Driving Park (Rochester, New York)

This article is about the former harness track in Rochester, New York. For other places named "Driving Park", see Driving Park (disambiguation).
Driving Park grounds in 1888

Driving Park was a harness racing track in Rochester, New York which operated between 1874 and 1902.[1]

The track was an irregular oval with a distance of one mile, and was described as "the fastest mile track in the United States."[2] It was located on the north-west corner of Driving Park Avenue and Dewey Avenue, then called The Boulevard, in Rochester.

From 1875 to 1895 the track hosted a leg of the Grand Circuit.[3] For a time it was "the most famous racetrack in the world," but began to decline in the 1890s with the introduction of anti-gambling laws. In 1899 two of the three grandstands were destroyed in a fire, and the park was finally sold at auction in 1902.[2]

Today the former location of the park is a residential area.

  1. ^ "Rochester Driving Park". Democrat and Chronicle. 3 Aug 1874.
  2. ^ a b "Gypsies, Trotters and Races: the Rise and Fall of the Rochester Driving Park". ROCHESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY/LOCAL HISTORY & GENEALOGY DIVISION. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
  3. ^ Harris, Charles T. "The Grand Circuit In the High Wheel Era". mi-harness.net. THE HORSE REVIEW. Retrieved July 2, 2020.