Discovering Buffalo, One Street at a Time

Can you guess what street this picture represents?

Time for some end-of-summer fun!  In November of 1910, the Buffalo Times newspaper launched the “Great Street Picture Contest.”  The idea behind the contest was to guess what street is represented by a picture.  Each day, a new picture would be printed in the Buffalo Times, with players instructed to keep track of all of the streets and then, at the end, submit the street contest forms to the newspaper for prizes.  The first picture for the Great Streets Picture Contest was published on Sunday, November 20, 1910. 

There were 581 prizes that were given out.  The prizes amounted to $6,604 in value (approximately$218,401 in 2024 dollars).  Some of the prizes:

• First Prize – a 1911 five-passenger, four-door, torpedo body Reo Touring Car, including top, windshield, “etc, etc”, purchased at the Poppenberg Auto Co at 674 Main Street (best known today as the Former Tent City/the new Wurlitzer Lofts)- valued at $1,650 ($54,567 today)
• Second Prize – a 1911 KRIT Runabout with mohair top, windshield, gas or electric lamps, Prestolite tank or generator and gas headlights from the Bison Motor Company at 1204 Main Street (now the site of Delta Sonic) – valued at $900 ($29,764 today)
• Third Prize – a beautiful Krakauer Player Piano, purchased at Denton, Cottier & Daniels at Court and Pearl Street(Denton, Cottier & Daniels relocated to Amherst, but they JUST closed this year after 197 years in business – since 1827) – valued at $750 ($24,832 today)
• Fourth Prize – a beautiful Krakauer Piano, also from Denton, Cottier & Daniels – valued at $450 ($24,803 today)
• Fifth Prize – a handsome Upright Piano purchased at C.H. Utley, 557 Main Street (now a part of M&T Center at Fountain Plaza) – valued at $400 ($13,228 today)
• Sixth Prize – a five-horsepower twin-cylinder Indian Motor Cycle purchased from Neal, Clark & Neal at 645 Main Street – valued at $275 ($9095 today)
• Seventh Prize – a Regent style Columbia Grafonola(a brand of phonograph player) purchased from the Columbia Phonograph Company at 622 Main Street(the Theater Place building best known as home to Sue’s and The Tralf – now Electric City) – valued at $200 ($6,614 today)
• Eighth Prize – one of the latest style Pony Coats from N. Lefkowitz, furrier at Main and Chippewa Streets – valued at $100 ($3307 today)
• Ninth Prize – a Lady’s Diamond Rink from A.E. Sipe, Diamond Importer in the Brisbane Building (still standing today, and there’s even still a jewelry store there today -New Generation Jewelers!) – valued at $75 ($2,480 today)
• Tenth Prize -a Gent’s Gold Watch from T. C. Tanke at 378 Main Street (now the location of the Main Place Mall) – valued at $50 ($1,653 today)
• Other prizes included things like other jewelry, bicycles, furniture, and an encyclopedia set.  The 66th to 265th prizes were a Diamond-pointed Fountain Pen valued at $1.00($33 today) and the 266th to 581st prizes were all books valued at $1.00 each ($33 today).

The contest was open to every reader of the Buffalo Times, “man, woman, boy or girl, whether living in Buffalo or out of town.”  The contest boasted that there was no cost to enter, however, you had to get a copy of the Buffalo Times each day – so indirect costs.  The paper was 1 cent during the week and 5 cents on Sundays (33 cents on weekdays and $1.65 on Sundays in today’s dollars).  Buffalo Times helped people out by also printing a list of all of the streets to help people know which street names were used for the 90 streets that were selected for the contest. 

Because there were so many prizes, they assumed that everyone who entered would be able to win a prize of some sort.  Entries must only include one guess per street picture, but each person was allowed to send in a maximum of three complete sets of answers.  Prizes were awarded to the persons who submitted complete or nearest complete lists of correct answers to the published pictures.  Employees of the Buffalo Times and their families were not eligible for prizes.  All contestants who won prizes had to sign a statement that they were not connected directly or indirectly with any employee of the Buffalo Times.  If there was a tie where certain people tied in the number of correct answers, “the award will be made on a basis of neatness.”  PENMENSHIP!!! 

The contest ran until March 1911.  The judges took three weeks to review the responses.  A staff of 20 tabulated all of the results examined and checked the lists of submitted answers against the correct answers.  Judges then reviewed the submissions and made their awards.  The judges were Professor Frederick A Bogt, principal of Central High School; Dr. Franklin C Gram, registrar of vital statistics for the Department of Health; and John Sayles, secretary to Mayor Fuhrmann.   The Times reported that “it is unnecessary to say that a more competent and fair-minded trio of public citizens could not have been invited to assume these duties, which were both onerous and responsible.”  To keep things fair, the judges were not given the names attached to the submissions when they were selected for the awards. 

The Times received 20,000 answer submissions for the contest!   Some submissions were very uniquely submitted – one contestant submitted his answers in the rear of a miniature automobile he had constructed himself.  One lady submitted her answers attached to a beautiful satin pillow she had made.  Some submissions were painted in various colors; one submission colored each of the Streets Contest photos and submitted the colored versions with the answer forms.  

One man had been ill and passed away shortly after the contest ended – his widow submitted his answers, telling the Times that the contest had helped him pass the time through his illness.  He received a special post-humous award just based on that fact, and the Times sent the submission back to his wife so she could have them for sentimental value.  They did not publish which of the winners he was.  

The first prize winner was E.H. Lufkin.  He was a sign painter employed by Scott Sign Company.  He roomed at 16 East Eagle Street.  Mr. Lufkin was a lucky guy based on my research – in 1884, he won first prize in a five-mile race at the Buffalo Roller Skating Rink.  In 1927, Mr. Lufkin was also one of the winners of the Buffalo Times’ baseball contest!   The second prize winner was Miss Marion Kennedy, daughter of Professor Joseph Kennedy, principal of School No. 27.  She lived with her parents at 205 Breckinridge Street and was in 7th grade in School No. 18.  She said that the contest helped her brush up on her local geography.  The third prize winner was Mr. Thomas Patterson.  He lived with his family at 549 Goundry Street in North Tonawanda.  He won the player piano.  The fourth Prize winner was Thomas Pakenham, who lived at 376 Ellicott Street.  The fifth prize winner was Phil Kost, who lived at 269 Washington Street.  

The Times ran a streets contest again in 1913, with new images to represent streets.  In 1913, the prizes were given in gold!  The first prize was $1,000 in gold.  Second Prize was $500 in gold.  Third prize was $250 in gold.  Five prizes of $100 in gold were given, ten prizes of $50 in gold, twenty prizes of $25 in gold, and fifty prizes of $10 in gold.  In total, $5,000 in gold was given away in 1913.  Does anyone know how to calculate the value of gold in 1913 vs today?  

Here’s some more of the images:

I will be running a series of the pictures on my facebook page for people to guess what streets are depicted, so head to facebook.com/buffalostreets to make some guesses over there on what streets are in the pictures!

My last tour of the summer will be on this coming Monday, September 2nd, at 2pm.  Celebrate Labor Day with a tour!  More information about the tour can be found here:  facebook.com/events/1002890391057778

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 share it with your friends; It really does help!

Sources:

• “Four Guess Correctly in Times Baseball Contest.”  Buffalo Times.  April 29, 1927, p3.
• “581 Prizes Worth In All $6604.00 Given Away Absolutely Free in the Times Great Street Contest”.  Buffalo Times.  November 28, 1910, p7.
• “$5,000 in Gold:  Street Contest of Unparalleled Magnitude.”  Buffalo Times.  February 7, 1913, p10
• “Roller Skating Match.”  Buffalo Sunday Morning News.  August 17, 1884, p1.  
• “Names of Winners in the Times’ Great Street Contest.”  Buffalo Times.  April 9, 1911, p1.  
• All Images from the Buffalo Times.

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