Goodell Street is an east-west street that runs Michigan Avenue to Main Street. Goodell Street forms the northern boundary of the Central Business District and typically “south of Goodell” is used as a definition for what constitutes “Downtown Buffalo”. North of Goodell Street is the Medical Campus and the Fruit Belt neighborhood. Until the 1950s, Goodell Street ran thru to an intersection with Cherry and Locust Streets. The Kensington Expressway, which ends at Goodell Street, cut through the Fruit Belt. I am currently working on a multipart series about the streets of the Fruit Belt and the historic development of the neighborhood. Stay tuned! Goodell Street is named for Jabez Goodell, one of the early residents of Buffalo.
Jabez Goodell was born in Holland, Massachusetts in 1776. He was the only son of Icabod Goodell. Jabez had three sisters – Huldah, Mary, and Persis. Jabez came to Buffalo in 1806. At the time, Buffalo had four shops, consistent mostly of Indian goods and a small drug shop, one blacksmith, one shoemaker, one carpenter and a joiner. He purchased lands at their original price from the Holland Land Company. His purchases were at the northern edge of the original layout for the Village of Buffalo. Due to the growth of the city over the next half-century, his lands increased in value to create a substantial estate.
Properties owned by Jabez Goodell
Mr. Goodell owned Outer Lots 135, 136, 137 and 145, 146, and 147. This included properties along Genesee Street and the property where Goodell Street would eventually be laid out. He also owned lot 33, west of Delaware Avenue near Tupper.
Goodell Street ran through Mr. Goodell’s property. He operated the Broadwheel Tavern at the corner of Goodell and Main Streets. The Tavern was located where the Sidway Building now stands. It was said that his tavern “entertained man and beast”. His house was burned during the War of 1812, along with the rest of Buffalo. He rebuilt at Goodell and Oak Street. His house was later owned by Mayor Solomon Scheu.
The former St. Peter’s Evangelical Church
Mr. Goodell donated land on Genesee Street at Hickory to the German Evangelical Society of Buffalo in 1834. The first worshiped on the site in a building that was originally built as the original First Presbyterian Church but was moved to the Genesee Street Site. Their second church was the original St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, which was moved to their property in 1850. In 1851, they became St. Peters German United Evangelical Church. In 1877, they built the current Victorian Gothic church that is located on the site. The tower on the church was removed in 1991, along with small pinnacles that had been surrounding it. The congregation moved in 1974 when they merged with Lloyd’s Memorial Church to become New Covenant Church of Christ.
Mr. Jabez was a stockholder in the Batavia Street Plank Road Company and served as President of the company. Batavia Street became Broadway. Plank roads were common in New York State during the late 1840s and 1850s. A plank road is made of wooden planks or logs. The wooden roads were easier and cheaper to maintain that McAdam roads, another common road type of the time period. The first plank road in the United States was built in Syracuse. The Batavia Street Plank Road Company controlled 2.5 miles of the roadway and invested $13,000 ($428,910 in 2019 dollars) of capital improvements into the road in 1850. These road companies were organized and regulated under New York State law.
Mr. Goodell died in September 1851 at 75 years old. In death, he donated 10 acres and $10,000 (about $333,000 in 2019 dollars) to the newly formed Buffalo Female Academy to build a 30,0000 square foot school. Ten months after he died, Goodell Hall opened at the school, just behind the Evergreen Cottage at the corner of Johnson Park and Delaware. Classes had been held in Evergreen Cottage (Mayor Ebenezer Johnson’s former home) for the 1851 school year. In 1852, the school moved into Goodell Hall and the cottage was used as a home for the Principal. The Academy was renamed Buffalo Seminary in 1889 and they moved to their current location on Bidwell Parkway in 1909.
Jabez Goodell Grave
Mr. Goodell married Diadamia Day, but they had no children. After the donation to the school, he left his the remainder of his property and estate to be distributed to different societies as well as to religious, missionary and education associations of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Goodell had been an elder at First Presbyterian Church. The Goodell estate at his time of death was worth about $400,000 when he died. That would be more than $13 Million today. At the time of his death, he was the largest public benefactor who had lived in Buffalo. He also left $500 ($16,672 in 2019 dollars) to his hometown of Holland, Massachusetts, to provide perpetual care of the cemetery. He is buried in Forest Lawn, which opened only two years before he passed away.
The rest of the Goodell family was also prominent in Western New York and the Southern Tier. The Goodell Family at the time was reportedly considered the way the Kennedy Family is in Massachusetts. Robert Goodell was born in 1601 and immigrated from Dennington England to Massachusetts with his wife and children in 1634. Jabez was a sixth generation Goodell in America. Robert was his great-great-great grandfather. The NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is a 12th generation Goodell and fourth cousin, six times removed to Jabez Goodell.
It is often said in Buffalo that the road is actually pronounced “GOOD-ul”, but because Roger Goodell’s branch of the family pronounces it as “Good-elle”, the pronunciation has changed as his career has risen in the NFL. I’d love to hear from some Buffalo old timers, especially those who live in the Fruit Belt…how do you pronounce it?
To learn more about other streets, check out the Street Index. Stay tuned for my upcoming series about more streets in the Fruit Belt area! You can subscribe to the site on the homepage and new articles will be emailed to you as soon as they are posted.
Sources:
- Boltwood, Robert. “St. Louis’ Pioneer Catholic Church, Enters 12th Decade”. Buffalo Courier Express, Sunday August 27, 1939, p L7.
- “St. Peter’s to Honor Founding 102 Years Ago”. Buffalo Courier Express. Feb 6, 1937, p 25.
- Graham, Tim. “The Other Goodell: How NFL commissioner’s dad ran afoul of Nixon”. Buffalo News. February, 3 2018.
- Ketchum, William. An Authentic and Comprehensive History of Buffalo. Rockwell, Baker & Hill Printers: Buffalo NY. 1865.
- Severance, Frank. “Jabez Goodell”. As found in Lovering, Martin. History of the Town of Holland, Massachusetts. The Tuttle Company: Rutland, Vermont. 1915.
- “Batavia Street Plank Road Co”. Daily Courier. January 15, 1850.
- Zobel, Michael. “Letter: Learn the correct pronunciation of Buffalo’s Goodell Street”. Buffalo News. April 29, 2019.
Discovering Buffalo, One Street at a Time 