Alexander B. Lamberton

Alexander Byron Lamberton (February 28, 1839 – May 24, 1919) was an American politician, conservationist and lumberman. He served on the park board and as park commissioner in Rochester, New York, from 1894 to 1918. He was known for expanding the parks in Rochester and establishing Durand Eastman Park and Seneca Park Zoo.

Early life Alexander Byron Lamberton was born on February 28, 1839, in Richhill, County Armagh, Ireland, to Ann Jane (née Chambers) and Alexander Lamberton. His parents were of Scotch-Irish ancestry. When he was two years old, he moved with his family to the United States. He studied in common schools in New York. He studied divinity at Auburn Theological Seminary and graduated in 1864. He then graduated from the University of Rochester with a Bachelor of Arts in 1866. He was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

Career Lamberton was ordained a minister in 1869 and served as pastor of the Tompkins Avenue Church in Brooklyn for two years. He left the ministry due to poor health. He then pursued a planing mill and lumber yard at Exchange and Spring streets in Rochester until around 1864. He served as director and the first vice president of the East Side Savings Bank for several years. He also served as a founding trustee, director, and a member of the executive committee of the Genesee Valley Trust Company. He also ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Rochester. He studied Sanskrit and had an extensive library.

For a time in the 1860s, he lived in Plattsburgh. In January 1876, Lamberton bought the Forge House and Forge Tract of in Old Forge, New York, from S. Adelaide Buell.

Lamberton died on May 24, 1919, in Rochester. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Legacy

His sister-in-law Mary A. Starbuck gifted to name a conservatory at the entrance of Highland Park after Lamberton. It was named the Lamberton Conservatory. Lamberton Street in Rochester was also named after him.