 As an infant, his parents moved to Rochester, New York, where his father, George Washington Aldridge Sr. (1833–1877), later became the 38th Mayor of Rochester, serving from 1873 to 1874.He attended public schools in Rochester before attending Cary Collegiate Seminary in Oakfield, New York and then the De Graf Military Institute in Rochester.In 1883, he was elected to the Executive Board of Rochester and was reelected three times serving over eleven years.