The Third Ward

One of Rochester’s oldest neighborhoods, the Third Ward, was also considered the city’s wealthiest. Because of the ward’s elite residents, it was dubbed “the ruffled shirt district.” Sprawling mansions and painted Victorian homes lined the neighborhood’s leafy streets. Working-class African Americans and Italian and Irish immigrants lived near the outskirts of the neighborhood on Calendonia, now known as Clarissa Street, and created the foundations of what would be a vibrant community.

Economic Changes

A boom in Kodak’s success created new, more fashionable neighborhoods for the wealthy and well-off to move to. Redlining and real-estate discrimination made the Third and Seventh Ward neighborhoods some of the few places African Americans could find housing in Rochester. This is where the Pythodd’s story begins: the building on 159 Troup Street was used as a meeting place for the local branches of two benevolent and community-centered societies, The Knights of Pythias and The Odd Fellows. In these early years the building was known as Pythodd Hall (a combination of the two organization's names). The building also hosted many community events and functioned as something of a town hall.

The Hall Opens to the Public

In 1942, Knights of Pythias chairman Walter Durham opened the meeting hall to the public as a social club and bar. The hall became a popular spot to socialize and increased in fame as a great place for a night out.

Pythodd as a Jazz Venue

Around 1953, the hall changed ownership and was solidified as a music venue. As a jazz venue, the Pythodd’s reputation grew, and in the 1950s, under the ownership of Stewart Hendricks, Roy King, and Billy Tazzel, the club began hosting big-name musicians.

The Best and the Worst of Times

Stanley Thomas Jr and Charlie Burgess took it over in 1965, making The Pythodd one of the best places to go for a night out. Great bands put the audience in a “mellow mood,” making life, at least for a few hours, “the way it should be.”
However, life was not mellow in the 1960s. Rochester’s July 1964 uprising jarred the Third Ward. In the aftermath, the City of Rochester implemented urban renewal plans that demolished large parts of the neighborhood. The construction of interstate 490 also displaced community members and destroyed many small businesses. Economic decline temporarily closed the jazz club for two years from ‘66 to ‘68.

The Decline of the Pythodd

It reopened for another five years, but continued urban renewal disruption and shifts in cultural tastes away from jazz eventually shuttered The Pythodd in 1973. The storied old building was leveled and today a parking lot occupies the corner of Troup and Clarissa where the beloved club once stood.