Mrs. Latimer Tourist Home
Photo of the Latimer Funeral Home at 179 Clarissa St. Rochester NY. (date unknown)
Sanborn Map showing 983 S. Plymouth Avenue, Rochester (Vol.4, 1912, Section 425, Image 56)
Known Name(s)
Mrs. M. E. Latimer () Mrs. Latimer () Mrs. Latimer () Mrs. Latimer Tourist Home ()
Address
191 Clarissa St. Rochester, NY (1939, 1940)179 Clarissa St. Rochester, NY (1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953)176 Clarissa St. Rochester, NY (1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960)983 S. Plymouth Avenue Rochester, NY (1961)
Establishment Type(s)
Tourist Home, Funeral Home
Description
Mrs. Latimer’s tourist home was listed at four different addresses in various editions of the Green Book. The Clarissa Street neighborhood was destroyed during the construction of Interstate 490, between the years 1961 and 1968, and therefore little is known of the buildings at the first three addresses.
A photograph of 179 Clarissa St. and a Sanborn map show a funeral home on the front of the lot. It was housed within a two-story wooden frame building, with cladding designed to look like brick and a non-combustible roof. It had a single-story, covered front porch, facing Clarissa Street. The gable end of the structure faced the street and included a pair of pointed arch windows at the peak. The other front-facing windows were shielded with awnings, as was the porch.
The property had two additional buildings at the rear of the lot. One, on the southeastern side of the property, was a garage constructed of cinder block. This may have served as storage for the hearse shown in the photograph. The second building, to the northwestern side of the property, was a two-story brick dwelling, with windows on the first and second stories, facing the north. It is possible this building severed as the tourist home, as well as the Latimers’ residence.
983 S. Plymouth Ave was built in 1900 as a residential dwelling and is still extant. It is a wood-framed structure, with two and a half floors in the main building, and multiple additions. The building features a front porch with a central entrance. Above the entrance is a shallow bay window on the second floor, and above the bay window a dormer with three windows. The property included two additional structures according to a Sanborn map. One was an “auto. ho.,” which was one and a half stories and of brick construction with some wooden framing. The other was a two-story frame dwelling. As with the previous property, it is likely the garage would have housed the hearse, and the dwelling could have served as both the Latimers’ home and a tourist house.
The addresses along this part of South Plymouth were renumbered between the 1930s and 1960s. 983 S. Plymouth's original address number was 527.
Detailed History
While the Green Book entry focuses on Mrs. Latimer's tourist home, the Latimers' contributions go beyond housing guests. Millard E. Latimer was the first African American graduate of the Syracuse School of Embalming. In 1934, his wife Lydia M. Latimer also became a licensed undertaker. Their first business was located at 179 Clarissa Street. In the late 1950s, Millard filed an appeal with the Zoning Board of Appeals to operate a new funeral home at 983 Plymouth Ave S. In 1963, their business was incorporated and renamed “Millard E. Latimer & Son Funeral Directors Inc.” The Latimer Funeral Home is Rochester’s longest established African American business, operating for 100 years as of 2022. Information about the Latimers also running a tourist home out of any of the four addresses listed in the Green Book has not come to light.
