West Genesee. If you want to see even more elms and elms streets: try Search Shorpy for "Elms". You will even find a Chestnut Street with elms. As a Dutchman I am quite embarassed that the vast majority of elms, all over the world, has been wiped out by ... the Dutch elm disease. Although I was happy to read that the name stems, not from the country where to the disease was native, but from the country where it has been indentified. Nevertheless, the introduction in the U.S. seems to have had its source with the beetles believed to have arrived in a shipment of logs from ... The Netherlands, destined for use as veneer in the Ohio furniture industry. Nowadays two cities in The Netherlands have again vast amounts of elms. In 2005, Amsterdam was declared the "Elm City of Europe": the city’s streets and canals are lined with at least 75,000 elms.

I believe this idyllic stretch of street is unrecognizable today. I cannot identify what was once called Upper Genesee, so that is of limited help. The only house you can see any appreciable part of is at far right, on a corner. I could not find that house, but I found this one. It is very similar to the house in the c1905 photo, if you compare the size of the front yard, porch style, arched panels over the windows, and the brick and brick quoins. I'm guessing this surviving house was somewhere in the neighborhood.

... but looking at that scene in 1905 I think that, in some ways, it has all gone downhill since.

Look how huge the roads are. 2 or 3 times the width of today's roads.

[This street is paved. - Dave]

There is a partial number on the mailbox on the right of the photo, 10? Going by its position it could be an early number in the one hundreds and it might be possible to ascertain the location as the house appears to be on the corner of road T functioning with Genesee. I leave it to Shorpy's band of detectives to follow the clues further.

[That's a public letter box. No "10." - Dave]

Elms, hitching posts and streetcars.

I wish we could see house numbers, most of these stately homes still exist, although many have been converted to offices and apartments. The elms in some places made a complete canopy over the street. It's unfortunate that Utica and a lot of other cities lost those beautiful trees.