To Dust At Dawn
The Implosion of the Hotel Rochester, Saturday, December 18, 1999
![Hotel Rochester intact pre-implosion](intact.jpg)
The Hotel Rochester as it stood seconds before the implosion at 8:00 AM.
![Building begins to implode](going.jpg)
The beginning of the end, as the second wave of blasts go off.
![Cloud of dust and debris](gone.jpg)
By mid-collapse, the remains of the hotel are already beginning to be obscured by dust and debris...
![Bigger cloud of dust](kaboom.jpg)
... which billow forth in all directions throughout downtown Rochester...
![Air uniformly thick with dust](dust.jpg)
... until the whole area is shrouded in a thick blanket of dust.
![Long shot of implosion site](rubble.jpg)
Later that afternoon, once the dust had settled and the streets were made passable, I took these pictures of the remains of the hotel. This one from approximately the same vantage point as the previous series...
![Closer shot of implosion site](closeup.jpg)
...and this one a little closer to the site. Road Scholars take note of the bright orange sign assembly in the middle.
![Inner Loop sign assembly](iloop.jpg)
Here's a closer view. Of course, it's our favorite little vest-pocket expressway, the Inner Loop. Plymouth Avenue (the street in the pictures above) parallels a good chunk of the I-490 part of the Inner Loop, and thus is often used as a detour route.
![St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene Church and pioneer School](historic.jpg)
To the great relief of all concerned, the nearby historic buildings, St. Luke and St. Simon Cyrene Church and (behind it in this picture) the Pioneer School, came through apparently unscathed.