Hoeltzer Street

Within sight of downtown Rochester, Hoeltzer Street is Flower City Habitat's current challenge. Hoeltzer Street is a one-way street located one block north of Rauber Street and across Joseph Avenue from Cuba Place in the Upper Falls neighborhood.

Flower City Habitat built eight homes on Hoeltzer Street during 1996 and 1997. We returned to build five new houses during 2007.

This dilapidated home on O'Brien Street, one block north of Hoeltzer Street, typifies the abandoned structures that Habitat works to replace with decent, simple and affordable new homes.

One of the eight Habitat homes built on Hoeltzer Street during our 1996-'97 construction season.

We began in April by excavating the first three basements, with excavation services donated by Victor Excavating and Landscape. These three sites used poured concrete foundations -- a first for Habitat homes in Rochester -- saving weeks of back-breaking volunteer labor.

This year's houses used variations on the one-story "workers cottage" design that we piloted last year. A one-story design eliminates a great deal of ladder- and scaffold-work for our volunteers, making the job both safer and faster to complete.

This year's construction on Hoeltzer Street was sponsored by Penfield Churches, Thrivent Builds (Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and local Lutheran Churches), M&T Bank, RBC Dain Rauscher, Rochester Community Baseball (Redwings) and others.