Discovering Buffalo, One Street at a Time

Today’s post is about two streets – Ramsdell Street and Eugene Avenue.  Ramsdell Street is an east-west street running between Delaware Avenue and Grove Street in North Buffalo. At the end of the street is a park, Ramsdell Park.

The street is named for William Mayhew Ramsdell. Mr. Ramsdell’s parents, Henry and Mary Ann came to Buffalo from New London Connecticut in the early 1850s via the Erie Canal. The family is descended from Elder Brewster of Mayflower fame. William was born in July 1864 at 49 Mariner Street. At the time, Mariner Street ran from Virginia Street into the”North Street woods”. Between Virginia Street and the Ramsdell Home, there was a large vacant lot. Mr. Ramsdell attended the old School 36 on Day’s Park and the Old Central HIgh School.

In 1879, at age 15, Mr. Ramsdell began delivering the Buffalo Express along the waterfront. Two years later, he applied for a job in the office of the newspaper. His job was a combination of office boy and printer’s devil – an assistant to the printer. He quickly advanced through the ranks, serving as collector, cashier, assistant business manager, advertising manager, business manager and in 1901, he became publisher of the Buffalo Express. He remained with the Express as publisher until the merger with the Buffalo Courier, at which time he retired.

In 1893, he founded the first newspaper travel bureau in the state outside of New York City. Mr. Ramsdell enjoyed traveling himself. He made seven trips to Europe between 1907 and 1937. In 1912, while in Europe, he met Rudyard Kipling (author of the Jungle Book). Mr. Ramsdell and Mr. Kipling corresponded for many years. mr. Rasmdell was also an acquaintance of Presidents Cleveland, McKinley, Taft, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover.

Mr. Ramsdell married Margaret Scott Adam in 1894. Margaret was the adopted daughter of Robert B. Adam of AM&As. They had one son, Robert, and three daughters: Margaret, who married Dexter P Rumsey Jr; Gay, who married John L Kimberly; and Jean, who married Luther E. Wood. The family lived for 11 years at 54 Ashland Avenue and for 31 years at 1132 Delaware Avenue (now an Amigone Funeral Home). After retirement, the Ramsdells lived in the Windsor Apartments on West Ferry Street.

Mr. Ramsdell was known for his sense of humor. When asked on forms where a space was listed for “college degree”, he’d write that he “once lived at 48 College Street.”

View from Eberhardt Mansion (large building at NW corner Delaware and Kenmore Ave)

Mr. Ramsdell was a member of the Delaware Avenue Land Company, which bought and developed a tract of land from Delaware Avenue to Military Road, north of the Beltline Railroad. They purchased the land in the 1890s. At the time, Mr. Ramsdell stated “that property seemed so far from the center of town that we owners were considered very optimistic in our expectation that homes and factories would be built there”. The land company ended up struggling to develop the land and sold it for barely more than what they had paid for it. The land company dissolved in 1898, the same year the electric street car first extended to Kenmore, with the Village of Kenmore incorporating in 1899. If they had held on a little longer, they may have been able to make more money from the land.

In the early days of Kenmore, they referred to this section of North Buffalo as “South Kenmore”. There was a two room school house built on Ramsdell Avenue that accommodated 40 students. The school was also used by the Baptist Congregation of Kenmore. The school later suffered a fire and remodeled as a home, still standing at 29 Ramsdell Avenue.

Mr. Ramsdell was a life member of the Wanakah Country Club, the Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts, the Buffalo Public Library and the Fort Niagara Association. He attended Westminster Presbyterian Church. Mr. Ramsdell died in 1948 and is buried in Forest Lawn.

Eugene Avenue is a north-south street running from Washington Avenue in Kenmore to a dead end near Delaware Consumer’s Square (Target Plaza).  One of Ramsdell’s partners in the Delaware Avenue Land Company was Eugene Fluery. Eugene Street is named after him. Mr. Fleury was a former music critic and cirulation manager at the Buffalo Express, working with Mr. Ramsdell there. Mr. Fleury was born and educated in New York City. He was associated with newspapers of Cleveland and other cities before coming to Buffalo. He worked for the Express for 17 years. He lived on Linden Avenue and died on December 8, 1903.

If you’d like to learn about additional streets, check out the Street Index.  Be sure to subscribe to the blog so that new posts are sent directly to you.  You can do so on the right hand side of the homepage.  You can also like the page on facebook at facebook.com/buffalostreets .

Sources:

1. “Descendant of Elder Brewster has a Street Bearing His Name”. Buffalo Courier-Express. July 7, 1940. 4L.
2. “W.M. Ramsdell, 83, is Dead; Ex-Carrier Rose to Publisher”. Buffalo Evening News. Jan 2, 1948,33.
3. “Land Company Dissolution”. Buffalo Evening News. October 21, 1898.
4. “Eugene Street Carries Given Name of Express Music Critic”. Buffalo Courier Express. February 2, 1941. 2, sec 6.
5. Parkhurst, Frederick. History of Kenmore, Erie County, New York. Village of Kenmore, New York, 1926.
6. Percy, John and Graham Miller.  Images of America:  Kenmore, New York.  Arcadia Publishing.  Charleston South Carolina, 1998.