Clarissa Street

Clarissa Street was a street in the Third Ward of Rochester, New York that, during the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries, had many African-American-owned businesses, clubs, venues, churches and bars.^[1] Among these was the Pythodd Room, a jazz club that hosted local performers and nationally known musicians.^[2] Because segregation barred them from most white-owned venues, black residents and visitors attended and performed at those on Clarissa Street instead, giving the street a vivid nightlife.^[3] The Interstate 490's construction in the 1970s displaced many of the street's residents and caused its culture to decline; now it is "an ordinary neighborhood and common commute".^[3]

Blues musician Son House lived at nearby Greig Street and Clarissa Street.^[4]