After the Civil War, local industries included two brick works, the Lisk Manufacturing Company, several mills, and the regionally prominent McKechnie Brewery.

Canandaigua is the home of Constellation Brands, founded as Canandaigua Wine Company, which produces Manischewitz wine; Finger Lakes Community College; Thompson Health System; the Constellation Brands – Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center (CMAC); Granger Homestead; the Canandaigua Lady paddle-wheel tour boat; and Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park.

The Tganödä:gwëh Seneca village, consisting of 23 longhouses, was destroyed during the American Revolutionary War by the Sullivan Expedition on September 10, 1779.

The American forces attacked Iroquois villages throughout western New York, destroying 40 and burning the winter stores of the people.

It established two small reservations for the Seneca and Oneida, who had been allies of the American rebels, but they suffered considerable enmity and discrimination after the war.

In 1807–1808, Jesse Hawley, a flour merchant from Geneva, served 20 months in the Canandaigua debtors' prison.

He was an early proponent of building a canal through the Mohawk Valley to improve shipping and connect the Hudson River with Lake Erie.

[citation needed] Stephen A. Douglas was a student at Canandaigua Academy between 1830 and January 1833; he later moved west and was elected as US senator from Illinois.

[9] John Willys, born in Canandaigua in 1873, operated a bicycle sales and repair shop there, before later becoming a successful automobile manufacturer.

[10] On October 30, 1900, Theodore Roosevelt made a brief stop in Canandaigua to give a campaign speech at Atwater Park.

With a growing American market for wine in the late 20th century, the company expanded rapidly through acquisitions in the 1980s and 1990s.

It joined other companies in forming Constellation Brands, and became the world's largest wine and spirits distributor.

Within the City of Canandaigua, the following buildings, properties and districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: