Union League Club
The Rose Room began its history sometime after 1910, on the site of an unknown prior building. Originally built as a Union League Hall, where social events, dances, and meetings were held for the community and club members. The hall first appears in official records as a sale to the Union League Club of Rochester in 1921, though there is newspaper evidence of dances as early as 1916.
Shown here is the first appearance of the Union League Club in a plat map dated 1918.
1910 - Plat Map
This map dated 1910 shows an unknown building where the Rose Room now stands, and another in what is now the parking lot alongside.
1916 -The Lost Purse
A lost-and-found post in the Democrat & Chronicle makes plain that dances were held at the Union League Hall at least as early as May 6th 1916, and were presumably open to the public. Oh to hear what music played there! Wonder if those tickets every found their way back to their owners.
1940 Orient Lodge Dance
This announcement from the April 19th, 1940 Rochester Times Union mentions a dance hosted by the Orient Lodge at the Union League Hall, including “Old and new dances” to be featured.
1941 Street Photo
This photo from the Rochester Municipal Archives, shows the Union League Hall in basically the form it remains, with the large entry stair and smaller entrance to the lower level flanking. The small building to the north (left of the Rose Room) is no longer standing, nor is the small shop attached to the storefronts to the south (right), which remain.
1947 Photos- The Balconettes
These photos from a Bausch & Lomb Balco Revue Program, as captioned in “A Photographic History of Bausch & Lomb” By Donovan A. Shilling, show members of the 30 person dance-line which may have rehearsed and learned at the Union League Club through Alvera Sarson’s dance school.
1947 Article - The Balco Revue Rehearsal
This page from the December 1st 1947 Rochester Times-Union paper shows some more of this 40’s era chorus line The Balconettes and other acts. While this was rehearsed and performed elsewhere, we retain it here through it’s connection again to the Sarson Dance School which resided in the Union League Club at one time. Jazz and chorus line was taught in this space before, and is once again!
It’s important to point out the problematic inclusion of minstrelry in the show, and express our condemnation. Minstrelry was a performance form that often included white performers imitating and mocking Black music, dialect, and dance, and is as unacceptable now as it should have been then.
1948 Show Announcement
This newspaper posting from February 3rd 1948 promotes the opening of a show, likely also a minstrel show, performed at 295 Gregory St. It’s notable that the building was no longer referred to as the Union League Club, though we can’t confirm when that closed yet.
1967 Printing Business Announcement
This posting in the May 9th 1967 Daily Record paper lists the opening of Wade Muncil Printing Service, located in what is now the Rose Room’s lower level. An older electrical panel in the building discovered during the 2019 remodeling listed numerous printing presses, linotype machines, pumps, and other associated equipment, long since removed.
1967 - Alvera Sanson Dance Studio Ad
Our first concrete evidence of dance having been taught in the Rose Room, by the same choreographer who much earlier worked with that Balco Revue and other shows. We can’t confirm that Ms. Sarson taught in the Rose Room prior to this posting, but like to think the space has a long history of dance instruction alongside it’s history as a place for events and social dance.
1980’s - Emmanuel Church Of Jesus
The precise timeline is not yet known to us, but sometime after it’s founding in 1972, the Rochester Emmanuel Church of Jesus took over 295 Gregory St and used it as a church and meeting place up until it’s sale in 2019 less than a year after Pastor Coker’s death.
2019 - Groove Juice Swing Remodel
The building was purchased in 2019 by a South Wedge property group and leased to Groove Juice Swing, LLC for use as a dance hall and studio. Renovations began in earnest before the pandemic in 2020 with restoration of the dance floors, repainting, and numerous other updates.
2023 - Grand Opening of The Rose Room
After surviving the COVID-19 Pandemic, Groove Juice Swing reopened The Rose Room on July 22nd, 2023 with a live band dance featuring the Gordon Webster Band playing swinging jazz music once more in this historic location in the South Wedge!