Discovering Buffalo, One Street at a Time

Chandler Street runs between Military Road and what used to be NY Central Railroad tracks.  Historically, this area was home to factories and industrial buildings.  The street’s access to the rails made it a prime place for these types of businesses.  The buildings along the street were home to the Jewett Refrigerator Company, the Double Truss Cornice Brake Company, the Acme Steel and Malleable Iron Works, Barcalo Manufacturing, Buffalo Weaving & Belting Company, Linde Air Products, Loblaw Groceteria, and others.

The iconic Linde tower at the Former Linde Complex on Chandler Street source: buffaloah.com

In the last few years, Chandler Street has become a hip new place.  Signature Development’s Rocco Termini has created a new district with redevelopments along both Chandler and Grote Street.  Some are calling this area “Chandlerville” the way that the Larkin District has developed into Larkinville. Several buildings along the street have now been redeveloped and are home to new businesses.  The former Linde complex is now home to Utilant, Barrel & Brine, Blackbid Cider, an accounting business and a call center.  The former Loblaw/Barcalo space is home to Thin Man Brewery and Tappo Pizza.  The land here was originally owned by Henry Chandler and the street was named for him.

Henry Chandler was born in Springfield Massachusetts in 1830.  He was a descendant of William Chandler, one of the earliest settlers in Andover, who arrived in America from England in 1637.  As a boy, Henry moved to Seneca County, New York with his family after his father lost his fortune during the Panic of 1837.  At age 15, Henry got a job teaching in the village school.  Henry was said to have had keen artistic sense from a young age.  While teaching, he supplemented his income by painting signs and decorating wagons and sleighs.

In 1850, Henry came to Buffalo and got a job as a typesetter at the Commercial-Advertiser.  While working there, he figured out a process for engraving that made it available to the general public, by using a wax process that allowed it to be done at a much lower cost.  The first job using the process was in 1853, which was a cover of a writing book published by Phinney & Co, who owned a bookshop on Main Street near Seneca Street.  The second job was a set of calendar frames.  Henry was having such great success, he asked his brother Frank to join him in his business venture in 1856.  The brothers worked together for most of their lives.  Their first year in business together, the brothers printed maps of the Great Western Railway of Canada and the Illinois Central Railroad.  In 1858-1859, Henry developed a process for photographing on wax which allows for engraving without needing to redraw.

Example of a map done by Jewett & Chandler.

In 1859, Elam Jewett, owner of the Commercial Advertiser used Henry’s process to win the bid for engraving from the US Patent Office.  In 1862, Henry joined Mr. Jewett’s firm, which eventually became Jewett & Chandler.  They established an engraving house at 178 Washington Street.  In 1874, Matthews & Northrup joined the business.  The business was known by several names, including “J.N. Matthews Co” and “Matthews-Northrup Works”.  For many years, all illustrations of the US patent office used Chandler’s process.  The process was also used extensively for map engraving and the company was world renowned.  Many maps and atlases across the Country were completed using the Chandler process, including those used by General Pershing to guide the troops into Mexico and by President Wilson in his talks in Versailles.

Henry Chandler married Frances Long.  They had two sons, Henry Long and Frank Darwin, and a daughter who died as infants.  One son, Albert Hotchkiss Chandler, survived to adulthood.  Mr. Chandler owned property throughout the city, including where Chandler Street is located, property on Delaware Avenue and his home on Niagara Square.  The Chandlers lived at 89 Niagara Street.  At the time, Niagara Square was a residential neighborhood.  The Chandlers neighbors included the Bancrofts of Bancroft, Barnes & Co( which became the William Hengerer Company), and the parents of Dr. James King, a prominent doctor.

Henry Chandler House, 89 Niagara Street. Source: John H Conlin, WNY Heritage, Winter 2004.

The house at 89 Niagara Street had been built around 1852 by Philo Balcom.  Mr. Balcom was a trustee of the Baptist church that was located next to the house, and owned a brick business.  The house was a 2.5 story brick Italianate house with a four story tower built in the Second Empire style.  The house was sold in 1855 to Fidelia and Alden Barker, a land and insurance agent.  The Barker’s sold the house to Henry Chandler on August 29, 1864.  While the Chandlers owned the house, the tower was likely built.  Henry had a reversal of fortune in the 1870s, which forced him to leave the property at 89 Niagara Street and move to York Street.  The house was then sold at auction by Erie County Savings Bank.  Henry Chandler’s nieces remarked that what they remembered most about their uncle’s house on Niagara was that they had a first floor bathroom, which was an unusual feature during the 1870s.

With the building of City Hall, the US Courthouse, the State Office Building, the Buffalo Athletic Club and the Statler Hotel in the 1920s-1930s, Niagara Square shifted from residential towards being a civic center.  At some point, the house at 89 Niagara Street became a restaurant.  The restaurant had different names over the years.  It was known as Valentine’s for many years.  In the early 1990s, it was known as Grille 91, a restaurant that was described as “comfortable” and offered “well-prepared classic food”. In 1998, the restaurant became Carlos O’Ryan’s, which served casual Mexican and Southwestern food. The house was sold by the Valentines to “157 West Mohawk Realty Corp” in 2000 for $50,000.  At the time, there was a proposal for a new Courthouse to be built on the site.  The house was the last remaining house on Niagara Square and was demolished in 2007 to build the new courthouse.

The only house that still remains from this area of Downtown as a residential neighborhood is The Old House Downtown, (formerly known as Big Blue due to it having been painted blue) at 153 Delaware.   You can learn more about that house by checking them on facebook as The Old House Downtown or stop by on Tuesdays when they serve donuts on the lawn as the City of Buffalo Office of Coffee and Donuts.

Henry Chandler owned sorrel horses which he rode along Delaware Avenue. Mr. Chandler also donated money to First Baptist Church, Buffalo Historical Society, the Young Men’s Association (which became the Buffalo Public Library).  He was also a member of the Buffalo Museum of Science, the Beaver Island Club and the Buffalo Field Club.  He was an accomplished poet, and his poetry was published in several magazines.  He died December 21, 1896.  He is buried in Forest Lawn.

Mr. Chandler’s son, Albert, worked as an electrician in the US Navy during the Spanish-American war.  At age 26, he enrolled to study civil engineering at Cornell University.  He was the city engineer of the City of New York.  In that role, he worked on the first section of the New York City city-owned and operated subway.  The lines are now part of the modern subway’s A, B, C, D, E, F, G and M service.  Additionally, N, Q, and R trains run partly on the tracks from the original lines.  He was also responsible for many of the grade crossing improvements in the Greater NYC area and drew all preliminary plans for bridge and tunnel approaches to Manhattan.  Albert died in 1932, leaving behind two young children, Henry (Harry) and Emily.  Albert is buried in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery.

Albert’s family lived in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn. After his father’s death, when Harry was 13, Harry received a scholarship to Adelphi Academy and another to attend Lehigh University. After graduation in 1941, Harry got a job working for Proctor and Gamble Defense Corporation, in Mississippi.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor that year, Harry immediately went to the local air base and enlisted in the Air Force.  On March 15, 1945, Harry was flying a mission north of Berlin.  His plane was hit by a shell, taking out the controls.  His co-pilot was nonresponsive, and Harry was ejected from the plane as it spiraled.  Harry landed in a field and was captured by German police.  Harry spent two months as a prisoner of war.  It was only later that Harry learned that his mission had been important to history, the factory they had been assigned to destroy had been working to create an atomic weapon for Nazi Germany.    Harry returned to his job at P&G, retiring in 1981.  Harry is still alive today.  His sister Emily passed away in 2018 at age 103!

So the next time you’re hanging out on Chandler Street, think of the Chandler family and all they accomplished.

Want to learn about other streets?  Check out the street index.

Sources:

• Smith, Katherine.  Chandler Street Perpetuates Name of Engraver-Inventor.  Buffalo Courier-Express, December 10, 1939, p W5.
• Sukiennik, Greg.  A crucial mission; story of survival.  Manchester Journal.  November 12, 2017.  https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/a-crucial-mission-story-of-survival,524408? (online August 2019)
• Public Notice – Superior Court of Buffalo.  Buffalo Courier.  January 25, 1878.
• Buffalo News Real Estate Transactions.
• Buffalo News Restaurant Listings.
• The Magazine of Poetry:  A Monthly Review. Moulton, Charles Wells, publisher. January 1894.
• The American Stationer.  Vol. XL – No.1.  New York, July 2, 1896.