Hayes Place
Hayes is one of Buffalo’s street names that was used twice! Municipalities typically don’t like having duplicate street names as it leads to difficulty with mail delivery and providing emergency services. Often when street name changes happened throughout Buffalo’s history, it was during times when they were removing duplicate street names. This usually happened when the City boundary was expanded, when Post Offices were consolidated or discontinued, or when confusion occurred due to duplicate names. Hayes Place is a short street off of Seneca Street near the I-190. Place is typically used for streets that don’t have a throughway. In the case of Hayes Place, the road dead-ends at a factory along railroad tracks. Interestingly, the other streets in this area also end at the tracks but are named Street. Buffalo does not have strict naming conventions when it comes to Street versus Avenue versus Road, etc! Hayes Road is also the official name of the ring road that circles UB South Campus, the centerpiece of which is Hayes Hall. All three of these are named for Edmund Hayes.
Hayes Road at University of Buffalo
Edmund B. Hayes. Source: Ancestry.com
Edmund B Hayes was born in 1849 in Farmington, Maine. He attended public and preparatory schools in Maine and then Dartmouth College. His time at Dartmouth was not continuous. Instead, Mr. Hayes would take time off in-between semesters to earn tuition by working at farms or teaching. After completing two years at Dartmouth, he transferred to MIT, where he graduated in 1873 with a civil engineering degree.
After graduation, he worked for the Passaic Bridge Company in New Jersey and for the engineering division of the Erie Railroad. He came to Buffalo in 1874 to join George S. Field at the Morrison Field Bridge Company. At this time, railroads were expanding across the country, so bridge building was a very profitable business. Mr. Hayes handled the engineering, and Mr. Field dealt with the contracting.
In 1883, Mr. Hayes proposed a cantilever design for the Michigan Railroad bridge across the Niagara River. The Michigan Central Railway was owned by Cornelius Vanderbuilt, who was looking for a crossing between Canada and the US. Mr. Hayes proposed the first steel span cantilever bridge across the Niagara River, known as the Niagara Cantilever Bridge. Previous bridges across the gorge had been a suspension bridge. This was was the largest steel span bridge in the world at the time. The train was in operation until 1925 when modern trains became heavier and a new bridge was needed.
Cantilever Bridge at Niagara Falls. Rand, McNally & Company.
In 1884, the company became the Union Bridge Company, of which Mr. Hayes was part owner. Mr. Hayes and Mr. Field oversaw an 8-acre manufacturing site at the foot of Hamburg Street that created 15,000 tons of material used to make bridges worldwide! The Union Bridge Company built the Poughkeepsie Bridge over the Hudson River in 1888. This bridge was in service until 1974 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The bridge reopened in 2009 as a pedestrian walkway as part of the Walkway Over the Hudson Park.
Edmund Hayes House at 147 North Street, pictured in 1925. Source: UB Archives
Edmund Hayes married Mary H. Warren in 1878. Mary was a sister-in-law to Edmund’s partner and friend George Fields. In 1892, they moved into a Green & Wicks-designed home at 147 North Street. This house was two doors down from the Metcalfe House. They had no children, but the home was known for entertaining people from the worlds of art, literature, music, and science.
Mr. Hayes served for three years as Chief of the Engineering Division of New York State under Governor Cornell’s administration from 1880 to 1882 and Governor Grover Cleveland’s in 1883. He was given an honorary military title by his friend Governor Grover Cleveland, who made him an honorary General in the National Guard, and he became General Edmund Hayes. The title was only honorary. A story was passed along regarding a time that General and Mrs. Hayes were eating dinner when a down on his luck man rang the doorbell. The man told the staff “surely General Hayes would want to see a fellow soldier” and that they had served in the same regiment during the war. General Hayes had the man turned away as they new he was lying as “General” Hayes had never fired a gun.
In 1891, the Union Bridge Company was sold to the US Steel Company, which late became the American Bridge Company. General Hayes and his wife took a trip overseas to celebrate. They traveled to Europe, Egypt, and Palestine. General Hayes became a Capitalist and Philanthropist.
In 1897, General Hayes invested with John J. Albright to found the Buffalo Bolt Company in North Tonawanda. They also invested in the Ontario Power Company in Canada. General Hayes was an early automobile user in Buffalo. He funded Hares Motors to manufacture Locomobile, Simplex, and Mercer automobiles.
General Hayes served on the Board of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (now Albright Knox Art Gallery). In 1892, he gave $5,000 ($81,271 in 2021 dollars) to assist them in offering classes. From 1915 until his death, he would give to the organization to cancel out their annual debts.
The Hayes Family attended St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. General Hayes Hayes was the longest-serving vestryman with 34 years of service. In the Episcopal Church, a vestryman is a member of the Church’s leading body. In 1906, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was in financial distress. He offered $50,000 ($1.5 Million in 2021 dollars) to the church if others in the congregation matched it. The congregation matched the funds, and the church remained in Shelton Square.
In 1913, Dartmouth awarded him an honorary Master of Science degree 40 years after attending the school. He returned the favor with a check for $10,000 ($280,755 in 2021 dollars).
In 1922, Mr. and Mrs. Hayes moved to 198 North Street. They sold the 147 North Street home to the University of Buffalo Alumni as their first clubhouse. The Alumni Club was established in 1921, a separate organization from the Alumni Association. The Alumni Club was established to create a “greater university” through loyalty of the alumni. The Hayes House was well suited for a clubhouse. The grounds were shaded by elm trees. The house contained reception rooms, reading rooms, a library, card rooms, billiard room and an assembly hall. More than 2,000 meals were served at the Alumni Club each month. The financial collapse of 1929 affected the Alumni Club and membership was considered a luxury by the members, a luxury they could no longer afford. The Alumni Club put a portion of the property on the market, but no potential buyers came forward. They were unsuccessful in obtaining a bank loan and defaulted on the mortgage. After 1931, the Alumni Club became a group devoted to raising money for scholarships as opposed to a social organization. The 147 North Street house was then a restaurant for many years, including Tuyn’s Restaurant and Martin’s before the building was demolished. Like its neighbor, the Metcalfe House, the site of the Hayes House is now the lawns and gardens of UB’s Jacobs Executive Development Center (formerly the Butler Mansion).
Hayes Grave
Edmund Hayes died on October 19, 1923, after suffering a stroke. Mary died a year later, on November 18, 1924. They are buried in Forest Lawn. They left significant amounts of money to various organizations throughout Buffalo:
- Their artwork was left to the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, along with $75,000 ($1.2 Million in 2021) for future art purchases.
- St. Paul’s church received another $50,000 ($812,713 in 2021) for an endowment known as the Edmund Hayes Fund.
- Buffalo General Hospital received $10,000 ($162,542 in 2021) for an endowment known as the Edmund Hayes Fund.
- Children’s Hospital received $10,000 ($162,542 in 2021) for the Mary H. Hayes Fund
- Home for the Friendless, $5,000 ($81,271 in 2021) to be known as the Mary H. Hayes Fund
- YMCA, $10,000 ($162,542 in 2021) for the Edmund Hayes Funds
- Farmington, Main Old South Church, $10,000 ($162,542 in 2021) for the Edmund Hayes Fund
- Farmington Library, $20,000 ($325,085 in 2021) to purchase books and maintain the institution
The remainder of the estate was divided equally between the University of Buffalo and Dartmouth College. The University of Buffalo received $389,000 ($6.3 Million in 2021). General Hayes had served on the UB Council from 1920 to 1923 – during the years when the University was trying to establish a College of Arts and Sciences. The Erie County Almshouse property was purchased by the University in 1909. The Hayes Estate bequest allowed the University to transform the Almshouse building into classrooms and offices. To remember General Hayes, the University named the building Edmund B. Hayes Hall. Hayes Hall is a highly visible structure along UB’s Main Street frontage and is often used in images to represent the South Campus.
Hayes Hall was initially built as the Erie County Insane Asylum as part of the Erie County Almshouse and Poor Farm. The building is the only remaining County insane asylum building in Erie County. The first Erie County Almshouse and Asylum was built at Porter and York in 1829. In 1849, the institution moved to Buffalo Plains (University Heights). What we now know as Hayes Hall was built in 1874-79 and was designed by George Metzger. In 1893, the mentally ill became wards of the State. Patients were moved to the State Asylum on Forest Avenue (the Richardson Olmsted Complex today). What is now Hayes Hall and the other buildings were used as a county hospital. The last patients were moved to the Erie County Home and Infirmary in 1926.
Erie County Hospital, 1896. Source: University Archives
Hayes Hall, UB. Photo by Author
In 1926, Hayes Hall was remodeled in the Georgian Revival Style by Cyrus K. Porter and Sons. This was when the distinctive clock tower was added to the building. The building’s first university use was as an administrative and academic building. Hayes Hall remodeled again in 1954 by James, Meadows & Howard to expand the building for classroom uses. The the late 1960s, Hayes Hall was the site of student and faculty protests related to the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. Since 1977, the building has been home to the School for Architecture and Planning. (Note from Angela: this is where I spent a lot of time while getting my Masters in Planning from 2007-2009). The building underwent significant renovations from 2010-2015 by Bergmann Associates to modernize the building for a modern architecture and planning school. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Next time you drive past Hayes Place or Want to learn about other streets? Check out the Street Index. Don’t forget to subscribe to the page to be notified when new posts are made. You can do so by entering your email address in the box on the upper right-hand side of the home page. You can also follow the blog on facebook. If you enjoy the blog, please be sure to share it with your friends.
Sources:
- “General Hayes Noted Bridge Builder Dead”. Buffalo Commercial. October 19, 1923, p1.
- “General Edmund Hayes.” Buffalo Times. October 19, 1923, p22.
- “Arts Academy Benefits By Hayes’ Will” Buffalo Commercial. November 7, 1923, p12.
- Edens, John. “90 Years Ago, A Club for UB Alumni”. UB Reporter. December 22, 2011.
- “Edmund B. Hayes Hall.” University at Buffalo University Archives.
- “Edmund B. Hayes Hall.” Historic American Buildings Survey. SHP No 10PRO7210. Accessed via https://cris.parks.ny.gov/
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