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Wade and Marion – A Woman with Two Streets Named After Her?

Posted in Blackrock, East Side, Leroy on March 8, 2023| 1 Comment »

Marion Street in Black Rock

What’s the connection between Marion Street in Black Rock and Wade Avenue in the Leroy Neighborhood? Marion Street runs between Reservation Street and Elmwood Avenue, just north of Amherst Street. You cannot drive from one end of Marion Street to the other because of the railroad corridor which bisects the street into two halves. Wade Avenue runs between Fillmore Avenue and Holden Street near Main and Fillmore Avenue. These two streets are both named after Marion Wade Nicholson! Marion was the daughter of real estate developer James Nicholson, who built and developed the streets.

Wade Avenue in the Main-Leroy Neighborhood

Today’s post is a partnership with Buffalo Women’s Caucus for Women’s History Month. Buffalo Women’s Caucus is an organization to empower women in all fields to become leaders and changemakers. You can follow the Buffalo Women’s Caucus by clicking this link: https://www.instagram.com/buffalowomenscaucus/ Today (March 8th) is International Women’s Day, a global holiday celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. I’m glad to feature Marion Wade Nicholson today. I think when we think of women’s history, we often remember the big changemakers, but I think it’s important to remember all the women who lived fairly regular lives. Marion was a daughter, a wife, a mother, an insurance saleswoman and a singer. Unlike most people streets are named for – she never held elected office, own large amounts of real estate or run successful businesses. She had success in her musical endeavors, but she would probably have considered herself a normal woman of her time. And I think it’s important to celebrate these women, remembering that our lives today is built on these women. Behind every man I’ve written about, there was almost always a woman on the sidelines. Many of those women are forgotten to history, their names written as Mrs. Husband’s Name. Even more are completely forgotten to the pages of history all together. So, remember those women as we learn today about Marion.

James W. Nicholson was born in Buffalo on May 5, 1862. He attended school in Hamburg and later moved to Buffalo with his family, who lived at 154 Fifteenth Street, near Vermont Street. He operated a real-estate business in Buffalo from the 1880s until he retired in 1930. His office was in the Erie County Savings Bank Building. Besides Marion and Wade, other streets on which he built homes were Woodlawn Avenue, St. Paul Street and Otis Place.

456 Ashland Avenue. Home to the Nicholson Family for more than 50 years!

James William Nicholson married Ella Riley in 1887. Their first child, a son Wesley Nicholson was born later that year. The Nicholsons moved into 456 Ashland Avenue in 1890. Mr. Nicholson was a member of the Richmond Avenue Methodist Church, joining on April 7, 1895. He also served on Official Board and the Board of Trustees of the Church. He was active in the Pan American Exposition in 1901. He was a part owner of the Philippine Village, helping to make arrangements to bring people from the Philippines to the Expo. (Note from Angela: these types of exhibits with “native” villagers on display, often referred to as human zoos, were common at the time. News reports from Buffalo in 1901 reported that the Philippine Village was one of the most visited exhibits of the Exposition, considered to be a great hit – people enjoying the way that it matched “amusement with instruction”. The Philippine Village was set up to be an exhibit in order to showcase the Philippines as America’s newest imperial possession. The exhibit was guarded by American Soldiers guarding a large, war-torn gate, a model of the fort in Manila Bay which represented a commemoration of war and the American triumph overseas. Newspapers also reported that the residents of Philippine Village were suffering in the cold Buffalo weather as the summer weather turned to fall. We do not condone these types of exhibits.)

1927 Picture of Marion. Source: The Buffalo News.

James and Ella’s second child, Marion Wade Nicholson, was born in April 1895. She grew up in the house at 456 Ashland. When she was 4 years old, Marion Street was named for her. She attended School 56 and Buffalo Seminary. While she was in high school, Wade Avenue was named in her honor. When interviewed about her streets, she sad “I was about thirteen when Wade Street was opened, and I told all my schoolmates about it at once. I still tell people about my streets”. H. Katherine Smith wrote of her interview that “(Marion) is the only one of more than 100 persons with streets named for them who admitted to me she got a thrill from being so honored”.

Marion was well known in the Buffalo musical circles. She sang in the choir of Westminster Presbyterian Church and played the piano. She was associated with Margaret Adsit Barrell’s studio; Mrs. Barrell was a founder of the Community Music School. Marion also sang on the radio and worked with many welfare organizations in Buffalo, often singing for those groups.

Marion Nicholson concert announcement in the Buffalo News, November 1926

Marion married Lester Adam Paterson on October 1, 1917 and became Mrs. Lester Paterson. The wedding was held at the house on Ashland, which was decorated with roses and autumn flowers, ferns and smilax. Marion wore a gown of white satin with court train and a veil fastened with orange blossoms and carried a bouquet of bride roses, sweetheart roses and gypsophyllium. Marion’s brother Wesley was the best man. Marion and Lester took a honeymoon road trip to Boston, New York and Philadelphia before returning to live at the house on Ashland with her parents. They had two children – Sara (Sally) Wade Paterson, born in 1923 and Jean Marion Paterson, born in 1930.

In June 1935, Marion traveled to Reno to file for divorce from Lester on non-support charges. At the time, divorce was not as common and was suppressed by state laws that discouraged the dissolution of couples. In New York, up until 1985, the only way to get a divorce was to prove your spouse had committed adultery! Reno, Nevada became the Divorce Capital of America in the 1930s. The grounds for ending marriage had a liberal interpretation there. Women would travel to Nevada for six weeks to establish residency. During the 1930s, it’s estimated that more than 30,000 people went to Reno to get a divorce. Hotels and guest ranches were established near the Court House to house the women who came. Marion’s divorce decree was granted on June 28, 1935.

Marion Nicholson in costume for an Easter Play at Westminster Church. March 1937. Source: Buffalo News.

After her divorce, Marion worked as a saleswoman for the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company. She was a member of the Buffalo Life Underwriters’ Association, the Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Wednesday Morning Musical Club, the Junior Musical Club and the Women’s Evening Club of Westminster Church. She had considered a career in music, but once she got her job, music became her hobby. It was reported that she played or sang every single day, no matter how busy she was with work or her daughters. She said “I play or sing every day. Music still is an important factor in my life. Playing or singing affords me immediate relaxation. I can lose myself in music and forget everything else.” She was one of founding members of the Wednesday Morning Musicale Club, which started in October of 1925. The group was formed by several women who were interested in making music together on a regular basis. At the time, there weren’t as many outlets for women. Women didn’t play in the the Philharmonic at the time, unless the song required a harpist. Marion was interviewed as a member of the Wednesday Morning Club, 60 years later in 1985, still singing and playing the piano at the age of 90. The group is still active today, nearly 100 years after it’s founding!

Mrs__Roberts_at_piano_Buffalo_News_August_1967

Marion (seated at piano), from the Buffalo News, August 1967

Marion continued to live in the house on Ashland as an adult. The family had been in Buffalo since the 1830s. Marion’s Great Grandmother had arrived to the small town of Buffalo via the Erie Canal. The Great Grandmother brought her belongings in a chest which was still in Marion’s possession more than 100 years later. The family also had heirloom fiddleback chairs of mahogany, a walnut chest of drawers, a dropleaf table, and the family’s old China place settings which had served the family for generations and had places of honor in Marion’s home. In 1940, Marion was quoted as saying of the old china: “It’s beautiful, of course, but so fragile, I feel anxious from the moment it appears on the table until it’s safely back in its place.”

Marion served as a director of the Graduates’ Association of the Buffalo Seminary. Her daughter Sally also attended the Seminary. Her other daughter, Jean, attended the School of Practice of the Buffalo State Teacher’s College (aka the State Normal School).

The Nicholson family summered at Shore Meadows in Angola, where they swam and did other outdoor sports. Shore Meadows was developed by the Lake Shore Real Estate company for business men in Buffalo who couldn’t afford the “fashionable higher priced colonies along the Lake Shore”, but wanted a respectable quality house. In 1946, Mr. Nicholson, Marion and the girls ended up moving from the house on Ashland to their summer house in Shore Meadows on Shore Cliff Road. Marion married Dr. Carlton Roberts sometime before 1948 and became Mrs. Carlton Roberts. Dr. Roberts was the first dental consultant to the Erie County Department of Social Welfare. In 1936, he set up the dental procedures for the guidance of the Department, which was the first of the type in New York State! Mr. Roberts died in 1965 after three years in the Gowanda State Hospital.

After the death of her second husband, Marion Roberts moved back into the city. She sold the house in Angola and moved to 515 Ashland Avenue in September 1965. Her new home was just a block away from her childhood home. Marion Wade Nicholson died August 14, 1987. She is buried, along with her family, at Prospect Lawn Cemetery in Hamburg.

Sara_Wesley_Paterson_Wedding_Announcement___Buffalo_News_July_1948

Sara Wesley Paterson’s bridal announcement. Buffalo News, July 1948.

Marion’s daughter Sara (Sally) Paterson was a 1941 graduate of the Elmwood School and Buffalo Seminary. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from University of Buffalo in 1945, graduating with honors. She taught for a few years in Bradford PA and Middleport, NY. In 1948, she married Raymond W. Garris, a chemical engineer in the oil industry. She and her husband in many places across the South and Midwest. They lived in 22 states and 8 countries, including six years living in Saudi Arabia, where he was an advisor to the Minister of Petroleum. They moved to Daphne, Alabama when he retired in 1985. She died in 2000.

Jean Marion Paterson Yearbook Photo, Millard Fillmore School of Nursing1953.

Daughter Jean Paterson attended the Millard Fillmore School of Nursing. She married James Elliott Dunning of Los Angeles in August 1961. They lived in San Diego, California and she worked as a registered nurse in a hospital. She died in 2007.

Both Marion and her daughters were a well known part of Buffalo society. Even after Sara and Jean moved away, there were articles in the paper when they’d visit town or come home for Christmas. In 1955, the Buffalo News reported that Marion was making her special plum pudding for her girls who were coming home for Christmas from Baltimore and the family was looking forward to being together and singing their traditional Christmas carols.

Marion (third from left) with her daughter Sara (standing) when Sara made a Saudi Arabian lunch on a visit home. Buffalo News. August 1978.

In 1978, Sara came for a visit while living in Saudi Arabia. She prepared traditional Arabian food while home in Buffalo. The main course was “Kabsah (the national dish of Saudi Arabia) and homos [sic] with Arab bread and fresh vegetables” and a traditional Saudi dessert which they did not know the official name of. Here are Sara’s recipes which were printed in the paper:

Kabsah

4 cups rice
4 whole medium tomatoes
1 small can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tablespoon salt (or to taste)
2 medium onions, chopped
4 tablespoons oil
2 to 2 1/2 pounds chicken or lamb, cut up

Brown meat lightly with chopped onions. chop tomatoes;; add to the meat. Add the spices and tomato sauce; simmer for 10 minutes. Add 8 cups of water and cook for 20 minutes. Add rice and more water if needed. Simmer for 30 minutes. Serve on a platter with the meat piled in the middle surrounded by rice. Platter may be decorated with lemon or tomato slices.

Saudi Arabian Dessert

About 2 cups whole wheat berries
Dried figs, cut up, about 1 cup
Dried apricots, cut up, about 1 cup
Dates, cut up, about 1 cup
3/4 cup sugar
Pine Nuts
Walnuts
Cashews

Soak wheat overnight in water to cover. Drain. Add clean water, covering wheat by about 5 inches. Add sugar and simmer slowly until wheat swells and liquid thickens. Just before it is finished cooking, add dried fruit and continue to simmer for about five minutes. Mixture should be as thick as pudding. Remove from pan, place in a dish with cover. Sprinkle top with a small handful of each time of nut. Cover and cool. Particularly delicious with thick whipped cream.

So the next time you drive past Marion St and Wade Ave, think about Marion! Remember all the women who lived in Buffalo over the years. Let me know if you try one of the recipes! To learn about other women with streets named after them check out this post here: Women’s History Month – Some Buffalo Women You Should Know . 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:

“Sara P. Garris, former teacher, Buffalo Native”. Buffalo News. February 4, 2000.
“James W Nicholson, 89; Retired Real Estate Man”. Buffalo News. December 20, 1951, p8.
“Garris”. South Florida Sun Sentinel. October 20, 2014, pB8.
“Paterson-Nicholson”. Buffalo Courier. October 2, 1917, p9.
“Local Woman Asks for Divorce”. Buffalo News. June 27, 1935, p21.
“Miss Paterson in White Organdy Over Taffeta”. Buffalo News. September 18, 1948, p14.
“Buffalo Native Home on a Visit Cooks a Saudi-Arabian Meal”. Buffalo News. August 16, 1978, p22.
Voell, Paula. “60-Year Old Musicale Is Outdated in Name But Youthful in Spirit”. Buffalo News. November 18, 1985, p28.
Smith, H. Katherine. “Two Buffalo Streets Named For a Musician – Saleswoman”. Buffalo Courier-Express. October 6, 1940, p6-9.
Marks, Ben. “Remembering When Reno was the Divorce Capital of America”. February 14, 2019. https://www.bitchmedia.org/post/remembering-when-reno-was-the-divorce-capital-of-america
“Welcome Back”. Buffalo News. September 30, 1965, p4.
“Reasonable Country Homes Aim of This Corporation”. Buffalo Enquirer. March 25, 1922, p8.

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Connelly – Get a Street Named After You and Survive 114 Years on the Great Lakes

Posted in East Side, Kenfield on November 2, 2022| 2 Comments »

Screenshot (8) Connelly Avenue runs one block between Bailey Avenue and Olympic Avenue in the Kenfield neighborhood on the East Side of Buffalo. The street is named after John Connelly, from Connelly Brothers Ship Chandlers, a waterfront business in Buffalo for more than a century!

Portrait of John Connelly. Source: Jennifer Connelly

John Connelly was born in Ireland around 1852. His father, Michael Connelly as a sailor who visited nearly every port in the world. On one trip Michael Connelly traveled to the Great Lakes. He was impressed with Buffalo, which he called “a city of promises”. In the 1860s, Michael’s two oldest sons, Michael and James sailed to America and came to Buffalo. In 1866, they brought their brother, John, to the country. John was about 14 years old and had already been working in the rolling mills in Wales for 50 cents a week since he was 10 years old. He was excited to come to America, to get away from the cold, hunger and poverty of the old country.

John and his brothers worked hard to establish a ship chandlery business for themselves here in Buffalo. Connelly Brothers Ship Chandlers was established in 1870. Brother James tragically died in 1872, drowning at the foot of Illinois Street. To start their business, John and Michael would take their rowboat to Tonawanda, load it with lumber and tow it to Buffalo, pulling the tugboat from the towpath the horses used along the canal. It was noted that even as he got older and was successful and could work less, John would still get up early, get dressed, read the newspaper by gas light and get to work right at sunrise. The ship company was located at the southwest corner of Ohio and Michigan Streets, at a site selected by John Connelly. They built some of the first steamers built for shipping lumber on the Great Lakes. In 1896, they built the last steamer that was built to ship lumber on the Lakes.

View of the Buffalo River, between 1900 and 1910. Note Connelly Brothers, the small building in the foreground to the left of the bridge abutment. Source: Library of Congress. Click here to see larger image.

Mary Connelly. Source: Jennifer Connelly

John Connelly met Mary Sullivan on a trip along the Erie Canal. She was from Ireland and was visiting friends in Oswego, New York. She returned to Ireland and Mary and John wrote letters to each other for a year. He then made his only trip back to the old country in 1885 to marry her. The Connellys lived on Michigan Avenue, which was called Michigan Street at the time. It was still a quiet, residential street lined with trees. Today, the site of their house is a parking lot across the street from the Seneca Buffalo Casino. John and Mary had eleven children, six sons and five daughters. Unfortunately, five of the children died in childhood. Five sons and a daughter lived to adulthood – Boetius, William, John Jr, James, Mary and Arthur.

Connelly Family on the steps of their house. Source: Jennifer Connelly

In 1901, the Connellys moved to 126 Fargo Avenue. The family lived there for many years. The house is now a part of the Nickel City Housing Cooperative and is known as Plankton House. The family also had a servant who lived with the family. In 1900, their servant was Mary Giritt, a 19-year old woman from Germany. In 1900, the servant was Annie Snyder, a 20-year old from Germany. In 1920, their servant was Elizabeth Endres, a 27-year old woman born in New York state to German immigrant parents. Because John had to leave school to work at a young age, he insisted that all of his children complete high school and offered them all a college education. John Jr and William were the only two who went to college – both becoming attorneys. William sailed on the Great Lakes to help finance his education, served in the U.S. Navy and specialized in marine law. Boetius served in the US Army during WWII. Mary and James worked for Connelly Bros. Arthur worked in labor relations.

Ad for Connelly Ave Lots for Sale from 1921. Source: Buffalo Times.

Connelly Street was developed in the early 1920s as Buffalo grew. John Connelly did not see Connelly Street as a source of pride. The street was named in his honor, which was a sign of his respect and esteem throughout the community. However, Mr. Connelly could only think of the money he lost when the street was cut through his property!

Despite being eager to grow his fortune, Mr. Connelly was also known as an easy target for those down on their luck. People would approach him for spare change, and Mr. Connelly would always empty his pockets for them. Eventually, his family persuaded him to give his change to the bookkeeper every morning, so that he would not have cash on him while walking around town. Mr. Connelly would then ask his bookkeeper for half a dollar to buy a handkerchief at the store across the street. He’d buy a hanky and then give the change to the person who asked. Because of this, he had many, many handkerchiefs!

Mr. Connelly died in 1928. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Lackawanna. After Mr. Connelly’s death, son James and daughter Mary Connelly Keene and Mary’s husband Russell Keene continued the business. In 1933 Mary Connelly Keene became President of the company.

Aftermath of the Bridge Collapse. Source: Buffalo News.

On January 21, 1959, the Michigan Avenue Bridge collapsed in what is often referred to as “the Tewksbury Disaster.” That winter was very cold, with heavy snow and bitter temperatures. On January 21st, there was an unseasonable thaw. The 50 degree day combined with a wind storm broke up the sheet of ice along Cazenovia Creek around 6pm, pushing the ice from the creek into the Buffalo River. The ice jam ran up against the hull of the MacGilvray Shiras, owned by the Kinsman Transit Company in Cleveland. The Shiras was moored for the winter at Concrete Central Elevator and full of corn. The Shiras broke free from its mooring around 10:40pm during wind gusts of 48 miles per hour. A chain-reaction accidental crash when the steamer Shiras broke loose from a dock owned by Continental Grain Company. The Shiras floated down river, where it struck the steamer Michael K. Tewksbury, which was stationed for the winter at the Standard Elevator and full of wheat. The boats continued downriver, past the Ohio Street lift bridge which was under construction and out of service. The story goes that the bridge operators for the Michigan Ave bridge were drinking at the Swannie House and not manning the bridge. One rumor says that the bridge operator was in bed with his mistress! William H. Mack testified in Federal Court that he did visit the tavern twice during that evening, from 8:20-8:40pm and from 10:00-10:20pm but that he was back on duty a half hour before the first warning call came in. Shift change for the bridge came at 11pm. One of the bridge tenders, Casimir Szumlinski, came on duty at 11. A call came in at 11:10pm from the watchmen at Standard Elevator alerting the bridge that there was a loose boat coming their way. It was said an earlier call came in at 10:45pm but the operators were waiting for Mr. Mack and Mr. Szumlnski because they did not know how to raise the bridge. Mr. Szumlinski recollected to the Buffalo News in 1969, “I saw the boat about 1000 yards away. It looked like a phantom coming out of the night – no lights, no flares”. The efforts to raise the bridge came too late, they were only able to partially raise the bridge before they needed to abandon the bridge. Two of the bridge tenders were injured as the boats slammed into the Michigan Avenue Lift Bridge at 11:17pm. The bridge plunged into the river, also damaging a water main. The two ships came to a stop near the wreckage of the bridge, abutting each other and wedged in the River amongst the wreckage of the bridge. The Shiras had traveled almost 3 miles!

Approximate path of the MacGilvray Shiras on January 21, 1959

The ice jam created by the ships blocking the river caused intense flooding in the First Ward. The quick thaw and the rain that occurred caused one of the worst flooding events in Metropolitan Buffalo History. There was also major flooding that night in Tonawanda and Amherst along Ellicott Creek. Delaware Park lake (now Hoyt Lake) rose several feet, closing Delaware Avenue. The New York Central Railroad tracks between Forest and West Delevan were washed out from flooding on Scajaquada Creek. Smokes Creek flooded an area 2 square miles in size, causing a state of emergency to be declared for Lackawanna.

At 7:45am the next morning, the north tower of the Michigan Avenue bridge toppled, crushing the roof of the Connelly Bros building and kicking out the sidewall timbers of the Engine 20 (the fireboat) firehouse. Connelly Bros lost the building, many marine supplies, a pier, and a 40-foot supply ship which sunk under the weight of the twisted bridge girders. The boat was recovered several months later, found in the rubble in the river. It took about two weeks for the Shiras and the Tewksbury to be freed from the wreckage, with tug boats and a coast guard ice-breaker cutting thru the ice. 51,000 bushels of wheat were unloaded from the Tewksbury to lighten the load to help free the ship from the wreckage of the bridge. Suction equipment was used which pumped out the wheat into trucks. With the Michigan Avenue bridge wrecked and the Ohio Street bridge closed for repairs, the Skyway was the only way to access South Buffalo from Downtown. The trucks hauled the grain from the wreck site over the Skyway to Connecting Terminal, an 8-mile trip. A channel was finally cleared on February 3rd preventing the risk of the River flooding again. The Shiras was damaged and on February 12 was towed to the GLF elevators to be unloaded and then taken to the American Shipbuilding dry dock for repairs. The Shiras ended up being towed to Hamilton, Ontario and sold for scrap in June 1959. The Tewksbury continued operations, returning to winter in Buffalo in following years. In 1962, the Tewksbury was renamed, but the ship saw service until 1975. The Michigan Avenue bridge reopened December 7, 1960.

Connelly Bros Boat at their pier, 1946. Source: Buffalo News.

Connelly Bros Boat Recovery in March 1959, after the bridge collapse. Source: Buffalo News.

At that time, Connelly Bros was 89-years old and were the oldest chandlery business in Buffalo. The company lost an estimated $200,000 ($1.8 Million today). It took many years for a ruling on how the three parties involved – The Continental Grain Co (owner of the dock), the Kinsman Steamship Co (owner of the steamer MacGilvray Shiras) and the City of Buffalo must share the payment of damages. The City was held partially liable because it was determined there should have been adequate time to lift the bridge. The case revolved on whether or not the Shiras was properly moored at Concrete Central elevator. The lawsuit for the damages was appealed at least six times. Final settlements for the 28 claimants was decided in 1966, totaling $1.8 Million ($16.5 million today) in damages. The original damage claims exceeded $3 Million! Connelly Bros ended up receiving $42,500 ($389,331 today) for business damages and $42,238.17 ($386,932 today) for damages to the building.

Mary Connelly Keene, 1974. Source: Jennifer Connelly

After the bridge collapse, the company leased space in a warehouse on Scott Street. The company suffered another tragedy when the warehouse suffered a fire four years later on March 9, 1963. Connelly Brothers moved to 43 Illinois Street on March 21, 1963, just 12 days later! In February 1969, Mrs. Keene was presented a plaque by the Buffalo Propeller Club and the International Shipmasters Association which recognized her contributions to both groups. Mary Keene was president of the company for more than 40 years! A rarity for a woman of the time!

Shipping in Buffalo was changing. The winter of 1974 was the first year since before the Civil War that no freighters spent the winter in Buffalo. The grain ships, like the Shiras and the Tewksbury, used to spend the winter with storage grain for Buffalo flour mills. In 1974, it was decided they could move grain in by train as needed. At the height of grain shipping in Buffalo, there would be more than 100 ships wintering in Buffalo. In 1973, there were just 12 vessels. The loss of winter ships impacted the Buffalo economy. Each ship that stayed in port typically spent about $75,000 (about $500,000 today) in Buffalo before leaving in the spring. This includes towing, docking fees, shifting fees, shipkeeper pay, and electric and water bills. Additionally, they’d spend money on food and repairs during the fit-out to prepare the ship for the spring lake season. At the time the entire business of Connelly Bros was built around marine trade. The company branched out to serve ships across the Great Lakes, not just in Buffalo, trying to survive.

43 Illinois Street, the final location of Connelly Bros. Source: Julia Spitz

Connelly Bros Ad from 1976. Source: Buffalo News

Mary Keene’s son Gilbert Norwalk was president of the company after Mary retired. Mary Keene died in 1978 at age 81. She is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Tonawanda. As the marine business continued to decline, Connelly Bros eventually shifted to including Auto Repairs as part of their business to keep up with the times. The company closed in 1984, after 114 years in business! In 2014. the Illinois Street building was listed as part of the Cobblestone District local historic district.

So the next time you’re down at the waterfront, think about Connelly Bros and the 114 years they spent working on helping ships in the harbor! Special thanks to Jennifer Connelly, Great Granddaughter of John Connelly, for allowing me to use some of her family photos in this post.

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:

Smith, H. Katherine. “Connelly Street a Memorial to Ship Chandlery Founder”. Buffalo Courier Express. January 12, 1942, p6.
Wood, Jerry. “Company Crushed in Bridge Collapse”. Buffalo News. February 26, 1959, p1.
“US Judge Rules on Who Shall Pay in Bridge Disaster.” Buffalo News. May 1, 1963, p10.
Maserka, Ron. “Damages in 1959 River Crash Are Set at $1.8 Million”. Buffalo News. April 22, 1966, p25.
“Mrs. Keene to get Plaque”. Buffalo News. February 3, 1969, p2.
Buckham, Tom. “Waterfront’s Economy Hit Hart by Loss of Winter Grain Fleet”. Buffalo News. January 25, 1974, p34.
“Connelly Bros Leases Building”. March 21, 1963, p33.
“Mary Connelly Keen Dies; Headed Ship Supply Firm”. Buffalo News. June 28, 1978.
Hariaczyi, Todd. “January 21, 1959: The Michael K. Tewksbury topples the Michigan Avenue Bridge”. Buffalo News. July 4, 2017.
“Mayor Aids Confer in Flood Emergency; Zero Cold Forecast”. Buffalo News. January 22, 1959, p1.
Kowalewski, Ed. “1959 Bridge Crash Still Vivid.” Buffalo News. Janaury 21, 1969, p29.
Maselki, Ron. “$1.8 Million Damage Found by Investigator of 1959 River Crash”. Buffalo News. April 21, 1966, p67.
“Crews Start A Task To Cut Away the Bridge.” Batavia Daily News. February 2, 1959. P1.
“Conveyors Unloading Grain From Aft Hold of Tewksbury”. Buffalo News. January 29, 1959, p31.
“Visited Tavern Before Crash, Bridge Operator Tells Court” Buffalo Courier Express. May 3, 1961, p64.

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Jones Street – Keeping Up with the Joneses in the Historic West Village

Posted in Babcock, East Side, West Side on August 23, 2022| 3 Comments »

Jones Street is a street in the Seneca-Babcock neighborhood of the East Side, running between Clinton Street and Lyman Street. Historically, the street went one block further north to Howard Street and one block south to Seneca Street. The street is named after a prominent Buffalo family who once had a pork and beef business on the site.

Source: History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Descendants of Captain Israel Jones

Miles Jones was born in Park-Hempstead, Connecticut, on May 20, 1804. His parents were Elizabeth Merrill and Marquis Jones. The Jones ancestors had lived in America since the Colonial Times. Miles was apprenticed to a shoemaker in the Village of Fredonia, where he learned the shoemaking trade. Miles came to Buffalo around 1820.

Mr. Jones married Elizabeth Roop in April 1829. Elizabeth was born in Buffalo in January 1810. Her father, John Roop, had come to Buffalo from Germany by way of Pennsylvania. During the Burning of Buffalo in 1813, Mr. Roop was murdered by Native Americans. Elizabeth was orphaned and taken in by Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Bidwell of Black Rock. I couldn’t find what happened to her mother, but sources list her and her brother as orphans. Once grown, Elizabeth was courted by the Bidwells’ son General Daniel D. Bidwell. However, she preferred Miles Jones, so she became Mrs. Jones.

The Jones family first lived on Delaware Avenue, where the County Jail is now. In 1835, moved to a steamboat (temperance) hotel that they ran on Lloyd Street near Prime Street. This hotel was one of the best known in town for those waiting for transportation on the Canal or Lake. At the time, the Canal area was still a place of upstanding businesses and the heart of the Village of Buffalo. It had not yet become the seedy part of town. The Joneses quickly became a well-respected part of Buffalo society life. Miles was elected First Ward Supervisor in 1839, 1840, 1841, 1851, and 1852.

In 1844, Miles Jones was made an inspector of beef and pork. He established Miles Jones Pork & Beef Wholesale business. The business was located near the canal at the corner of Prime and Hanover Streets. Mr. Jones was a pioneer in the pork packing industry. His pork packing house was looked upon as a marvel of its day. Wondering how pork was sold back then? In 1846, Miles advertised in the paper for sale of “500 pork barrels, 800 smoked hams, 600 smoked shoulders, 2000 pickled hams and shoulders, 100 barrels of Mess Pork, 200 barrels of Prime Pork, and a large quantity of odds and ends.”

The family moved from the canal area to 14 Green Street. Green Street is a small cobblestone street off of Washington Street that is basically just a cobblestone driveway into a parking lot these days. You might think the road was lost because of the construction of the Thruway. However, the street was already consumed by William Fargo’s American Express, which used the land for their shipping sheds.

miles jones In 1854, the Jones family built a large house at the corner of Chippewa and Georgia Streets. This was on the location of the Reservation Line, which divided the New York State lands from the Holland Land Company land. The Reservation Line was established in 1786 when the land was reserved for New York State. At the edge of the reservation was where Peter Porter laid out the original settlement of Black Rock, with the streets named after states and numbers. When Mr. Jones purchased the property, there was nothing but fields to the west of their home. The Jones Family house was originally numbered 135 but was later changed to 186 West Chippewa. The Jones property also extended to Ninth Street. The Jones family owned two houses on Ninth Street and another house on Cary Street. Their carriage house associated with their Chippewa Street home was also located at the dead-end of Cary Street. In 1869, residents of Ninth Street petitioned Common Council to change the name to Prospect Avenue, which was granted by June of 1870.

The Jones family lived with their twelve children, two domestic servants, and a carriage driver. The children attended Buffalo Public Schools. Unfortunately, two of the Jones children died in childhood. The Jones family owned much of the block, so they’d subdivide their property to build homes for their many children as they grew up.

Helen M. was born in January 1830 and married Oliver Bruce in 1848. She had four children – Isabella, Helen, Miles, and Oliver. Her husband died in 1855, and Helen married David F. Day. The family lived at the Day Mansion at 69 Cottage Street. She died in May 1890. The mansion was later used by the Salvation Army as a Home for Young Women but was later demolished.
Marshall N was born in September 1831. Marshall was married three times – to Harriet A Beach, Rosanna Quinn, and Hulda Smith. Marshall had six children – Miles, William, Freddie, Richard, Eva, and Hulda. Marshall and his family lived for several years in the family homestead on Chippewa Street. In 1880, he moved to Main Street near Bryant.
Chapin William (sometimes went by William) was born in October 1833. He married Caroline (Carrie) Cox in August 1859. They had 5 children – Kate, Marshall, Roop, Allen, and Elizabeth. Chapin and his family lived near the rest of the family, at the corner of Cary Street and Morgan (now South Elmwood).
Sarah Stanard was born in November 1835. She married Lafayette E. Mulford in June 1865. They had one child, Henry Jones Mulford, and lived at 90 Bryant Street.
Miles was born in October 1838. He died at age 6 in 1844.
Elizabeth Roop was born in April 1840. She married Allen M Adams in June 1863. They had 7 children – Allen, James, Frank, Elizabeth, Miles, Helen, and Jay. Their family lived at 1211 Seneca Street.
Dencie was born in 1842. She died just before her second birthday in 1844.
Henry Roop was born in March 1844. Henry and his wife lived at 13 Ninth Street (which became 25 Prospect when the street name changed). They had two children. In 1874, they moved into 267 Georgia Street, where they lived for 14 years before moving up Niagara Street near the corner of Rhode Island.
Elsie Louise was born in January 1847 and married Charles H. White in 1868. They had two children. She and her family lived at the family homestead on Chippewa. After the house was old, they moved up to Allen Street. She died in June 1908.
Isabella Clara Jones was born in May 1848 and married Frank H. Ransom in December 1869. They had two children. She died suddenly in Rome, Italy, on vacation with her family in 1885.
Ida Francis was born in April 1850 and married John Siver in July 1870. Mr. Siver worked at the Lackawanna steel plant (which became Bethlehem Steel). They had eight children – John, Burton, Eva, Ida, Leroy, William, George, and Elsie. The family lived at 82 Fields in South Buffalo.
Eva Imogen was born in Sept 1853 and married George M. Trefts in February 1876. They had three children – George, John, and Chilion. They lived at 25 Prospect when her brother moved out. She died in October 1899.

The youngest brother of Miles Jones, Merlin Willard Jones, also came to Buffalo to work with Miles in the pork business. Merlin lived across Prospect from the rest of the family at 28 Prospect.

Church of the Messiah Alter on Main Street. Source: Picture Book of Earlier Buffalo.

The Jones family were universalists. They attended the Church of Messiah which was located on Washington Street near Swan. In 1866, the church moved to a new building on Main between Chippewa and Huron. The Jones family donated money for the new church for a pulpit made by the Thompson Hersee factory of Buffalo. Miles Jones was a member of the Hiram Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. Mr. Jones died in 1869 at age 64 after being confined to his house due to his ill health. Despite this, he insisted on going to the polls to vote on election day, his final outing. He is buried in Forest Lawn

Miles and Elizabeth’s sons Henry and Marshall had entered the pork packing business. When Miles retired, the business was continued by Henry and Marshall under the name Miles Jones’ Sons. The Jones property near the canal was sold to the DL&W Railroad. At that time, the plant moved to Clinton Street near the corner of Metcalfe Street. This area was near the Buffalo stockyards on William Street, so it was a popular area for meatpacking. Buffalo’s meatpacking industry was second only to Chicago. When Miles Jones’ Sons business closed, Jones Street was opened through the property in 1882.

Lasalle Apartments. Source: Author.

The Jones family house on Chippewa was listed for sale in 1878. It was listed for sale again in 1885 as “a large 2.5 story house with lot, 152 feet frontage on Chippewa and Georgia Streets, will be sold at a bargain.” Similar to the case with the Fargo Mansion, just six blocks away, there was little demand for such a large house. The area of the West Village was shifting towards multi-family uses. In 1889, it was used as a boarding house with furnished rooms for let. It was listed for sale again in 1891 and 1892. The last owner of the house, Charles Beckwith, had listed the house for sale but died in the home in 1895. Following Mr. Beckwith’s death, it was demolished to build the LaSalle Apartments. The LaSalle apartments opened on the site in 1898.

Over time, the West Village neighborhood changed. Old housing began to be demolished. Single-family residential structures made way for commercial buildings such as the Lasalle Apartments which replaced the Jones family home or the Roanoke Hotel at Elmwood and Chippewa, built in 1901 for the Pan American Exposition. The building is now home to Evergreen Health Services. The Hutchinson Homestead was replaced with Hutchinson Technical Central High School (Hutch-Tech) in 1913.

The area’s property tax base declined, partly because of the demolition of houses and an increase in privately developed parking lots. In particular, parking demand increased significantly from the Federal Office Building, which opened at 200 Delaware Avenue in 1971. The Thaddeus J. Dulski Federal Office Building houses 50 federal agencies and a workforce of 1,200 people. Much of the parking was on illegal, unlicensed lots. These illegal lots provided free parking for federal government employees. The government emptied the building in 2005. It was sold to private developers and renovated into The Avant, a mixed-use building with a hotel and condos.

In 1974, the West Village Community Association organized to bring awareness to the neighborhood’s historic value and help to revitalize and rehabilitate properties in the area. During the 1970s, 62 of the West Village’s 166 residential structures had been renovated. These renovated structures provided 265 improved housing units in the neighborhood. In addition, the Association held workshops on recycling older houses to help homeowners improve their buildings and offer suggestions and resources.

The Association saw the detrimental impact of the parking lots in the Georgia-Prospect Street area and wanted to turn the area into a robust residential neighborhood. In the summer and fall of 1979, the Lower West Side Resource & Development Corporation conducted a preliminary planning study. One of the recommendations included infill housing for the vacant lots, particularly those in the Georgia-Prospect area. Improvements to traffic patterns were another measure to improve the neighborhood conditions. Georgia Street would be made two-way; West Chippewa between South Elmwood and Whitney Place would be made one-way eastbound; Prospect Avenue between Huron and Georgia would be one-way toward the southeast; Huron Street between Niagara and Elmwood would be two-way. This was to be designed as a calming traffic measure to lessen the intrusion of downtown traffic using the neighborhood streets to zoom up to get to the highway. Today, West Chippewa and Georgia Street are one-way heading west and southwest; Huron is one-way heading east; Prospect (now Rabin Terrace) is now two-way.

Map of West Village. Red Boundary shows the National Historic District. Orange Boundary shows the Local Preservation District. Blue boundary shows the Georgia- Prospect Urban Renewal Area.

In 1979, the West Village Historic District became a City of Buffalo Local Historic District. The local district is bounded by South Elmwood, Tracy, Carolina, Niagara, and Huron Street. In addition, properties on the north side of Carolina Street between Tracy and Niagara were included in the local district.

In July 1983, the West Village Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The boundary for the National Historic District is slightly smaller than that of the local district. The properties being looked at for the Georgia-Prospect Urban Renewal Project were left out of the National Historic District.

In February 1982, the City of Buffalo adopted an Urban Renewal Plan for the Lower West Side (Georgia-Prospect) area. Cannon Planning & Development was retained to establish a formal planning and development framework for the West Village. The plan attempted to provide community growth by assembling vacant and underutilized land to convert into productive residential uses. The program included two areas: the first Virginia-Carolina – the area between Carolina, Virginia, West, and Fell Alley. The second area was Georgia-Prospect – the two-block area bounded by Chippewa, Georgia, Huron, and South Elmwood. We will concern ourselves with the Georgia-Prospect area as this is the former land of Miles Jones.

Properties within the urban renewal area were surveyed by the Lower West Side Resource & Development Corporation. A second survey was independently completed by Cannon Design. Surveys were exterior only, with interior inspections only made on sample properties. The results of the survey indicated that 55.9% of parcels in the area were open or dilapidated. Most of the land slated for acquisition consisted of vacant land (with parking on it). The plan included demolition of all structures and improvement on properties except 241, 245, 247, and 267 Georgia Street, if rehab proved feasible for those structures(which it was).

As part of the urban renewal project, the following properties were demolished. Each of these buildings was listed as contributing to the West Village Local Historic District. Photos show what the buildings looked like in the late 1970s/early 80s before demolition:

193 West Huron Street – a one-story residence constructed in 1872 with a front addition built in 1910. The building was constructed in a Second Empire motif with a false Mansard roof with rounded dormer windows. The property had a weird shape due to its frontages on both Huron and Prospect.
193 Huron. Source: NYSHPO
11 Prospect – a 1 and a half story brick Italianate foreman’s cottage built in 1854. It was initially constructed for Robert Denton, a piano turner who became a partner in Denton, Cottier, and Daniels. This Buffalo music store is still in business today. This property had an unusual orientation due to its location on the Reservation Line and the angle of Prospect Street. The house was built oriented towards Huron Street. The building’s last use was as a rooming house.
11 Prospect. Source: NYSHPO
17 Prospect – a two 1/2 story Shingle Style cottage built around 1910. This house had a unique orientation due to its location along the Reservation Line and the street angle. The building was built askew, with no distinct orientation. It faced neither Huron Street nor Prospect Ave.
17 Prospect
28 Prospect – a two-story Italianate-style house built in 1866. The house’s original owner was Miles Jones, and the house was occupied by Merlin, his brother.
28 Prospect. Source: NYSHPO
32 Prospect – a 1 and a half story wood Frame Italianate cottage built in 1861.
32 Prospect. Source: NYSHPO
53 Cary Street – a 2 and a half story brick carriage house with gable roof built in 1852. The property had a Cary Street address, but the building faced Chippewa Street. It was originally built as a part of Eliza Abell’s house at 166 W Chippewa. The main house was demolished in the 1960s to build Dewey’s Diner, which was also demolished. The carriage house was vacant before it was purchased by the city.
53 Cary. Source: NYSHPO
55 Cary Street – a two-story wood-frame Italianate cottage built in 1854. It was typical of the working-class homes that were built in the 1850s in this part of Buffalo.
55 Cary. Source: NYSHPO
67 Cary Street – a two-and-a-half-story brick Italianate residence built in 1854. Its last use was as apartments.
67 Cary. Source: NYSHPO
69-71 Cary Street – a two-story carriage house built in 1854 at the dead-end of Cary Street. This building served as the carriage house for the Jones family home. It was later converted into apartments.
69-71 Cary. Source: NYSHPO
166 South Elmwood – a two-and-a-half-story brick Italianate residence built in 1865. The house was later converted to apartments and had a concrete block addition for tavern use. The original owner of the house was John R. Hazard, a coal dealer. The original address for the site was 144 Morgan Street before Morgan Street was changed to South Elmwood.
166 S. Elmwood. Source: NYSHPO
192 South Elmwood – a two-and-a-half-story brick Italianate-style cottage built in 1854. The original owner was Milton Randall, a steamboat agent. A front addition was constructed in the front of the house for tavern use. The rear was converted into apartments.
192 S. Elmwood. Source: NYSHPO

Five houses within the urban renewal area were saved and are still extant. The following properties within the area have been rehabilitated, with the black and white photos showing the buildings in the late 70s/early 80s, and the colored photos showing conditions today:

241 Georgia Street – a two-story Italianate-style house built in 1869. The house was initially built by Rueben Sparks. The house is divided into four apartment units.
241 Georgia (Source: NYSHPO)
245 Georgia Street – a three-story Second Empire style house built in 1870. Originally built by L.A. Hamilton. The house is currently divided into three apartment units.
246 Georgia (Source: NYSHPO)
247 Georgia St – a two-story Italianate-style house built in 1866. The house was originally built for Robert E Skillings, a livery operator. The porch collapsed in 1977. The building is currently divided into two apartment units.
247 Georgia before. Source: NYSHPO

247 Georgia today. Source: Author
267 Georgia Street – a three-story Second Empire style house with a mansard roof built in 1874. The building was home to Miles Jones’ son. The building is currently divided into five apartment units.
267 Georgia Before. Source: NYSHPO

267 Georgia Street today. Source: Author.
3 Prospect Avenue – a two-and-a-half-story Queen Anne Style residence built in the 1890s. The house is oriented towards Huron Street and has been subdivided into three apartment units.
3 Prospect (now 3 Rabin Terrace) before. Source: NYSHPO

3 Rabin Terrace today

Infill Houses along Rabin Terrace

As part of the urban renewal project, infill housing was built. The city paid for land assembly and infrastructure. Thirty-two new housing units were constructed in the Georgia-Prospect area by Marrano Homes. These were the first new homes to be built in the area in 30 years. The houses were sold at market rates and ranged in price from $45,000 to $60,000 ($133,800 – $178,500 in today’s dollars). Similar houses in the suburbs at the time were going for $85,000 ($252,800). The houses are small, charming, and have a design reminiscent of the Italianate houses in the area. This differed from other new housing built in the city that mostly resembled suburban ranch-style homes. These houses are generally looked at as a successful infill project.

Examples of Infill houses in this area

Rabin terrace Dedication. Source: Buffalo News.

In 1996 Lower Prospect Avenue was renamed Rabin Terrace in honor of Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin. He was assassinated on November 4, 1995. Prime Minister Rabin had been working towards Israeli-Palestinian peace, and signed several historic agreements with Palestinian leadership as part of the Oslo Accords. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, along with Yasser Arafat. He was assassinated following a rally in support of the Oslo Accords by an extremist Yigal Amir, who opposed the terms of the accords. The square in Tel Aviv where he was assassinated was renamed Rabin Square in his honor. There is also a walkway named after Rabin in the America-Israel Friendship Grove in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York(note from Angela, this is my favorite park!).

Recent Image of Rabin Terrace sign.

The Rabin Terrace street signs in Buffalo went up on the first anniversary of his death. Today, these infill houses sell for $380,000-$400,000. Many of the residents have fantastic gardens, and this is a popular area for Garden Walk each year.

Sources:

“Monument to a Peacemaker.” Buffalo News November 5, 1996, p.B-4.
“Death of Miles Joes, Esq.” Buffalo Commercial. January 4, 1869. P2.
Sheldon, Grace Carew. “Buffalo Of the Olden Time: Henry Roop Jones.” The Buffalo Times.
Sheldon, Grace Carew. “Buffalo of the Olden Time: Miles Jones.” The Buffalo Times. Series: December 12, 1910, p11, December 11, 1910. P 40, December 9, 1910, p 15.
City of Buffalo Community Development Department. “Lower West Side (Georgia-Prospect) Urban Renewal Plan. February 23, 1982.
National Parks Service. Certification Report. West Village Historic District. July 1983.
“Buffalo Common Council: Name of Streets” Buffalo Courier. December 7, 1869. p2.
Langdon, Philip. “Replace Some Illegal Parking Lots With Homes, W. Side Group Urges.” Buffalo Courier-Express. 1979.
Buffalo Courier-Express, April 11, 1982. p 13
Haddad, Charles. “38 New West Side Houses Planned”. Buffalo Courier-Express. July 17, 1982. p1.
Jones, Asahel Wellington. History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Descendants of Captain Israel Jones. Laning Company: Madison, Wisconsin. 1902

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Sprenger Ave – Too Scandalous to Keep Your Maiden Name? Give it to A Street Instead

Posted in East Side, Schiller Park on August 4, 2022| 7 Comments »

Sprenger Avenue shown in red.

Sprenger Avenue runs between Doat Street and Genesee Street in the Schiller Park neighborhood of the East Side. The Schiller Park neighborhood developed around picnic groves developed by German immigrants at Braun’s Grove (later Genesee Park) and Schiller Park. Braun’s Grove (Genesee Park) is now the location of the George K Arthur Community Center. Across Genesee Street, Schiller Park is 36 acres in size and officially became a park in 1912. The park is named for German poet, historian and philosopher Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. During the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration built the Schiller Parks Pools and Locker House. The Locker house still stands. While the pools have been filled in, Schiller Park is home to one of Buffalo’s splash pads. Schiller Park is also home to the Schiller Park Senior Center. Sprenger Avenue divides Schiller Park into two parts.

Sprenger Avenue is named for Magdalena Sprenger Warner. Mrs. Warner went by Laney/Lena and was the wife of Leopold Warner. When the street was coming through land that Leopold owned, they decided that since there were other Warner families in town, it would be more special to name it after Laney’s maiden name, Sprenger.

Leopold Warner. Source: Buffalo Evening News.

Laney was born in Vienna, Austria in May 1822, daughter of Abraham and Lena Sprenger. Leopold Warner was born in Bzenec in 1818. Bzenec was part of the Austrian Empire at the time but is now part of the Czech Republic. Laney and Leopold married on April 10,1842. After the revolution of 1848, the Warners left Austria and settled in Utica, NY. Their trip to America from Vienna took three months. They soon learned that Buffalo had greater promise than Utica and moved here in 1854.

Once in Buffalo, Laney helped her husband get his start in clothing. She made men’s and boys caps which Leopold sold door to door in a reed basket. Years later, at their 50th wedding anniversary in 1892, the basket was displayed, full of flowers instead of caps!

Rendering of the Warner Bros Building on the Terrace. Source: Buffalo Morning Express.

In 1855, Leopold established Warner Brothers & Co. men’s clothing with his brothers Joseph and John. They were one of the first clothing manufacturers in Buffalo. They were first located at 41-43 Main, then expanded to Exchange Street and then to Pearl Street at the Terrace. This area was a hub of clothing firms – in addition to Warner Brothers & Co, there were the firms of Henry J. Brock & Co, M. Wile & Co and Rothschilds Brothers. The business was successful and became the second largest wholesale clothing house in the city of Buffalo. They sold products across the Northeast and also into some of the Southern states. The firm had more than 1,200 employees.

Sketch of Fire at Warner Brothers Building on the Terrace. Source: Buffalo Courier.

The Warner Brothers building at Pearl and Terrace had a fire and in 1878 and another in 1891. Both fires caused significant damage to the building and inventory. Two fireman died in the blaze in 1891. Warner Bros & Co started a relief fund for the benefit of the families of the fireman. Warner Bros & Co was so large, it also operated at 72 – 76 Pearl Street, now better known as Pearl Street Grill and Brewery. Leopold retired from the firm in 1878. The business continued to be run by the Warner family and was renamed Kempner & Warner in 1895.

Warner Brothers & Co Clothing at 72 Pearl Street. Now Pearl Street Grill and Brewery. Source: 1888 City Directory

The Warners lived on Scott Street through the 1850s and 60s. Scott Street was a desirable residential area at the time due to its proximity to the lake. The Warners had five sons and eight daughters. Their daughter, Liddie, remembered running out of the house to see President Lincoln’s funeral procession pass down Perry Street. She called it the saddest day of her childhood and recalled neighbors crying in the streets. The Warner family later moved to 413 Michigan Street, now the location of the parking lot for the former Sheehan Memorial Hospital. They lived on Michigan Street when the street was paved for the first time. Unfortunately, five of the children died in childhood. Another son, Louis, died of typhoid fever a few weeks before he was to be married. Louis Warner’s fiancée, Josephine Jellinek, died a few weeks later, on August 31, 1889, reportedly of a broken heart. She was buried in the Warner family plot next to Louis on September 3rd, 1889, the day which they were to be married. So heartbreaking!

Louis and Josephine’s graves in Forest Lawn.

In July 1885, the Warners moved to 132 Morgan (now South Elmwood). The house was at the southwest corner of Huron and was originally built for Charles H Williams. Mr. Williams was a banker and you may be familiar with Mr. Williams later house, still located at 690 Delaware Avenue (near Delaware and North).

Temple Beth Zion at 599 Delaware Avenue. Source: “Buffalo and Its Points of Interest – Illustrated”, NY Commercial Publishing Co, 1896.

The Warners were charter members of Temple Beth Zion. Temple Beth Zion began as the Orthodox congregation of Beth Zion in 1850. In 1864, the congregation embraced Reform Judaism and a new constitution was initiated, keeping the name. The congregation worshiped in several former church spaces until they decided to construct a new temple. The new Temple Beth Zion was designed by Edward Kent in the Byzantine style and opened located at 599 Delaware Avenue in 1890. Delaware Avenue at this time was considered Millionaire’s Row. The choice of a property along Delaware Avenue and the use of society architect Kent was a way for the members of Temple Beth Zion to take their place in Buffalo society. Most of the members had been Central European immigrants the generation before. During the dedication of the new Temple, Leopold lit the perpetual lamp, known as ner tamid in Hebrew, a fixture in nearly all Jewish places of worship. The lamp was dedicated by the Warners in remembrance of their son, Louis, who had passed away shortly before the temple dedication. It is reported that the lamp is still hanging in the Temple. Leopold was a charter member and Vice President of Temple Beth Zion for 25 years.

Current Temple Beth Zion, 805 Delaware

After 70 years in their temple, Temple Beth Zion suffered a devastating fire in 1961 that gutted their building. There was debate about whether to move from the city into the suburbs. Many other other religious communities were doing so at the time, as Western New York suburbanized. In 1963, the congregation voted overwhelmingly to remain a city-based congregation and remain in the city. The new Temple Beth Zion at 805 Delaware was completed in 1967, designed by Max Abramovitz. The modern, brutalist architecture of the Temple creates an open and light-filled sanctuary. The ten sides of the building represent the ten commandments. There is a large amount of symbolism throughout the building and it is considered to be a midcentury architectural treasure of Buffalo. Temple Beth Zion remains one of the oldest and largest Reform congregations in the country, and the largest Jewish Congregation in Western New York.

After retiring from Warner Brothers & Co, Leopold was involved with real estate throughout the city. Mr. Warner was one of the largest land holders in the city of Buffalo.On July 29, 1885, the Evening Telegraph reported in a Town Talk column that “Leopold Warner is gradually buying up the whole town.”

Laney Warner spoke English, but enjoyed reading German authors. The family were active in many organizations in early Buffalo, such as the Young Men’s Association, the predecessor of Buffalo Public Library. They attended many plays at the Academy Theatre, which was located on Main Street between Seneca and Swan Streets.

Warner Grave in Forest Lawn.

The Warners were considered to be generous and charitable. Mr. Warner refused to foreclose on a mortgage on a house he owned on Sprenger Avenue because the owner had a family and Leopold refused to leave them homeless. Leopold was president of the Jewish Benevolent Association and founded the Jewish Orphanage in Rochester in 1878. The Orphanage served children of Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. In 1892, he left an endowment of $5,025 (approximately $159,650 in today’s dollars) to the orphanage to provide $150 ($4,765 today) to each girl in the orphanage to serve as a marriage dowry for the orphan girls.

Laney Warner’s Grave in Forest Lawn.

Mr. Warner died in March 1900. He is buried in the family plot at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Laney Warner died on May 13, 1910 and is buried next to her husband.

Don’t forget there are still tours coming this season! The next tour will be Discover Lower Main on Sunday August 14th at 1pm, meeting outside of Tim Hortons at Main & Scott Street (near Canalside). Feel free to just show up! For more info and additional dates, click here. Hope to see some of you soon!

Sources:

“Sprenger Avenue Given Name to Honor Wife of Area Owner”. Buffalo Courier-Express. June 9, 1940, p.8W.

“Death of Leopold Warner”. Buffalo Evening News. March 21, 1900, p16.

“The Late Leopold Warner”. Buffalo Morning Express. March 25, 1900, p6.

“Synagogues/Temple Beth Zio”. Jewish Buffalo History Center. https://jewishbuffalohistory.org/synagogues/temple-beth-zion/

“Thrice Married, Thrice Blessed – Golden Wedding at Concert Hall”. Buffalo Courier. April 11, 1892, p5.

“Another Good Block. The Fine Business Structure Which Warner Bros & Co Are Erecting”. Buffalo Morning Express. October 14, 1888, p12.

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Roehrer – Help Your Employees Own Houses, Get a Street Named After You

Posted in East Side, Kingsley on May 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Roehrer Avenue

Roehrer Avenue runs between Best and East Ferry Streets in the Kingsley Neighborhood of the East Side of Buffalo. The land where the street is now was once owned by John Roehrer. He owned most of the land between Jefferson, Best, Humboldt Parkway and Ferry Streets. In addition to Roehrer Avenue, he also developed Wohlers Avenue, Portage Street and Celtic Place. Peter Wohlers (sometimes spelled Wahlers) was also a part of the Best Street Land Company, hence the name of Wohlers Avenue.

John Roehrer. Source: Buffalo and the German Community

John Roehrer was born in Buffalo on October 27, 1855. His father, Johann Georg Roehrer, was a Bavarian immigrant and his mother, Margarethe Herbst, was American-born. Mr. Roehrer attended local public schools, the German Evangelical Lutheran parish school, and the Bryant & Stratton Business College. Johann owned and operated a brewery on Best Street. John’s first job was at the brewery. Because of business panics, the company made little money and there was no inheritance left for John.

Mr. Roehrer married Mary Louise Beckman in 1880. John worked at the Schoellkopf Tannery, where he made $6 a week. After he got married, he asked for a raise. The tannery was unable to meet his demands so he left and went into business for himself. He took over an inn and restaurant, which he ran for 8 years. In 1884, he organized the Broadway Belt Line Land Company, leaving the hospitality business and entered the real estate business. He also organized the Best Street Land Company and later the Glenwood Land Company. The associations purchased and subdivided properties on the East Side of the City. Mr. Roehrer oversaw the building of the first houses on East Utica Street, Glenwood Avenue and other cross streets.

In 1889, he partnered with Mr. Albert Ziegele, Jr, a brewery owner, to establish the firm of Roehrer & Company Insurance Brokers. Mr. Roehrer was said to be successful in his business dealings because he was always fair and honest. He worked with craftsmen and laborers to build the homes they would sell. Mr. Roehrer would then helped his workers be able to build and own houses of their own as well. This was unique at the time, as many laborers could not afford to own a home.

Roehrer House to the left of image, with the commercial building in front of the house. The entrance of the house is through what used to be a side door. The house has been subdivided into multiple units.

The Roehrer family originally lived on Maple Street. In 1891, he built a large home at 454 East Utica, at the corner of Roehrer Street. The house is still standing, but was moved to the rear of the lot in 1920 so a commercial building could be built on Utica. The house now has a Roehrer Street address. The Roehrers had one daughter, Grace.

roehrer grave Mr. Roehrer was a 32nd Degree Mason, a member of the Modestia Lodge No 343, Order of the Free Masons and the Zuleika Grotto No. 10. He was a prominent member of the Buffalo Sangerbund (a singing society), and served as treasurer of their association. He was also a member of Central Presbyterian Church. Mr. Roehrer died in 1928. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Don’t forget, tours are coming up! This coming Saturday, May 14th is the first of the season. 1pm meeting outside of Public Espresso at the Hotel Lafayette, 391 Washington Street Buffalo 14203. Rain or shine! Feel free to just show up! For more info and additional dates, click here. Hope to see some of you soon!

Sources:

Smith, H. Katherine. “Roehrer Avenue Honors Area Owner’s Memory”. Buffalo Courier-Express. May 28, 1939, pg L8.
Mueller, Jacob. Buffalo and Its German Community. German-American Historical and Biographical Society. 1911-12.

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Greene Street – Come to Buffalo with Your Brothers, Get a Street Named After You

Posted in East Side, lovejoy on April 26, 2022| 6 Comments »

Greene Street in Lovejoy

Buffalo only has a few streets whose names could be colors – Pink, Brown, Grey. One of them, Greene Street, runs from Broadway to William in the Lovejoy Neighborhood on the East Side of Buffalo. The street is named for two brothers who were physicians in Buffalo – Joseph C. Greene and Walter D. Greene.

The Greene brothers came to Buffalo from Vermont. The Greene family is an old New England family descending from Henry Greene. Henry Greene sailed from Ipswich, England to Newberry Port, Massachusetts in 1643. They are related to General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary War Fame. Joseph and Walter’s brother, Stephen, was a naval surgeon in the Civil War and also practiced medicine in Buffalo with his brothers. There were five Greene Brothers in Buffalo – the Doctors Joseph, Stephen, and Walter mentioned above; Insurance Agent Simon and U.S. Customs Officer George. I wasn’t able to find out why the street is only named after the two of them! In addition to those five, there were two other brothers – Edson and William; and 7 sisters – Naomi, Elizabeth, Almira, Elizabeth II, Mary Anne, Caroline, and Cynthia. Various members of the family spelled their last name as Green without the e.

The five Greene Brothers in Buffalo; Back row: Walter and Stephen; Front row: George, Joseph and Simon. Source: Cindy Davis, via Ancestry.com

Dr. Joseph Chase Greene. Source: Cindy Davis, via Ancestry.com

Joseph Chase Greene was born in Lincoln, Vermont, on July 31,1829, the oldest of the fourteen Greene siblings. He attended Barry Academy in Vermont and Albany Medical College, receiving his MD in 1855. He then studied in the clinics in New York Hospital in New York City and came to Buffalo in 1863.

Joseph Greene married Julia Taggart of Vermont in 1856. They had three children – Dr. Dewitt Clinton Greene, Anna Adelaide, and Julia Delphine. Joseph and Julia’s first home (and Dr. Greene’s office) in Buffalo was at 444 Elk Street (now South Park Avenue). When brother Stephen moved to town in 1875, Joseph moved to 124 Swan Street and gave the Elk Street house to Stephen. Julia Greene died in 1882, and Joseph then married Mary Burrows Smith. In his later years, Joseph lived and practiced at 1125 Main Street, near Best.

Museum Director of Collections, Walt Mayer preparing the mummies on exhibit in 2019. Source: Buffalo History Museum

In the 1890s, Joseph Greene made a trip around the world. He collected valuable relics of ancient Egypt, Assyria and Syria; Sixteenth Century armor from England and other mementos from the age of chivalry; prized Oriental trinkets, and beautiful canes from every country in the world. These specimens are part of the Joseph C. Greene Collection at the Buffalo History Museum. A few years ago, the mummies from the Greene Collection traveled with the exhibit “Mummies of the World”, along with the Museum Director of Collections, Walt Mayer.

Joseph C. Greene gravestone in Forest Lawn

Joseph Greene was associated with the City of Buffalo Health Department. He served as an alderman in 1885 and was president of the fourth branch of the New York State Medical Society, the Erie County Medical Society, and the Buffalo Historical Society. Joseph was a Knight Templar, 32nd Degree Mason and member of the Buffalo Consistory and Shrine. He died at age 70 from complications from diabetes in 1899. He is buried in Forest Lawn.

In addition to the street, Joseph Greene also has what is known as the Bristol Rock. Wanting to find a way to celebrate his childhood in the Bristol, Vermont area, he paid a carver to engrave the Lord’s Prayer on the slab and his own name. Some people say that Greene was upset by the cursing and swearing of the loggers traveling along the road, so he put the prayer to make them think twice about their language.

Bristol Rock with the Lord’s Prayer carved into it by Joseph C. Greene MD, Buffalo New York. Source: RoadsideAmerica.com

walter greene 2 Walter David Greene was born in Starkboro, Vermont, in 1853, the youngest son and second youngest child of the Greene family. He went to local schools and the Friends’ School on the Hudson. He joined his brothers in Buffalo and entered Buffalo Medical School in 1873. At the time, Buffalo Medical School was located at Main and Virginia Streets.

In medical school, Walter Greene was a member of the University Quiz Club, known by U.Q.C. The U.Q.C. was born out of a society called “The Skulls”. They rivaled with another society called “The Scalpels”. Because of the initials, outsiders called the U.Q.C. “You Queer Cusses”.

After two years working in Rochester, Walter Greene practiced medicine in Buffalo for 37 years. In 1882, Walter Greene was appointed district physician of the City of Buffalo Health Department. He served for eight years, becoming head of the department. From 1897 to 1902, he served as assistant health commissioner. He became Health Commissioner in 1907.

Walter Greene married Mary Pursel of Buffalo in 1878. They had two children – Frank, who died in infancy, and Clayton. They lived at 385 Jersey Street, which was also Dr. Greene’s office. They were members of Plymouth Methodist Church, which is now Porter Hall – The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum.

Walter Greene was a past potentate of Ismailia Temple, Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, a 33rd degree mason, thrice potent master of the Lodge of Perfection. He was Lieutenant Commander of DeMolay Lodge 498, buffalo chapter Lake Erie Commandery. He was also president of the New York State Medical Society, member of the American Public Health Association the Erie County Medical Society, Buffalo historical Society, Buffalo Club, and Society of Vermonters.

He died on August 3, 1917 while traveling to West Falls, NY for a family reunion. He slipped on a rock while walking alongside a creek, landing on his back. He got up quickly and said he felt fine, but after a few moments was stricken with terrific pain in his back and trouble breathing. He died just a few moments later. He is also buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Sources:

“Kin of Old King Tut and Mummied Pets Are On View Here”. Buffalo Courier. March 4 1923, p87.
“Dr. Joseph C. Greene Dead”. Buffalo Evening News. January 4, 1899, p5.
“Greene Street Honors Brothers, Physicians”. Buffalo Courier Express, April 21, 1940. Pg. L4.
“Masonic Order Pays High Tribute to Dr. Greene”. Buffalo Courier. August 7, 1917. p5.
“Dr. Greene, Once Commissioner of Health, Stricken”. Buffalo Courier. August 4, 1917, p4.

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Hamlin – What do Horses, Sugar, the Museum of Science, Park School and movie stars have in common?

Posted in East Side, Hamlin Park, Uncategorized on April 14, 2022| 9 Comments »

Hamlin Road shown in Red. The former Hamlin Driving Park outlined in Light Blue

Hamlin Road runs between Lonsdale Road and Humboldt Parkway in the Hamlin Park neighborhood of the East Side of Buffalo. The street opened in the early 1920s, running through what used to be the grounds of the Hamlin Driving Park. The street and neighborhood are named after the Hamlin Family, a prominent family in Buffalo and East Aurora.

On November 7, 1819, Cicero Hamlin was born in Hillsdale in Columbia County, New York. His parents were Reverend Jabez and Esther Stow Hamlin. Cicero Hamlin would say that he started his life as a poor child and that his only heritage was “being of sound health and good digestion.” Cicero was the youngest of a family of ten. Cicero came to East Aurora in 1836 and purchased the general store operated by his brother John W. Hamlin. The store was located on Main Street near what is now Hamlin Avenue in East Aurora.

In 1846, Cicero Hamlin moved to Buffalo, where he entered the dry goods business in the firm Wattles and Hamlin at 252 Main Street. Mr. Wattles left the business in 1847, and Mr. Hamlin continued the business alone until 1852. Then, he joined the firm of Mendsen & Company, a wholesale-retail carpet and house furnishing business. The firm was reorganized as Hamlin & Mendsen. In the 1860s, Mr. Hamlin Built the Hamlin Block on Main Street. He remained in business there until 1871. In February 1888, the Hamlin Block was destroyed by a fire. A new Hamlin Black was constructed in its place by the end of 1888.

Cicero Hamlin breaking the world’s team’s record. Source: Buffalo History Gazette

Gravestone for Mambrino King, East Aurora. Photo By Stacy Grinsfelder, True Tales from Old Houses

In addition to his real estate interests, in May 1855, Cicero Hamlin established Village Farm in East Aurora. The farm began as 55 acres and expanded to 600 acres by the 1890s. The farm had the reputation of some of America’s best trotting horses. The farm was located at the west end of the Village, fronting on the north side of Main Street. His first horses were Little Belle, Mag Addison, and Hamlin Patchem. At its peak, the Village Farm stabled 748 horses. In 1882, Mr. Hamlin purchased “Mambrino King” for $17,000. The horse was judged the most handsome horse in the world. Many people traveled to East Aurora to visit Mambrino King. In one day, Mambrino King was taken out of his stall to be shown to visitors more than 170 times! Mambrino King was put down on December 5, 1899. He is buried in front of a house on North Willow Street, and the grave marker can be seen from the sidewalk.

The Hamlin farm closed in January 1905. The horse line continued at the Ideal Stock Farm, founded in 1905 by Seymour Knox. Cicero Hamlin donated land to the Village of East Aurora to create Hamlin Park. Hamlin Avenue in East Aurora runs through the property that was once the farm.

Before 1873, there were several attempts to manufacture glucose in the United States, but with little success. Cicero Hamlin developed a process that helped form an entire industry; he founded Buffalo Grape Sugar Company in 1874. Buffalo Grape Sugar Company merged with the American Glucose Company in 1888. The works of the American Glucose Company in Buffalo were the largest in the world. Their brands were well known both in domestic and international markets. The Buffalo plant employed 500 men and processed 10,000 bushels of corn per day to create glucose, syrups, grape sugar, and animal food products. American Glucose Company also had factories in Peoria, Illinois; Leavenworth, Kansas; Iowa City, Iowa; and Tippecanoe City, Ohio. Their headquarters were located at 19-23 West Swan Street in Buffalo.

Hamlin Driving Park in 1870. Source: Buffalo News

What became the Hamlin Park Neighborhood in Buffalo was still a rural area in 1868 when Cicero Hamlin established his Driving Park at the corner of East Ferry and Humboldt Parkway. The Driving Park was included in Frederick Law Olmsted’s parks plan for Buffalo. The Driving Park quickly became popular and gained international fame. It had a one-half-mile speedway for trotting and pacing races and training stable for 75 horses. Horse-riding was a gentleman’s sport. Many of Buffalo’s important businessmen were officers of the Buffalo Driving Park Association – Chandler J. Wells, Cicero Hamlin, E.R. Buck, J.H. Metcalfe, Myram P Busch, George Gates, Joseph G. Masten, R.L Howard, and Jewett Richmond. Race days were an important occasion in Buffalo. There was a festive atmosphere, many stores declared them holidays, and the trolley offered half-fare travel to the Driving Park. The Belt Line Railroad opening in 1883 eased access to the track, with a station at Fillmore Avenue near Northland. People traveled from across the country to view the races and to race here. There were railroad car sidings to allow for Pullman cars, day coaches, and special freight cars for the horses.

In 1869, Frederick Law Olmsted looked to integrate the Driving Park into his Parks Plan. Mr. Olmsted looked to put an expanded parkway near the entrance of the race course with a circular or elliptical form for a spot to put a fountain, statue, or other monument. This didn’t happen. The Driving Park grew crowds of up to 40,000 people for special events. After the races, many people would go to the nearby Parade House at The Parade park (aka Humboldt Park, now MLK Park).

1895 Map of Buffalo showing the location of the Driving Park/Fairgrounds. Humboldt Parkway is shown in green to the east of the Driving Park site. The Driving Park Station can be shown at the corner of Fillmore and Northland. Source: Rand, McNally & Co Map of Buffalo.

In 1888, Hamlin sold the Driving Park to a group of 120 stockholders who were looking to start up an International Industrial and Agricultural Exposition in Buffalo at Hamlin Park. The largest investor was Cicero Hamlin himself. They planned to create a permanent fairgrounds, similar to the one in St. Louis. He felt Buffalo was a good location between New York and Chicago for fairs. Other stockholders included – Philip Becker, Jacob Schoellkopf, JJ Albright, Daniel N. Lockwood, D.E. Morgan, George Urban Jr, and Jewett Richmond. They constructed several exhibition buildings, including the largest fair building in the world. The Fair opened on September 4, 1888 to great fanfare. However, long-term attendance did not come. The fair lost money and closed within five years. Public transportation made it hard to get to the Fair. A horsecar up Main Street took about an hour from the downtown railroad depots. Passengers actually had to get out and help push the cars up the Main Street hill from North to Virginia Street!

Trolley service finally came to the Park in 1892. That year, Mr. Hamlin put $25,000 into the Driving Park. He built a new grandstand modeled after the one in Monmouth Park, New Jersey. In addition, Mr. Hamlin offered free admission for that year for those who would take standing room admission. He felt this was a way to increase interest in the Park and allow “regular” folks to come, in addition to the upper class.

In 1895, a grandstand stairway collapsed, and 20 people were injured. In 1896, a fire swept through the grounds and destroyed the buildings, ending the horse races. In January 1898, Mr. Hamlin announced he would divide the Driving Park grounds into residential lots. Thus began the development of the Hamlin Park Neighborhood.

Hamlin House on Franklin Street. Source: Hamlin House Restaurant

Cicero Hamlin married Susan Jane Ford in September 1842. They had three sons – Frank, William and Harry, and two daughters – Anna and Kate. Sadly, Anna died as a newborn and Kate passed at age 3. The Hamlin Family lived in a house they built at 432 Franklin Street. The Hamlin property consisted of the entire corner of Franklin and Edward Street, where 420, 426, 436 and 440 Franklin now stand. The house is a two-story Italian villa, and is still standing today. Cicero and Susan moved to 1035 Delaware Ave and sold the property in the 1890s.

The Buffalo Orpheus (a German singing society) used the 432 Franklin Street house as its headquarters starting in 1915. In 1920, the American Legion purchased the Hamlin House, and the house is still the clubhouse for Troop 1 Post 665 of the American Legion. Additions were added to the right side of the building and a gym was added to the rear of the building in 1940. The rear portion of the building has been used as the Legion’s auditorium but used to be the family’s stable. (Note from Angela: If you’re looking for a good fish fry – Hamlin House is a great place!)

Cicero Hamlin died February 20, 1905, just three weeks after the sale of Village Farm. He was considered to be one of Buffalo’s oldest and wealthiest citizens when he died. He is buried in the Hamlin family plot in Forest Lawn Cemetery. Cicero’s son Harry Hamlin was born in Buffalo on July 17, 1855. Harry worked with his father in the Village Farm and in the American Glucose Company. Harry married Grace Enos in 1878. Harry and Grace lived on North Pearl Street. Harry was killed in an automobile accident on June 3, 1907 at age 52.

Chauncey J. Hamlin

Grace and Harry had a son named Chauncey Jerome Hamlin, born January 11, 1881. Chauncey attended Miss Hoffman’s School, Heathcote School and Nichols School. Graduating from Yale in 1903 and from Buffalo Law School in 1905, he was admitted to the bar in February 1909. Chauncey Hamlin helped to launch the Buffalo Legal Aid Bureau. After serving in WWI, he gave up his active law practice in 1919 to serve the community.

Chauncey married Emily Gray in 1904. The Hamlins lived on West Ferry Street between Delaware and Elmwood Avenues. They had three children – Martha, Mary and Chauncey, Jr. In 1910, they purchased an estate in Snyder. The John Schenck House and moved to Snyder. This estate included the John Schenck House, is a small stone house built in the 1830s on Harlem Road near Main Street. Between the 1890s and the time the Hamlins purchased it, the house had ceased to be residential. It was used as oat storage by the farmers who lived on the land. The house reportedly has a slant due to the weight of the oats.

Stone House on Harlem Road, Snyder. Source: NYSHPO

The Hamlin Estate included the Schenck House, the main large mansion house (where the family lived), and two other frame houses. They set up a small museum in the old stone house to display the fossils and other natural objects found in the nearby quarries that the Hamlin children would find. They referred to it as the Snyder Museum of Natural History.

In 1922, the Hamlin Estate was sold to the Park School of Buffalo, a private school founded in Buffalo in 1912. When the school moved to Harlem Road, the grounds were described as:

“large barns in prefect repairs, carriage sheds, and a farmhouse. There were great apple orchard, large trees, fields of grain and a tiny brook winding its way down to two enchanting ponds. Best of all, at the entrance of the estate, a very old, stone house banked with lilacs and forsythias, having in it gardens, flowers and herbs which might have been growing there for a century.”

The Hamlin’s home was converted into the main classroom building at Park School, now called Hamlin Hall.

Hamlin House in Snyder. Now Hamlin Hall at Park School. Source: Image of America: Amherst by Joseph Grande.

Chauncey Hamlin would later say that “the little stone house contributed concretely” in his interest in the Buffalo Museum of Science. Chauncey Hamlin became President of the Museum of Science in 1920. At the time, the Society of Natural Sciences had no permanent building of its own. Some of its collection was housed in a building near the art gallery at the corner of Elmwood Avenue and Penhurst Place, but the major collections were located in borrowed space in the Buffalo Public Library on Lafayette Square.

Hamlin Hall at the Buffalo Science Museum. Source: Friend of Author

Chauncey Hamlin led a campaign to raise funds to build a permanent building in Humboldt Park (now MLK Park). The Buffalo Museum of Science opened in January 1929. Mr. Hamlin continued on as President until 1948. He worked with other families to finance the creation of and upkeep of exhibits in the halls of the museum including the Schoellkopf, Lark, Knox, Kellogg, Goodyear and Bennett families. Chauncey Hamlin contributed over $241,277 (about $4 Million in today’s dollars) to the museum funds. He served on the American Association of Museums as President. He helped to found the International Council of Museums in 1948 and headed the organization for the first five years of its existence.

Chauncey Hamlin also served as the first President of the Buffalo City Planning Association. He led the site selection committee for the new City Hall, which selected the west side of Niagara Square for the site of the building. From 1925 to 1947, he was Chairman of the Niagara Frontier Planning Board. While on the Board, he pushed for construction of the Grand Island Bridges and other parkways in Buffalo. He was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal of the University of Buffalo in 1931 and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Alfred University in 1954.

Actor Harry Hamlin, Great Great Grandson of Cicero Hamlin. Source: @harryrhamlin Instagram

Chauncey died on September 23, 1963 in Carmel, California. He is buried in Forest Lawn.

Chauncey’s son, Chauncey Hamlin Jr. was born in March 1905. Chauncey Jr’s son, Harry R Hamlin, was born in 1951. You might recognize this Harry Hamlin as an actor. Harry was People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 1987. (Disclaimer: I am watching Harry in my favorite tv show, Veronica Mars, as I write this.) Harry is the Great Great Grandson of Cicero Hamlin who the street and neighborhood are named after!

So the next time you drive through Hamlin Park in Buffalo, go to Hamlin Park in East Aurora, stop at the Science Museum, or watch a moving starring Harry Hamlin, think of the Hamlin family. 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:

Askew, Alice. “Racing Day Marks Era of the Horse.”
Keller, Ed. “Cicero J. Hamlin Village Farm Among Trotting’s Greatest.” The Harness Horse. P 50.
“Village Farm.” Pictorial and Historical Review East Aurora and Vicinity. 1940.
Fink, Margaret Reid, editor. “Chauncey Jerome Hamlin”. Science on the March. Volume 44, No 2. December 1963, p1.
NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Building Structure Inventory Form. The John Schenck House.
“C.J. Hamlin Dead”. The Buffalo Commercial. February 20, 1905. p11.
Kwiatkowski, Jane and Paula Voell. “Buffalo’ 20th Century Club: The Far-Sighted Men and Women Who Shaped Our Past and Set a Course for the Future”. Buffalo News. November 28, 1999.

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Hayes – Build Some Bridges, Get Two Streets Named After You

Posted in East Side, Seneca Babcock, University Heights on January 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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, University Archives, 1896 call number 20DD:7

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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Eggert – Serve as Postmaster, Get a Street Named after You

Posted in East Side, Uncategorized on January 7, 2022| 16 Comments »

Eggert Road

Eggert Road is one of the longer streets we’ve talked about here. Eggert is a 6.5-mile, north-south route that runs through four municipalities – Cheektowaga, Buffalo, Amherst, and Tonawanda! The street is named for the first Postmaster of Eggertsville, Christian Eggert. Eggertsville was also named for Mr. Eggert. Eggertsville is one of five hamlets in the Town of Amherst. In New York, a hamlet is an unincorporated settlement within a town. A hamlet has no local government or official boundaries. Eggertsville centers around the corner of Main Street and Eggert Road. The western edge of Eggertsville is the City of Buffalo line, but the eastern border is often disputed. Adjacent to Eggertsville, the hamlet of Snyder centers around the corner of Main and Harlem Road. People differ in their opinions of where Eggertsville ends and Snyder begins. Eggertsville and Snyder are often thought of as one unit, such as in the Eggertsville-Snyder Public Library. The Town of Amherst has an Eggertsville Action Plan which uses the following boundary: west to Niagara Fall Boulevard, south to Kenmore Avenue/Main Street, Getzville Road to the east, and Sheridan Drive to the north.

Approximate boundary of Eggertsville

The Eggertsville area was first settled by property owners with large tracts of land. The first building in what became Eggertsville was a general store built on the northeast corner by Abraham Miller in 1811. Mr. Miller lived behind the store. His property extended north along what became Eggert Road, where he set aside a cemetery to be used by the community. The first burial there was a child named Elizabeth Grobin. Abraham was buried there in 1845. The cemetery was used until at least 1873. Mr. Miller’s property and the cemetery are now St. Benedicts Roman Catholic Church and School. A hotel was built at the corner of Main and Eggert in 1816.

The first church in what became Eggertsville, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church was incorporated in 1827 and was granted its present site in 1829 by the Holland Land Company. St. Paul’s is the oldest Lutheran Church in Erie County. The church was first called the German Reformed Church. The congregation was established by Reverend Meyerhoffer, an ex-chaplain of the German Army who gathered together German-speaking residents of Buffalo, Black Rock, and Amherst from Alsace Loraine. The original church on the site was built in 1833 and a new church was built in 1874. Unfortunately, the church was destroyed by a fire in 1879. The church was rebuilt and dedicated in 1880. (Note from Angela: this is the church I grew up attending – Hi St. Paul’s friends!)

Christian Eggert III. Source: Town of Amherst

Christian Eggert was born in April 1795 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Mr. Eggert was actually Christian Eggert III. His grandfather, Christian Eggert, had come to Pennsylvania from Uckermark, Germany in 1742. Christian III moved from PA to Western New York in 1831, going into business with Hugh Cathcart as “Cathcart & Eggert”. Cathcart & Eggert owned an Iron Foundry and Plough Factory in Williamsville which built ploughs, cast iron turnpike scrapers, sleigh-shoes, wagon boxes, wagon axles, stoves and other cast iron materials. The partnership was ended in 1832, with Christian Eggert continuing the company himself. Mr. Eggert also worked as a land surveyor and surveyed many properties across Western New York.

Christian III married Anna Hershey in March 1818. They had ten children. Benjamin, Aaron, Jacob, Melvina, Oliver, Christian, Ann Marie, Esther, Andrew, and Anna. The first six children were born in Pennsylvania. The others were born in Amherst.

In 1836, The Buffalo and Williamsville Macadam Company was incorporated by Christian Eggert, John Hutchinson, and the Hopkins Family. The company operated a paved toll road. Macadam is a form of pavement invented by John McAdam in Scotland in the 18th century. The Buffalo & Williamsville Macadam toll road went from Buffalo to Williamsville along what is now Main Street and opened in 1837. At Humboldt Parkway in Buffalo and at Getzville Road in Amherst, there were toll gates. Everyone who traveled along the road had to pay the toll, including rates for vehicles and bicycles. In addition, farmers taking livestock to market were charged on a per-head basis. The toll gates operated until 1899.

On the southeast corner of Main and Eggert, Christian Eggert built a house in 1832. Mr. Eggert set up the first post office in this house in 1855. At the time, Post Offices moved around based on who Postmaster was, so they were often located in residences and business places. In 1861, when Michael Snyder became Post Master, residents of Eggertsville were angry since this moved the Post Office a mile to the east to Main & Harlem. Since several roads converged at Eggertsville, more business happened at Main & Eggert than at Main & Harlem. They also would have to pass the Toll Gate, which had a charge each way of 5 cents for a single wagon and 8 cents for a double wagon (between $1.50 and $2.56 today). There were 200 residents impacted by this change instead of 40 who were not affected. About 140 residents of Eggertsville banded together to write to Washington to have the old post office reinstated. The Post Office was back in Eggertsville beginning in 1867 when Christian Eggert was reappointed as Postmaster. Residents of Snyder got their own Snyder Post Office in 1882, with Michael Snyder as Postmaster.

The Eggertsville Post Office was discontinued in 1905, and postal service was transferred to Williamsville. The Eggertsville Post Office was reestablished in 1914, and discontinued in 1930 when it was absorbed by the Buffalo Post Office.

Christian Eggert III died in August 1879 at the age of 84. He is buried in the Williamsville Cemetery on Main Street in the Village of Williamsville. Son Christian M. Eggert was one of the first Postmasters of the Tonawanda Post Office. Son Aaron Eggert was the first lawyer in the town of Amherst establishing a law office in 1868. Son Oliver Eggert was Sheriff of Erie County from 1865-67.

Eggertsville House, circa 1875. Source: A History of the Town of Amherst

In 1859, the Eggert’s house was converted into a tavern by Nicholas Chassin. The Chassin family had a 15-acre plot extending south along Eggert Road. Eggertsville residents will recognize the Chassin name as there is a street named after him, Chassin Avenue, running parallel to Eggert through what was the Chassin property. Many of the settlers in the area at the time were of French origin. When new French immigrants arrived in Buffalo with little to no money, they were told to go out to see Nicholas Chassin. He would take them in, feed them and let them live with him until they found work. The Eggerstville House was demolished in 1960.

At the bend in Main Street, between Ivyhurst and Koster Row, was a little brick church, behind which was a cemetery. In 1866, it was designated as “The Free Church” and in 1880 as “The Union Church .”The church was a small, red brick building with a Pennsylvania Dutch fence and gateway. As members of the congregation passed away or moved, the church was abandoned and demolished. The cemetery was deeded in May 1849. It was known as “The Resting Place” and was dedicated for all denominations. Two of the Eggerts were buried in The Resting Place: Christian III’s son, Christian M Eggert, who died in 1861 at the age of 31 and Christian M. Eggert’s daughter (Christian III’s granddaughter), Isabell Eggert who died at 19 in 1873.

Map showing the two Eggertsville Cemeteries – one behind St. Benedict’s Church and one located between Ivyhurst and Koster Row.

Christian M. Eggert and daughter Isabell L. Eggert’s gravestone in Skinnersville Cemetery

In 1950, Henry Juette was looking to build a house on Main Street near Ivyhurst, having purchased the property from Erie County. The property along Main Street was the original church site. Residents of Eggertsville were up in arms as the development of the house would cut the cemetery property off from public access. The house would prevent those who did wish to visit the cemetery from maintaining their relative’s graves. The property had been purchased by John G. Sattler from the church. Mr. Sattler deeded the land to Erie County. Many of the older families had passed away or moved away, so the cemetery was not kept up. Many of those buried in the cemetery were the founders of Eggertsville, including the Frick Family. The Fricks were the first purchaser of land in Eggertsville from the Holland Land Company in 1817. Two of the Eggert children were buried here. The cemetery was abandoned in 1956, and those from this cemetery and the Eggert Road Cemetery (where St. Benedict’s is now) were moved to Skinnersville Road Cemetery in 1956. Both Christian M. Eggert and Isabell Eggert’s bodies were moved at this time. The original cemetery was developed with the existing residential subdivision.

Crosby Mansion, Eggertsville. Source: Beautiful Homes of Buffalo.

In 1893, the Buffalo and Williamsville Railway opened, making Eggertsville more accessible. Large country estates, such as the William H. Crosby Estate, were developed for successful Buffalo businessmen. The Crosby Estate was 243 acres along Main Street, between Bailey Avenue and Eggert Road. William Crosby was a business tycoon. He owned the Crosby Company, a metal works known for making bicycle frames, founded in 1896 at the corner of Pratt and Broadway. Crosby Blvd in Eggertsville and Crosby Hall at UB are named for William Crosby.

Some of the original subdivisions of Eggertsville – The Crosby Estate in Red, Pomeroy Park in Blue, High Park-Country Club in Green, Amherst Estates in Orange and Hollywood Subdivision in purple

In the early 1900s, these large estates began to be broken up for further residential development. Beginning around 1910, the Amherst Estates were developed by R.W. Goode and G. H. Sickles. They included the streets LeBrun Road, LeBrun Circle, and Keswick Road. They created 180 lots which ranged from one to five acres. The homes in the Amherst Estates were built as expensive homes in various styles for “people of means.”

In 1916, Chas S. Burkhardt developed the High Park-Country Club section adjacent to the Amherst Estates. The development’s name came from the Country Club at Main and Bailey. The Country Club became Grover Cleveland Park and Golf Course in 1926. High Park Boulevard was built and developed with what was considered a “high-class” neighborhood at the time. They restricted the development to single-family homes and required houses to all be setback at least 40 feet from the street and to cost at least $5,000 ($127,500 in 2022 dollars).

The Hollywood Subdivision was established in 1919, built out of John Sattler’s estate. This development includes Westfield, Ivyhurst and Dellwood Roads. While higher-end homes were built earlier, these houses catered to working-class residents looking for inexpensive modest dwellings.

The Crosby Estate was developed in 1926 as Cleveland Park Terrace. The neighborhood was developed as a “Garden City” style of development. The development had 1300 home sites, 8 miles of streets, 16 miles of sewer and water, and gas, electric, and phone service.

Pomeroy Mansion, Eggertsville. Source: Beautiful Homes of Buffalo.

Pomeroy Park was developed by J. C. Troidl beginning in 1929. Pomeroy Park was established by Gurney, Overturf & Becker from Robert W. Pomeroy’s estate and advertised as “Buffalo’s finest subdivision.” Robert Pomeroy was a prominent lawyer in Buffalo. Pomeroy Park consists of the streets Elham Drive, Bradenham Place, Longleat Park, Audley End and Greenaway Road. The development consisted of 59 lots and was restricted to “high-class” single family dwellings. Advertisements of the time indicated that there were other restrictions in place to “assure purchasers of pleasing environments”….not sure what that meant at the time, but it could refer to restrictive covenants which limited people of color from owning homes in certain neighborhoods.

Like much of Western New York and the rest of the country, the growth of Eggertsville slowed during the Great Depression. The boom was replaced by a period of recession and stabilization. The area then began to grow again in the 1950s, when prosperity returned to America, with post-war suburbanization building out much of Eggertsville and Snyder, including sites like the former Hedstrom Estate.

The next time you drive down Eggert Road, think of Christian Eggert and the other early settlers of Eggertsville! 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:

Young, Sue Miller. A History of the Town of Amherst, 1818-1865. Town of Amherst, 1965.
“Eggertsville Post Office.” Buffalo Daily Courier. August 17, 1861.
“Obituary – Christian Eggert.” Buffalo Courier. August 16, 1879.
Fess, Margaret. “New House Isolating Cemetery Causes Furor”. Buffalo Courier-Express. August 20, 1950, p 22-A.
“The Amherst Estates.” Buffalo Evening News. May 7, 1910. P53.
“Opening High Park”. Buffalo Commercial. March 19, 1915, p10.
Hubbell, Mark, editor. Beautiful Homes of Buffalo. Buffalo Truth Publishing Company, 1915.
Petri, Pitt. The Postal History of Western New York. copyright 1960, Buffalo NY.

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Lyth and Harwood – Have a Tile Company, Get A Street Named After You

Posted in East Side, Hamlin Park, tagged Harwood, Luke Easter, Lyth on December 28, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Lyth Avenue on the left, Harwood Place on the right.

Today we are going to talk about two streets on the East Side. Lyth Avenue runs between Purdy Street and Jefferson Avenue in the Cold Spring neighborhood of Buffalo. Harwood Place runs a short distance off, across Jefferson Avenue, near Lyth Ave. Harwood Place is a dead-end street, though historically, it ran through to Lonsdale Road at times. The road was initially a driveway leading to the stables of the Lyth homes at Northland and Jefferson. The horses for the Lyth Tile Company were housed there. The street was deeded to the city around 1886. The family also built two houses and a place of business on the street.

john lyth 3 John Lyth was born in Stockton-Upon-Tees in England in September 1820. Mary Ann Harwood Lyth was born in England in 1817. At age 13, Mr. Lyth learned the trade of earthenware manufacturer. John and Mary Ann were married in 1843. They had three children while living in England – Alfred, John, and Mary. They emigrated to Buffalo in 1850 and had two more children – William and Francis- born here in Buffalo.
In Buffalo, John Lyth worked for P.A. Balcom, a local brickmaker. He later worked with W. H. Glenny in the crockery business. In 1851, Mr. Lyth’s brother, Francis, invented and introduced the hollow tile arch in York, England. In 1857, Mr. Lyth purchased a plot of land nearly a half-mile square and began to manufacture farm drain-tile. In his first year, he only sold $50 worth of tile. Then, in 1864, he went into business with Mr. Balcom, a partnership that lasted for ten years. They manufactured salt-glazed, citrified sewer pipe and terra cotta goods. Their factory was located at 83 -163 Puffer Street (now Northland Avenue), between Purdy and Jefferson. Lyth Avenue was a driveway to the factory.

Lyth Factory. Source: Buffaloah.com

The Lyth family were pioneer residents in the Northland section of the city. Northland Avenue at the time was known as Puffer Street. John Lyth chose the location for the factory because of the abundance of clay in the soil. This clay was the best type for making tiles. The Lyth factory was a landmark of the early neighborhood.

The Lyth home was located at 169 Puffer Street. The house was considered suburban when it was built. In later years, family members would say that they were so far out of town they couldn’t even get a doctor to come, except in gravest illnesses. The large house was surrounded by extensive lawns, gardens, and orchards. The family had a cow, chickens, and vegetable gardens to provide for the family. Mary Ann was devoted to her family. Twice, she refused to return to England on trips b/c she did not want to leave her children.

In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire happened. The demand in construction for fireproof hollow tile and bricks for construction leapt after the fire. In the 80s and 90s, the Lyth Tile Company was the largest of its kind in the country.

Lyth Family Plot in Forest Lawn

The Lyth Family were members of the Unitarian Church. They were strong advocates of temperance. John Lyth was a member of the Royal Templars of Temperance, serving as Supreme Treasurer of the Order. John Lyth died at his home at 169 Puffer Street in 1889. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Alfred Lyth was born in 1844. One of his earliest memories was traveling from New York to Buffalo along the Erie Canal when the family arrived here. In 1862, Alfred enlisted in the 100th Regiment, New York Volunteers. He served at Fort Sumter, Gloucester Point, the James River Expedition, and Drury’s Bluff. During his time in the regiment, he suffered from typhoid fever and was wounded in action three times. He was also captured by Confederates and held as a prisoner at Andersonville Prison for a year. After the war, Alfred joined his father’s tile business with his brothers John and William. They formed the firm J. Lyth & Sons.

183 Northland. Source Buffalo Spree.

In 1872, the Lyth Mansion at 183 Puffer (now Northland) was built by Alfred Lyth. This house is sometimes listed as being lived in by John Lyth; however, city directory records show that John and Mary Ann lived at 169 Puffer. Son Albert and his wife Kate lived at 183 Puffer.

After his father’s death, Alfred headed the business. He also joined Company F of the 74th Regiment, National Guard, and attained the rank of Major. When the Grand Army of the Republic formed, Major Lyth became a prominent member. For 25 years, he attended every state and national GAR convention as a delegate. In 1897, when the GAR National Encampment was held in Buffalo, Major Lyth was Vice-Commander-In-Chief of the convention.

Postcard view of the Tile Works in Angola

In 1872, Major Lyth was Supervisor of the Seventh Ward, and in 1873, he was Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. In 1874, Lyth Avenue was opened and named in Major Lyth’s honor. In the 1890s, the Lyth Tile Company plant moved to Angola, New York. By 1894, the former factory site was developed for residential purposes.

In 1897, residents of Puffer Street asked for the name to be changed to Northland Avenue. The residents felt that people were getting confused between Puffer Street and Tupper Street, and their mail was getting sent to Tupper Street. Picture the old-timey cursive handwritten envelopes, and it’s easy to imagine the confusion! The name change was granted by Common Council in May 1897 and signed by Mayor Jewett on May 23, 1897.

Alfred’s brother William Lyth inherited the house at 169 Northland after Mr. Lyth’s death. In her later years, mother Mary Ann lived with Alfred at 183 Northland. Sometime between 1916 and 1950, the house at 169 Northland was replaced with a retail store.

Major Alfred Lyth died in 1925 at age 81. Major Lyth’s son, Alfred Lyon Lyth, took over the business. Alfred Lyon had been involved in the industry from a young age. His father had insisted on teaching him all aspects of the company before he retired. Alfred Lyon had been known as the “champion quarterback of Western New York and was offered a scholarship to Syracuse University to play football. Times were hard, so his father convinced him to stay in Buffalo for one year to help with the business before entering college. Alfred Lyon became interested in the work and didn’t leave for college.

In 1922, Alfred Lyon Lyth opened Lyth Chevrolet at 1159 Jefferson Avenue, the first Chevrolet agency in Buffalo. He sold J. Lyth & Sons to Globe Plaster Company three years later. Alfred Lyon Lyth was elected as Erie County Supervisor for the 13th Ward in 1908, 1913 and 1927.

Royster Family in front of 183 Northland Avenue, 1973. Source: Buffalo Courier Express.

Lyth Family members continued living at 183 Northland until the 1950s. From 1956 to 1958, Luke Easter lived in the house. Luke Easter was the first African American to play for the Buffalo Bisons in modern times. As a result, the house is often called “the Luke Easter House.” After Mr. Easter, the house was owned by Clifford Royster, who owned the house until 2002. The house is within the Hamlin Park Historic District, established in the late 1990s.

Next time you drive by Lyth Ave or Harwood Place, think about the Lyth Family and remember a time when Northland was known as Puffer Street! 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.

PS. I hope you are all having a lovely holiday season and have a very Happy New Year!

Sources:

Smith, H. Katherine. “Harwood Place Memorial to Wife of Area Pioneer.” Buffalo Courier-Express. December 21, 1941, p7.
“Mr. John Lyth”. Buffalo Commercial. April 28, 1889, p3.
“It is now Northland Avenue.” Buffalo Courier. May 23, 1897, p6.
“J. Lyh & Sons of Buffalo Coming Here.” Evans Journal. September 26, 1957, p4.
The Clay Worker, Volume 27-28. National Brick Manufacturer’s Association of the United States of America: T.A. Randall & Company, 1897.
Nyhuis, Philip. “Finding Happiness in Hamlin Park.” Buffalo Spree. May 15, 2019.
Brady, Karen. “Bus Tour of City’s East Side Provides a Trip into the Past”. Buffalo News. August 17, 1992.
“Alfred Lyth Will Bequests Total $22,900.” Buffalo Courier-Express. May 15, 1953, p19.
“It’s Not All Blight”. Buffalo Courier Express. July 12, 1973, p18.
Smith, Katherine. Lyth Avenue Honors Family Which Headed First US Tile Plant”. Buffalo Courier-Express. September 24, 1939, pL2.

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Angela Keppel

Angela Keppel is a Buffalo, NY history enthusiast and urban planner. She spent her childhood in the Grosvenor Room at the downtown library and the Buffalo History Museum. "Talking Proud" is her anthem.

For more information and to contact Angela, please see the about me tab at the top of the page.

A complete list of streets which have been written about can also be found at the top of the page under the Street Index tab.

All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. Any photographs displayed on the blog are for information purposes only. Attempts have been made to source to original image content wherever possible. If you own a specific image on this site and want it removed, please email me at buffalostreets (at) gmail.com and I will remove it.
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