Nathaniel Rochester statue defaced 

The statue of a pensive Nathaniel Rochester in Nathaniel Square Park in the South Wedge has been defaced.

His hands have been painted blood red, “SHAME” is stenciled across his forehead, and his back has been tagged with “WHITE SUPREMACY.”

That Rochester, a major in a Revolutionary War militia and the founder of the settlement that became Rochester, was a slave owner and trader has been well documented. 

The statue, by the renowned sculptor Pepsy Kettavong, is called “Reflecting,” and has Rochester sitting, with his chin resting on hands clasped around the nub of a walking stick. His top hat, which is now spray-painted with “JERK,” sits nearby.

Kettavong, who sculpted the piece in 2007, said in an interview Friday with CITY that he was aware of Rochester’s history in the slave trade when he created the work, and that he took pains to avoid glorifying him.


Unlike many monuments to historic figures, Rochester is not on a pedestal, but rather at ground-level and sitting.


Of the defacement, Kettavong said:  “I felt that it was short sighted.”
The vandalism appears to have occurred in the last day or two, in the midst of nationwide unrest over racial injustice and on the eve of Juneteenth, the commemoration of black slaves in Texas learning that they had been freed.

Asked about the vandalism Friday at a morning news conference, Mayor Lovely Warren said she understood Rochester's historical significance as the founder of what was in his day known as Rochesterville.

"It is also my understanding that he was a slave owner," Warren said. "That's something we have to talk about as a community and what would be the best way to deal with those figures."

To that end, the mayor added, the new Commission on Racial and Structural Equity that she and Monroe County Executive Adam Bello announced a day earlier could facilitate those conversations. 

Includes reporting from James Brown of WXXI News, a media partner of CITY.

David Andreatta is CITY's editor. Rebecca Rafferty is CITY's arts & entertainment editor. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].