Fittingly, given Eastman's passion for horticulture, the gardens have been superbly maintained and are worth a visit in themselves.
An obsessive collector of anything and everything, local bigwig Margaret Woodbury Strong (1897-1969) bequeathed her estate to the city as the Strong Museum on Manhattan Square (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12-5pm; $6). Half devoted to a history of the American family, half obsessed with a history of American consumer culture, it's recently been radically updated to feature interactive exhibits such as a history of Barbie and Sesame Street . Pop culture addicts will enjoy its kitsch sensibility, which includes a fully working 1920s carousel and a 1950s diner shipped here wholesale from its original site in Pennsylvania. The theme of celebrating former Rochester denizens continues at the Susan B. Anthony House at 17 Madison St, where this groundbreaking suffragist lived from 1866-1906 (June-Aug Wed-Sun 11am-4pm; $6; tel 716/235-6124).
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