For two years, from September 1991 through August 1993, I lived in and documented Harper Park, a community of 402 mobile homes just outside Rochester, New York. The Park has been in existence since 1939, when it contained seven trailers. Most of the original occupants were workers at the Maplewood Inn, an upscale local tavern and restaurant. Ralph Harper, a chicken farmer, acquired the property and trailer park in 1954 from the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Guccimo.

The property became available when Mrs. Guccimo shot and wounded their minister, who was at the Guccimo's house to resolve a domestic dispute. Mrs. Guccimo then shot and killed Mr. Guccimo, then killed herself with the same gun. The minister was saved when the bullet intended for him ricocheted off a pen in his breast pocket. The Harper family has operated the Park ever since.

I moved into the community to photograph the people and the landscape while teaching photography at Rochester Institute of Technology.


Mark Haven
Harper Park, Rochester, New York
May 1996

             



Photo © 1996 Mark Haven

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