This week marks 9 years of writing this blog. Where has the time gone? In those nine years, I got rid of my car, moved twice, and have had four different jobs! In June of 2011, I decided I needed to find out how Keppel Street got it’s name. So I started doing research. Funny how such a little question I had turned into all of this! So far, we have covered information about 183 streets. Can you believe it?
In the past year, I’ve had some great opportunities – I gave a bunch of University Express presentations which has been great fun! In the fall, we covered “Which Side of the Skyway Are You On?” It was really fun to discuss the history of the Skyway and differing opinions on it. This spring, we switched to online classes, and I’ve done “Discovering Buffalo One Street at a Time” Parts 1, 2 and 3 so far! You can find them on Erie County’s website here. Stay tuned, we may be doing a Part 4 at some point. Last summer/fall, I tested out some ideas for tours. I’m definitely planning on doing more once it’s safe to congregate in groups again! In March, I spoke at the Library as part of the Imagine Greater Buffalo series. Since it was Women’s History Month, I spoke about streets named after women. WBFO got wind of it and I was then interviewed for a story about streets named after women.
I hope you all have been enjoying my current series about streets named after African Americans. I intend to continue those pieces through the summer at least. I have several more in the works that will be coming very soon – including Mary Talbert, who is one of my all time favorite Buffalonians. When I was in Arkansas in March (just before pandemic hit), I was able to visit some of the places associated with her when she lived there before she moved to Buffalo. It was very special to me. I’m actually ashamed I haven’t written about her on here yet!
As most of you know, this is truly a passion project for me. I love sharing stories about our city and regional history. I’m so thankful for all of you who have followed along over the last nine years. When I started writing this, I thought I’d only have like 12 followers….boy was I wrong about that!
Just for fun, here are some some things that were also happening in Buffalo in June 2011:
- Terry Pegula had just purchased the Sabres a few months earlier. The Sabres had just played in the playoffs for the last time since that year. Lindy Ruff was still coach. Thomas Vanek was our best player.
- Chris Collins was still our County Executive. Mark Poloncarz was still just our trusty County Comptroller, but was about to be elected County Executive in the fall
- Byron Brown was in his second term as Mayor. Andrew Cuomo was six months into his first term as Governor.
- Thursdays in the Square moved from Lafayette Square down to the Central Wharf and became Thursdays at Canalside. The first concert at Canalside was June 30th, 2011 and was Lowest of the Low and Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins.
- Canalside was just the property south of Marine Drive and west of Main Street. The portion near Main Street wasn’t even grass yet (Pegula donated the sod to fill in the grass there). There were no restaurants or buildings yet. The New Naval Park Museum and Liberty Hound would open in 2012. One Canalside was still the State-owned Donovan Building; HarborCenter was just a city-owned parking lot, and the Aud Block was just a giant pit.
- The Construction was just wrapping up at the old Dulski Federal Building – now the The Avant/Embassy Suites.
- Larkin Square and Larkinville were still just a twinkle in the eye of Howard and Leslie Zemsky. Larkin Square and the Filling Station would open in 2012. Food Truck Tuesday wasn’t really a concept we knew about yet. Our first food truck, Lloyd, had just started serving burritos a year before and food trucks were new on the scene!
- The tower at the end of Main Street was still known as HSBC Tower and it was still used by bank employees for another two years.
- The Hotel Lafayette was still vacant. We still had to drive to Rochester for Dinosaur BBQ. Toutant, Big Ditch, Tappo, Thin Man….none of them existed.
- Buffalo was preparing to be the location of the National Trust Preservation Conference in the fall. During that conference, the Richardson Building was open to the public for the first time. It would still be two years before construction began on Hotel Henry.
Years ago (maybe in 2011) there was a Sabres blog I used to follow that would do a summary of things people search for to find your blog. I always enjoyed reading those updates. Many people search for generic things like “streets of Buffalo History”, “buffalo streets blog” or “Angela Keppel”. It’s weird to see that people search my name so often, but also kind of cool.
Here’s the top ten things people searched for to find my blog this past year. If you click the link, it will take you to the associated articles:
- Canal District -including things like “central wharf”, “dante place”, and “end of erie canal in buffalo history”. I have been doing some research about the Canalside area lately for a project we’re doing at work, so hopefully I’ll have some more coming about this in the future!
- Church Street – people are really interested in the downtown churches of Buffalo (and there used to be many more before they moved out of Downtown), and they search for the three churches on Church Street often, for the location of Old First Presbyterian Church…perhaps those are people who went on a tour of First Pres and are curious about where they used to be?
- Rumsey– people are continually interested in the Rumsey Family and learning about Rumsey Park….many of the Rumsey Park contemporaries probably were curious too – those who didn’t get invites to parties there surely gawked at the properties as they walked by or rode by in their carriages.
- Kelly Island – I don’t even have a post about this yet and it’s consistently in the top list! There was an announcement in the news a few months ago regarding a property on Kelly Island…and my blog was one of the few places that mention the Island….although it’s just an offhand mention because Ganson Street is located on Kelly Island. I have more research to come about the Island (which is where General Mills and Riverworks are today). I hope to learn more about the name soon.
- Lovejoy– Sarah Lovejoy and her son Henry are something people search for often. I’m glad her story continues to be told. Her bravery protecting her home inspires me.
- Ellicott– people are often searching for more about Joseph Ellicott and the Holland Land Company. Joseph is the reason for Buffalo’s existence as we know it, so I’m glad people are still looking for more information about him.
- Tifft– people have been coming across the blog from searching for “Tifft House”, which was a great building on Main Street, as well as searching for George Washington Tifft himself and “Tifft Farm”. Sometimes, I wonder if a few of the Tifft searches are looking for directions or info about operations at Tifft Farm Nature Preserve….if so, I’m sorry you got to my blog, but I hope you enjoyed learning the history of the site!
- Exchange– people searched for “what businesses were on exchange street in the 1800s”, “New York Central station on Exchange Street”, as well as searching for the other stations that were on or near Exchange Street historically. I think people have a renewed interest due to the new Amtrak Station that is under construction now.
- Scajaquada– this is of course a common search item for people in Buffalo. There’s been lots of news and lots of debates about if we should change the expressway to a parkway, etc. I also like that some people have found my blog by searching for “Kenjockety” or some of the other spelling of his name.
- Central Park – when this first started showing up in my search terms, I was convinced that people were trying to find Central Park in New York and were probably super confused when they found an article about Lewis Bennett. But lately, there have been more searches for things like “former stores in central park plaza” and “history of central park plaza” so I think it’s Buffalo related. The Central Park neighborhood and the Central Park Plaza are an interesting part of Buffalo’s history and it seems like more and more people are interested in it!
So, how did you find my blog? Do you have a favorite street history you’ve learned about? Let me know in the comments! My favorite fact that I’ve learned is still about how handsome Bishop John Timon was in his youth!
I hope you are enjoying what is going to be a very different summer for us all. We’ll have to have a big party next year to celebrate 10 years. New posts coming soon!
Love,
Angela “9 Years & I still don’t know how Keppel St got its name” Keppel
Mr. Peterson was married to the former Jannie McCarley. They were married 72 years and had three children – Kenneth, Lawrence and Lorraine. Jannie was the daughter of Reverend Burnie McCarley, the founder of St. John Baptist Church in Buffalo, and the namesake of the McCarley Gardens apartments. Mr. Peterson died a few months after his wife, on September 23, 2012. His portrait is represented on the Freedom Wall at Michigan and Ferry Streets. Both King and Jannie are buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Ora Perry Wrighter was born in December 1920 in Birmingham Alabama, to Owen and Alberta Perry. She came to Buffalo as a child with her family and graduated from the Buffalo Public Schools. She attended Hartwick Seminary. At the time of her death, she was a student at Medaille College.
Delmar Mitchell was born to Lee and Tobitha Mitchell in February 1918 in Providence, Kentucky. He was raised in Glen Cove, Illinois, outside of Chicago. He attended DuSable High School, the University of Illinois in Champaign and DePaul University. He served in the US Army during WWII, rising to the rank of captain and serving in both the Pacific and European fronts. He earned a Purple Heart for his service. He later worked for the US Department of Justice, in the Intelligence Section.
Discovering Buffalo, One Street at a Time 