Anyone up for crowdsourcing Buffalo-area place names? By which I mean neighborhood nicknames such as Elmwood Village or The Hooks, and names of features on the landscape. At this time, I am not thinking of street names or building names, which could be separate projects unto themselves.
Here’s a Google sheet that I set up for anyone to add to. Notice there are two tabs: one for the City of Buffalo and another for Erie County, for those with village or town-specific knowledge.
What nicknames are we seeking?
- Landscape features such as creeks, canals, or hills
- Entire city nicknames, such as Queen City or New Amsterdam
- Names of real estate developments, such Nye Park
- Parks that aren’t there anymore or changed names
- Picnic groves. So often in Buffalo newspapers I see so-and-so’s grove as the location for an event, with no address. It was assumed that readers knew where it was.
Some data entry suggestions to maximize the value of the spreadsheet:
In the location column, use contemporary street/road names.
Please cite your sources. If you find a source online, pasting in the URL is excellent but insufficient. The link you found today may be invalid or paywalled a few years from now. Please add enough info (author, title, date, page number, etc.) that a future researcher can seek out for the source if the link is 404.
Consider having mercy on readers and use a link-shortening service.
Print sources that are not online are perfectly fine!
You don’t have to give your full name as a contributor if you’d rather not, but at minimum, initials would be good. Credit where credit is due and all.
Okay, have at it, people! Please let me know if you’re having trouble entering data.
Map of New York County place names from Reddit/r/Buffalo.
BuffaloResearch.com 