Who wants to crowdsource Buffalo place names?
Anyone up for crowdsourcing Buffalo-area place names? By which I mean neighborhood nicknames such as Elmwood Village or The Hooks.
A Prediction About “Draft Dodger” Discourse
What happens when draft dodgers start to die off? Probably a lot of distortion and false claims of glory.
Top Twenty Reasons for Municipal Sidewalk Plowing in Buffalo
Nowhere else in municipal management do we fine or shame private citizens for failing to maintain public property.
Who Was Buffalo’s First Woman Property Owner?
What makes women property owners unusual at this time is that once they married, they could not buy, hold, or sell property under their own names. On their wedding day, by law, husbands automatically acquired all right and title to whatever land or fortunes women brought to the marriage.
Use These Five Simple Tricks to Get Research Assistance
What we want to do here is help you, the person with local history, family, or house history questions, get help from libraries, archives, museums, historical organizations, government record offices, and genealogical societies.
Remembering City’s Martyr in Fight Against Klan
The Buffalo Klan members were not rural, undereducated whites with poor economic prospects. Here, the Klan’s 4,000 members were drawn mostly from the Protestant, educated, professional and merchant middle class.
Was the Michigan Street Baptist Church a Secret Hiding Place?
The professional historians who compiled the 2013 Historic Structures Report of the Michigan Street Baptist Church were unable to find any period evidence that the church served as a hiding place during Underground Railroad days.
How Come No One Has an Old Picture of My House?
Illustration of woman with camera courtesy of Pixabay Or maybe you’re looking for an old picture of your playground, corner tavern, or favorite neighborhood delicatessen. The first place to check is with your local library, museum, or historical society. Maybe it turns out that they have thousands of old pictures but they don’t have yourContinue reading “How Come No One Has an Old Picture of My House?”
Buffalo Takes on the Ku Klux Klan
On the evening on August 31, 1924, shots rang out in front of 128 Durham Street, near Delavan and Grider in Buffalo. Moments later, Special Officer Edward C. Obertean lay mortally wounded; Klansman Thomas Austin was dead; and a Ku Klux Klan recruiter, or Kleagle, had a gunshot wound in the groin. Armed warfare hadContinue reading “Buffalo Takes on the Ku Klux Klan”
Back Cover Blurb for City on the Edge
It is easy to dismiss Buffalo as the poster child of urban decrepitude and dysfunction. It is also wrong.
Thoughts on Little Libraries
LLs are a creative solution to the fact that in many places, book supply exceeds demand. There are more books than there are collectors or libraries or used bookstores or rummage sales who want or need them.
No, City Hall Has Not Lost Records in a Fire
Originally published at my LinkedIn page in December 2019, then reprinted by BuffaloRising.com with the title “Buffalo’s Newest Urban Legend” at both sites. Reproduced here with edits and updates. Image of Buffalo City Hall courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. The assertion first came to my attention in 2018 in the comment section at a popular BuffaloContinue reading “No, City Hall Has Not Lost Records in a Fire”
Why We Need Municipal Sidewalk Plowing
This essay originally appeared as a My View column in The Buffalo News on Feb. 5, 2013 and has since been edited and expanded. Image shows elderly couple walking in street due to unplowed sidewalks. One of them is pushing the other in a wheelchair. Photo taken by author on Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY, JanuaryContinue reading “Why We Need Municipal Sidewalk Plowing”
Build the Larkin Rowhouses
Originally published in Buffalo Spree, July-August 2006, p. 150 Most architecturally-aware Buffalonians know how the Darwin Martin-Frank Lloyd Wright friendship led to commissions for the now-demolished Larkin Administration building and homes for the top Larkin Company officers. Demolished portions of the Martin House complex are being rebuilt as the site undergoes a complete restoration. Martin alsoContinue reading “Build the Larkin Rowhouses”
Buffalo Hotels and the Niagara Movement: New Evidence Refutes an Old Legend
In 1905, W.E.B DuBois organized the first meeting of the Niagara Movement, a civil rights organization that eventually morphed into the NAACP. Instead of meeting in Buffalo, NY as originally intended, the group crossed the Niagara River and met in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada.
If All of Buffalo Read About the Klan
In 1923-1924, the Ku Klux Klan set up shop in Buffalo. The Klan was not just an organization, it was an ideology of racism, anti-semitism, anti-Catholicism, and nativism. Buffalo rejected that ideology. Buffalo fought back, Buffalo fought dirty, and Buffalo won. This was the one of our finest moments as a city. The Buffalo KKKContinue reading “If All of Buffalo Read About the Klan”
The Truth About Snow in Buffalo
The first iteration of this page went online in 1999. I knew it had changed the discourse around snow in Buffalo when I started hearing elected officials using arguments that I first presented here. Some Top Ten US Weather Facts 10 Snowiest Cities1. Blue Canyon, CA2. Marquette, MI3. Sault Ste. Marie, MI4. Syracuse, NY5. Caribou,Continue reading “The Truth About Snow in Buffalo”
The Old Curiosity Shop: McDonnell and Sons Monument Company
Parks officials were mortified at the malfeasance. The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Lafayette Square was cracking and crumbling only six years after its erection in 1882 during the city’s semi-centennial year. A structural review was undertaken, revealing careless workmanship throughout the foundation of the monument. The core of rubble and mortar was inadequate to the taskContinue reading “The Old Curiosity Shop: McDonnell and Sons Monument Company”
In Search of Buffalo’s First Professional African-American Architect
Some Preliminary Findings by Cynthia Van Ness, ©2001-2013 In the New York State census of 1925, John E. Brent reported his age as 33, making his year of birth around 1892. According to a biographical profile of him in the Buffalo American, which does not reveal his age, Brent was born and raised in Washington, D.C.Continue reading “In Search of Buffalo’s First Professional African-American Architect”
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