Plymouth Photo Studio

Main Street in Rochester, historically was always quite busy, the buildings were constructed with merchants on the first floor, lawyers, accountants, doctors and dentist, etc... on the second and ballrooms and more on the upper floors. As time progressed and buildings became bigger, it's pretty amazing that all of those office buildings were filled with offices, from 5 to 10 stories high. My great grandfather in law had an office on the 5th and 10 story on West Main street for his mortgage company, which I found a 1907 Farmer's almanac ad for. In between the various single stores were large banks and stores like, Sibley's, B F Forman and more. When Main street was redone , I was hired by the bus company to photograph a here and now sort of display, one of the pictures trying to show former busy Rochester in the early 1900's and what it was now, in the late 80's to 90's. It took quite a few trys, as even though it seemed busy to the average person, present day Rochester, paled in comparision the the throng of people back in the day.

The next step in my career was to buy a photo studio on Main Street in Rochester, New York. I went from photographing products to nearly 100% photographing people. A lot of what the studio did, was passport and greencard photos, both of which had to follow a set of rules in order to be acceptable by the governing body. I had been working construction for the owners of the building that the studio was in, and because they were unwilling to give a long term lease to any buyers, the owner of the Studio, Lester Rappaport was having a hard time selling. John Foster the landlord, knew I was a photographer, and suggested I fix the plaster that had been steamed off the walls by a faulty radiator, and get a close look at what the studio did, and if I was interested he would loan me a portion of the money to buy the studio.
After a week of watching from my perch on a ladder, truly a birds eye look at things, and running the numbers, it seemed that the 5,000 dollars that I borrowed from John, plus a 3,000 dollar loan from my father, could be paid back with existing business that was walking in the door at that time. With a bit of negotiation I was able to talk Mr. Rappaport into a deal of 6500 for lock, stock and barrel, and before my personal deadline of buying a studio by my 30th birthday, I purchased Plymouth Photo Studio on July 1st, 1985, one day before my July 2nd , 30th birthday.
My dream of owning a studio, being a professional photographer, and my own boss, was realized that day, and proved to be a blessing and a robust adventure at 91 Main Street Rochester, NY.