I like these kind of jokes. Plays on words. But in my hometown of Rush, just like everywhere else it seems, the joke is really on all of us. It is completely normal to be scared of change. It is also completely normal to want to save what you have. So the tendency for some is to keep doing the same thing, the same way and invest nothing in anything. The problem comes when people do the same thing the same way over and over and expect different results. This is the clinical definition of insanity.
The Village of Rush now contains two former church buildings that are abandoned. It's just another milestone in the decades long downturn of the town. Once a community was measured by providing care for its people in goods and services and group social activities. It seems that time when this was important has passed. Phones and computers with internet based social media have replaced much of the physical gathering of people. In Rush, as in most other places, the community has suffered because of it. The majority of the population doesn’t participate in the community in the way it once did. It’s somewhat of a “Catch 22”.
No one wants to attend group activities because social media fills the need, so there are no social group activities for people to attend, so they turn to social media.
For years a close-knit in-person community sought better facilities for worshiping, meeting and socializing. Today these things are globally less important, less attended, and fragmented. The cost of maintaining multiple underused public spaces in town is unsustainable unless they are justified by use.
The large and imposing frame of the new church stands like a watchman at the head of the village. The frame is very solid and well put together, and the church will undoubtedly be finished up in good style, throughout. The ceremony of placing the corner-stone took place last week Sunday amid the largest throng of people Rush has lately seen. Bishop McQuaid was present and made a lengthy address congratulating the Catholics upon their foothold in the country. A full brass band was provided to enliven the occasion. --The Echo, Vol 2. No. 17 - July 28, 1881
In 1891 there was a big fire in the town of Rush. There wasn’t a town hall or place to officially keep records back then. Rush was poor and never had a municipal building or a bank. Deeds and other official documents were kept in the “de facto” Rush Town hall which was the Kinsey store.
Kinsey's store building burned along with all the Town's deeds and land records. The Methodist Church was spared, so Kinsey bought the church building and rebuilt his store within it. This gave the store a meeting hall. Here remained the Town offices and the center of social activity until the 1930’s.
In the 1950’s the current property zoning rules for the Town of Rush were created. Previous laws restricted farmers from overtly selling their land for housing development. This change and the installation of a public water district spurred building which increased the population of young new families. By the mid 1950’s the Rush Methodist Church building was inadequate for youth education. The growing population demanded an expansion which was completed in 1959.
By the 1980’s, the Methodist Church really needed a new building. The congregation had a thriving balance between older residents and younger residents, many with children. Land was purchased, funds were raised, and a new Rush United Methodist Church building opened to great fanfare in 1996. It is the modern building in use today. For the first time in its history the church had enough space for its congregation and ministries.
In 1934 the Federal Government under the Civil Works Administration offered to build Rush a new town hall. The cost to the town was only for materials. The people were active in dances and drama and other group gatherings and needed space to meet and perform. The growing school needed additional space for classrooms.
The first floor of the new Town Hall had a gymnasium and stage. In the basement was an open room furnished with a full kitchen. Fire Department trucks were garaged in the building. After its completion in 1936, everyone often attended plays or dances or broke bread together in the Town Hall. As the Methodist Church didn’t have a large meeting space or kitchen, the Rush Town Hall became its annex for large events. This continued until the 1990’s when the Town Hall was remodeled. The Town offices were expanded and now occupy all the former large group meeting spaces that used to be in the building. The Fire Department moved out and the Rush Public Library expanded into its space during the 1970’s. The 1990’s renovation enlarged the library as well.
For over a century there had been a secular community meeting place in Rush where larger groups gathered. For over a century there had been a market. By 2000 there were neither.
The Rush Methodist Church has become the polling place for Rush as the Town Hall no longer has a suitable space for voting. At times the Town annexes the Methodist Church for meetings the way that the church once annexed the Town Hall. In recent years the arrangement hasn’t been nearly as necessary. No one wants to mingle in the ways that they used to after COVID, especially the older people who are more susceptible to disease or are more scared of it.
Rush's insanity is thinking that the downward spiral of the community will somehow reverse when no one is given the opportunity or resources to make the town into something different and better.
Since before the founding of the town in 1818 the economy of Rush was from family farms. Most were in steep decline starting in the 1950’s. Only a few families farm today. There are probably no farm animals in Rush anymore, save for just some chickens and horses.
Local businesses that supported farming slowly faded away. A few survived until the 1980’s when quick trips up the interstate to modern stores in neighboring Henrietta killed all retail businesses in town. There’s still a bar and grill and a pizza place in the hamlet. I don’t think either of their owners make much.
The automobile forever changed Rush from a farm town to a commuter town. Modern automatic cars made commuting easy on the interstate highway system that grew up around Rochester. Educated professionals could live in a Rush home and comfortably drive into the city for work. There they found good paying jobs at offices and factories like Eastman Kodak. The post-war period was good for the country and the residents of Rush.
The 1970 formation of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation created a confrontation between the wasteful practices of the Town and new regulations. For years the hamlet of East Rush dumped raw sewage into the Honeoye Creek that ran through town. A proposed solution for abatement was a sewer system to be 75% paid for by the Federal Government. In 1976 residents rejected the proposal.
Property owners since 1950 have built predominantly 2,000 square foot homes on two or more acres of land. An increase in building occurred in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
Most of the desirable land north of the Honeoye Creek has been built on. This is where the water district is most prominent. There is an active group trying to preserve the remaining farmland. In the area to the south of the creek the soil is rockier and is not suitable for septic systems. People with well water have had trouble in the past few years. The town does not have the will or resources to expand the water district.
For more than 50 years the town has been completely averse to any development other than single-family houses. Half the population of town is predominantly older and favors no change and no investment that would increase taxes. The younger half of the population who favors some change is too consumed with family life. They are involved with other things than town politics or planning. The recently completed Town of Rush Comprehensive Plan is less of a blueprint for the future than it is an affirmation of the aversion to change.
Maybe this time the residents of my tiny home town will make small steps to slow the continued downward spiral of their community? Or maybe it doesn't matter any more because there isn't a reason for Rush to be a community like in the past. Maybe the closing and abandonment of the two churches in the center of Rush are just another milestone along it's road of decline.
It's up to its residents to decide.