Papers Relating to the Burning of Buffalo, and to the Niagara Frontier Prior to and During the War Of 1812 (Buffalo Historical Society).pdf
Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase, complete book (Orasmus Turner, 1849).pdf
Embracing Some Account of the Ancient Remains ... and a History of Pioneer Settlement Under the Auspices of the Holland Company; Including Reminiscences of the War of 1812; the Origin, Progress and Completion of the Erie Canal, Etc., Etc., Etc This fascinating volume contains a wide variety of early WNY lore. Elsewhere on this site the reader may find excerpted portions pertaining to our special interests: Tonawanda: Horatio Jones, the early mounds of Tonawanda Island. There is also a good deal of material dedicated to the War of 1812: Page 590 begins description of McClure's rashness in burning of Newark. Flight of the "motley throng" eastward down the Ridge Road to Forsyth's. Aid of the Tuscarora. Invalid Judge Cook at Lewiston shooting Indians from an ox sled. The following summer (British) Indians pillaged occasionally from occupied Fort Niagara. Sparrow Sage and a "female companion" abducted, he axes them (592). (December 23rdish, 1813) Eighteen Mile Creek and destruction of Lake Road dwellings, Van Horn Mill (mansion not built for a few more years). "Seldom has there been a more peaceable and humane march of invaders through a conquered territory. " (593). Brought "fifteen or sixteen" men back to Niagara as prisoners. Moves onto Black Rock landing, Buffalo's shoddy defense, the "disgraceful" spectacle of retreating soldiers passing fleeing families: "The rout, the hasty, panic stricken retreat, the unnecessary surrender ing of a frontier, and its then largest village, to the arms and the a torch of an invading foe, not formidable either in numbers or military prowess" (597). Still credits the behavior of the settlers in the aggregate. "Before daylight, the citizens of Buffalo were fully apprised of the feeble and ill managed defence at Black Rock; of its prospect of failure. Tidings that all was hopeless, had reached them , and were confirmed by the hasty retreat of squads of militia, who were making palpable demonstrations of their innate love of life, in their eagerness to outstrip each other in the race that was taking them beyond the reach of danger" (Ibid). Col Cyrenius Chapin's surrender and terms. (Chapin had been opposed to McClure's misdeed). Gave time for citizens to escape. British officers liquor be hidden to keep Indians from getting out of control. Lt. Riddle and the Williamsville 40 march on British, not knowing about the treaty, and provide rationale for British to resume burning. They contest the authority of Chapin to surrender, fire cannon? Chapin winds up prisoner and taken to Montreal. The Buffalo Road filled with all manner of retreating humanity, descriptions of occasional rallies to fight. Pity, as invaders were marred by timidity and cowardice, did not deserve their spoils. Description of the gloom and privation throughout the Holland Purchase that followed, as the invaders hunkered down at Niagara. Letters follow. "Twelve thousand souls" depopulated. Legislative aid. President Madison dispatched Gen. Cass to Niagara Frontier to describe scene. He writes a scathing report to the Sec of War: "The fall of Niagara has been owing to the most criminal negligence. The force in it was fully competent to its defence. The commanding officer, Captain Leonard, it is confidently said, was at his own house, three miles from the fort, and all the other officers appear to have rested in as much security as though no enemy was near them . Captains Roge and Hampton, both of the 34th, had comp in the fort. Both of them were absent from it. Their conduct ought to be strictly investigated. I am also told that Major Wallace of the 5th , was in the fort. He escaped and is now at Erie." (604-5). "From the most careful examination, I am satisfied that not more than six hundred and fifty men, of regulars, militia and Indians, landed at Black Rock. To oppose these we had from two thousand five hundred to three thousand militia. All except a very few of them, behaved in the most cowardly manner. They fled without discharging a musket." Redemption in Sortie of Fort Erie.
Burke's Illustrated Guide to Niagara Falls, book (1855).jpg
Wry sketches of locales on the tourist's path through the forests of Buffalo-Niagara.
The Niagara Frontier- Embracing Sketches of its Early History, and Indian, French and English Local Names, book (c.1865).pdf
Gazetteer and business directory of Niagara County (1869), Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County (1892), other books.htm
Four books scanned into one: History of Montgomery and Fulton Counties, N.Y., 1878 (p1) Gazetteer and business directory of Niagara County for 1869 (p.676) [Excerpted on NThistory.com] Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, 1892 (p.813) [Excerpted on NThistory.com] Niagara County, New York: A concise record of her progress and her people (1821-1921) Vol. II Biographical (p.1145)
Commerce, Manufactures and Resources of Buffalo and Environs (1880).pdf
Later part of the book has a ton of great and detailed lumber and other ads.
Gratwick, Smith and Fryer Lumber Co., promotional booklet (1880).jpg
This illustrated booklet details the business of the Gratwick, Smith and Fryer Lumber Company, showing how they were able to be successful by controlling all phases of lumber cutting, transporting and refining for market. Their Tonawanda dock, yards and planing mills would fuel the growth of the village of Gratwick, named for them. SS William Gratwick at Wikipedia.
Pioneer Period of Western New York, book (Chipman P. Turner, 1888).pdf
North Tonawanda and Tonawanda - The Lumber City, book (1891).pdf
North Tonawanda City Directory (1893), excerpts.jpg
Tonawanda, book excerpt, illustrations, photos (Buffalo of Today Business Histories, 1893)
Paul's Dictionary of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Tonawanda and Vicinity, transcribed excerpts (1896).pdf
From pp. 163-164: Tonawanda, the second-greatest lumber market in the world, lies midway between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, and it has a happy conceit that it will one day annex Buffalo. Be this as it may, it is a remarkable little city, and either way the annexation results, it will add to the extent of Greater Buffalo. From the city line of Buffalo to the city line of Tonawanda is but a space of three miles, so it is plain to be seen that with such a small barrier between two progressive, rapidly growing cities, the time is close at hand when both will virtually be one, even though they maintain distinct municipal governments. Tonawanda, as it is known to outsiders, comprises Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, but between the residents of the two places, there is a friendly rivalry. North Tonawanda considers itself the most prosperous city in the State of New York and sets forth several reasons of high statistical qualities to that end. Glancing at a comparison in the different periods from 1880 to 1893 inclusive, we find an increase in population of over 720 percent. In 1880 the population was 1,400; in 1892, over 8,000, and in 1893, over 11,000. For the past three years, those who claim to know give the opinion that the increase has been fully as great, if not greater. Besides the increase in population, Tonawanda has added many thousands of dollars in improvements that make a city, and with each new improvement came an increase in population and added industries. Tonawanda has a great harbor and immense dock facilities, or it could not take care of lumber to 422,623,000 feet, as was the case in 1894. But this is not the limit of her capacity. She can handle and store greater amounts than that and ship to the various points expeditiously, and at the same rail or water rate as Buffalo. The harbor can float anything that passes over the lakes, and that, no doubt, has been the principal reason for making it so great a lumber city. Tonawanda has many fine brick and stone buildings. She has churches, schools, banks, and office buildings, all built on the modern plan. She has an electric light plant and four electric car lines. One leads to the Falls and the others connect with Buffalo. It will take but a few years to come to a time when, if a man should get lost in the suburbs of either Buffalo or Tonawanda, and not knowing his landmarks, he would find it impossible to tell which city he is in. Tonawanda has one of the greatest iron industries in this part of the State—a furnace for the production of the best pig iron to be found in the United States. This furnace has a capacity of 200 gross tons per day. The product, which is a high grade of strong foundry iron, is shipped all over the world. This industry has a capital of $500,000. Here is located an extensive plant for the manufacture of a machine familiar to thousands of children and called a merry-go-round. At these works are manufactured canal boat supplies, a patent steering wheel, agricultural implements, feed cutters, and iron rollers. Another branch of this industry is a syphon condensing engine for the saving of fuel. A wonderful machine, which will doubtless increase the fame of Tonawanda, is a refrigerating and calorific apparatus for attachment to freight cars. This machine produces cold or heat at the will of the operator and is the result of forty years' study and experiment.
Landmarks of Niagara County, book (1897).pdf
The Town of Wheatfield, transcribed chapter (Landmarks of Niagara County, 1897).pdf
CHAPTER XXII. THE TOWN OF WHEATFIELD. Wheatfield is the last town organized in Niagara County, and was set off from Niagara May 12, 1836. It lies on the southern boundary of the county, west of the center, and extends farther south than any other town. The Niagara River forms its southwestern boundary and Tonawanda Creek its southern. Its surface is level or gently undulating. The soil is generally a clayey loam, not easy of cultivation, but productive of grains and especially of wheat; this latter fact gave the town its name. Cayuga Creek flows across the northwestern part of the town and empties into the Niagara River, and Sawyer’s Creek flows southeasterly across the southeastern part and empties into TonawandaCreek. The town contains four post offices Martinsville, Bergholtz, St. Johnsburg, andShawnee, besides the city of North Tonawanda, and the hamlet of Walmore, in the northwestern corner. The first town meeting was held on the 6th of June, 1836, in the school house of districtNo. 7, on the north line of the town, and the following were elected as the first officers:Supervisor, N. M. Ward.; town clerk, Edwin Cook; assessors, Isaac H. Smith, JamesSweeney, Hiram Parks; justices of the peace, L. B. Warden, John Sweeney; commissioners of highways, Elias Parks, Matthew Gray; collector, Stewart Milliman; Overseer of the poor, William Towsley; constables, Stewart Milliman, Daniel C. Jacobs, Calvin F. Champlin, Seth F. Roberts; commissioners of schools, Isaac L. Young, James Sweeney, Loyal E. Edwards. These were all esteemed citizens of the town at that comparatively late date. The following have been supervisors of the town: In 1836, N. M. Ward; 1837, Benjamin McNitt; 1838, N. M. Ward; 1839, WilliamVandervoort; 1840, John Sweeney; 1842, Isaac L. Young; 1843, N. M. Ward; 1844—45,Lewis S. Payne; 1846, N. M. Ward; 1847—48, L. S. Payne; 1849, Sylvester McNitt;1850, L. S. Payne; 1851, Seth F. Roberts: 1852, Sylvester McNitt; 1853—54, PeterGreiner; 1855, Joseph Hawbecker: 1856—57. GeorgeW. Sherman; 1858, N.M. Ward;1859—61, L. S. Payne; 1862, Peneuel Schmeck; 1863—66, George W. Sherman; 1867H. H. Griffin: 1868, James Carney; 1869, H. H. Griffin; 1870, Edward A. Milliman1871—73, Joseph D. Loveland; 1874—75. Thomas C. Collins; 1876, L. S. Payne; 18771878, Christian Fritz; 1879—81, Charles Kandt; 1882, Daniel Sy; 1883, C. F. Goerss1884-88, Peter Heim; 1889—94, Chauncey Wiebterman; 1895—96, William Tompkins1897—98, Herman Rosebrook. Charles Hagen, a veteran of Co. D, 100th N. Y. Vols., has served as town clerk since about 1874. Since the incorporation of North Tonawanda as a city, Charles Kohler was elected supervisor of the First ward; Conrad J. Winter, Second ward; and John H. Bollier, Third ward. Although this town was erected so many years later than most of the others in the county, and its settlement in the interior and western parts was so comparatively recent, it still bore a close relation to the important events that took place in early years on the frontier.The banks near the mouth of Cayuga Creek, as the reader has learned, constitute ahistorical locality and witnessed stirring scenes when this town was a part of Niagara.The first settlements were made on the Niagara River on and near the site of the city ofNorth Tonawanda. Even in that vicinity progress was slow, except in the direction of improving farm lands, until after the completion of the Erie Canal. There were few settlers within the limits of the town previous to the war of 1812, and when these learned of the destruction of Youngstown and Lewiston, they shared in the general consternation along the frontier, gathered in haste such property as they could carry, and fled eastward beyond immediate danger. Probably the earliest settler on the site of North Tonawanda was George N. Burger, who came in 1809 and built a log tavern on the river; he remained a resident until about 1825.Joshua Pettit came in 181o and settled near the Niagara Iron Works, where he opened a tavern. He was the father of Mrs. Daniel C. Jacobs and Mrs. Whitman Jacobs. Stephen Jacobs, a soldier at the battle of Bunker Hill, located on the river two miles below in1817, where he purchased 196 acres of Augustus Porter, paying eight dollars an acre. He died in Niagara Falls in January, 1840. William Vandervoorte settled here in 1825, occupying a log house which tradition says was the only one then in existence. It was his intention to make a business of purchasing staves and timber for the Boston market, and ultimately to open a mercantile business. In 1828 he finished the first public house in the place, which was called the Niagara; it was burned in 1844. Later he purchased 1,000acres of land of the Holland Company and sold to Prussian immigrants the largest part of their possessions on Tonawanda Creek and its vicinity. He established the first bank in1836. As before indicated, little progress of a business nature was made here until the opening of the Erie Canal. The interior of the town was still almost an unbroken wilderness and as late as 1850 a large part of the area of the town was unimproved. The prospects at Tonawanda in 1824, as viewed by interested persons, is indicated in the following advertisement: VILLAGE OF NIAGARA. This village is located at the confluence of the Niagara and Tonawanta rivers, where the Erie canal from Buffalo enters the Tonawanta, and where boats pass from the canal into the Niagara river by a lock. At this junction of the rivers and adjoining the village, is a safe and spacious harbor, as well for canal boats as for vessels navigating Lake Erie.These advantages cannot fail to render the village of Niagara the depot of the products of the West, destined to the city of New York, and of return cargoes of merchandise.A dam of four or five feet high will be thrown across the Tonawanta, at the village, so as to raise the river to the level of Lake Erie, and the river will be navigated for the distance of eleven miles, and be united with the canal between Niagara and Lockport. The surplus water from the dam will afford an abundant and steady supply for mills and other hydraulic works. The village is 12 miles from Buffalo, 8 from the falls, 15 from Lewiston, and 16 miles from Lockport. A line of stages passes through from Buffalo to Lewiston daily, and another from Lockport to Buffalo every other day. Travelers to the Falls will leave the canal at this place. A bare inspection of Vance’s or Lay’s map of the western part of this State will at once show the advantageous position of the village for trade, market and manufactures.Building lots are now offered for sale to actual settlers. A map of the village may be seen by application to James Sweeney, at Buffalo, or to George Goundry at the Land Office inGeneva; and the former will enter into contracts of sale. The title is indisputable, and good warranty deeds will be executed to purchasers. GEORGE GOUNDY, JAMES SWEENEY, JOHN SWEENEY, Proprietors. July 5, 1824. The James Sweeney, whose name appears above, settled first in Buffalo in 1811. He became one of the proprietors of the site of North Tonawanda village, and as such settled there in 1828 and built one of the very early frame dwellings. The land owned by him and his associates was cleared to supply timber for the Buffalo pier and breakwater, and at the same time to prepare the tract for sale in small lots. The sites on which were erected the First M. E. church (1837) and the first school house were donated by Mr. Sweeney, and largely through his energy, activity and generosity the village received its early impetus. He died in January, 1850, aged fifty-seven. John Sweeney was his son and long a prominent citizen; he superintended the building of the first railroad depot and was long the station agent. He caused the building of the first dock on the creek next to the bridge, and subsequently extended it 250 feet. He built the first grist mill, which was burned and not rebuilt, and also the first saw mill. James Carney settled as early as 1819, with his father, Edward, on Tonawanda Island, which was known for many years as Carney Island. His purpose was to gain pre emption rights to the island if the boundary settlement should leave it within the United States. In 1854 the State caused a survey to be made and ordered an assessment valuation of $4 50 per acre. In the next year the island was directed to be sold at auction in Albany and required one-eighth of the purchase money to be paid down. Mr. Carney placed the requisite sum in the hands of Judge Samuel Wilkinson, of Buffalo, to make the purchase. But the spirit of speculation awakened by the operations of Mordecai M. Noah and his associates, on Grand Island, created a spirited contest for this island and it was sold to Samuel Leggate at $23 an acre. After that Mr. Carney became one of the most active and energetic of the pioneers; engaged extensively in clearing lands; was employed as a teamster by Porter, Barton & Co.; boated salt and other produce up and down the river; and was otherwise a useful member of the young community. Among other early settlers of the town were Heman A. Barnum, James A. Betts, Wilhelm Dornfeld, Albert Dornfeld, C. F. Goers, Herman F. Stieg, Nelson Zimmerman, John Grey. In 1824 Harvey Miller came from Rochester and settled on the Lockport and Niagara Falls road, in the north part of the town, where he purchased 100 acres of the Holland Company at $5 an acre. He was young and energetic, and although without much means, he soon became independent. During the first winter he was in this town he, with the assistance of one young man, cleared twenty-five acres. In that summer he sowed eighteen acres of winter wheat and raised 8oo bushels; this he sold to other incoming settlers at seventy-five cents a bushel. He was long a road commissioner and aided in laying out all the first roads in the town. He lived to an old age. Among the first settlers in the extreme northeastern part, where the post-office of Shawnee is located, were Timothy Shaw (from whom the place is named) and Volney Spalding, who opened a store and established an ashery there in 1828. John Grey settled about a mile south of Shawnee in 1825; he purchased eighty-four acres of the Holland Company at $5 an acre. In the course of time certain influences brought into this town a largely preponderant foreign element, mainly of Prussian nativity, who settled at first mostly on small tracts of land, but finally became in many instances large owners. By far the greater portion of the territory of the town was finally occupied by them, and the same is true today of them or their descendants. They developed into excellent farmers, frugal and industrious, and patient in overcoming adverse conditions in their surroundings. They cleared the lands, drained the swamps, and rendered the town one of the most productive in this region. Settlements by this element were about simultaneous in separate localities. In 1843 Carl Sack, Erdman Wurl, and Fred Grosskopf purchased of William Vandervoorte 400 acres at $15 an acre; the tract was situated on the Tonawanda Creek, in the southeast corner of the town, and the settlement made there was given the name of Martinsville, through the veneration felt by the inhabitants for Martin Luther. The original purchase was subdivided into small tracts of three or more acres, to suit the wishes of purchasers, and about thirty families came in the first season. Ten log houses were completed in the fall, and into these the families moved, three or four in a house, in some cases, until additional buildings could be erected. Christian Dornfeld settled here in 1843, purchasing six acres of Vandervoorte, and lived to old age, leaving a family of children. His sons William and Albert became prominent business men in the place. William Dornfeld and Christian Fritz purchased, in 1856 the first saw mill, which had been built by Joseph Hewitt. Mr. Fritz built a saw mill and planing mill in 1860, and established a lumber yard. William Dornfeld also carried on a considerable store, which he opened in 1851. He was associated with Krull Brothers in operating another planing mill and sash and door factory, which was built in 1876, and was also postmaster of the place for some time. The present postmaster is Charles A. Graf, who is also a harnessmaker. Other later and present merchants are William F. Fritz, lumber; Charles Grosskopf and Ernest G. Jaenecke general stores; Ferdinand Ziehl, hardware; and Christ Martin, grocery. John G. Jaenecke is proprietor of the Martinsville Hotel, and Charles Rogge is a blacksmith and cider manufacturer. Eugene De Kleist began the manufacture of church and other .organs in Martinsville in 1892, and in 1893 erected a large factory, in which he employed about fifty hands. He has been eminently successful in this enterprise, and enjoys a trade which extends all over the country. Martinsville became a part of the city of North Tonawanda on April 24, 1897, but still maintains its own post office. New Bergholtz (Bergholtz is the name of the post-office) is in the central part of the town and was settled almost exclusively by Prussians. The place is named from one in Germany whence many of the settlers came. In 1843 Frederick Moll, John Williams and John Sy, as trustees, purchased a tract of land for a German Evangelical Lutheran congregation consisting of 120 members. The tract contained 820 acres and was conveyed by deed from the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company; 176ó acres, deeded by William L. Marcy and wife; 118 acres deeded by Washington Hunt; 200 acres deeded by John J. DeGraff (the two latter tracts including the site of the village); 456 acres conveyed by Blandina Dudley; and 349 acres by the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company. These transfers were all made in October, 1843. The whole quantity of land conveyed comprised 2,119ó acres and cost the settlers a little more than $16,000. A map of the lands was made and 121 village lots laid out, with proper streets and a large public square. By a general deed executed by the trustees October 12, 1843, they conveyed to Augustus Manske and 118 others each a lot of one acre. The first of these corners found temporary quarters in a large barn that had been previously built for some purpose, until houses could be erected. Washington Hunt presented the community with their first ox team to aid in building log houses, and during the first season a building was completed on nearly every one of the lots deeded. With the community came a carpenter, a blacksmith, a mason, a tailor, a shoemaker and a cabinet maker, which enabled them to live almost wholly upon their own resources. Some of them had considerable money, one of the wealthiest being John Salingre, who brought over about $20,000. His kindness and generosity to his less fortunate neighbors in the new country are gratefully remembered. He died in 1871. The first dry goods store started at Bergholtz was that of Christian Wolf, one of the pioneers. The first post-office was established in 1850 with John Sy, postmaster, who died in 1861. These Lutherans left their own country chiefly on account of the determination of the king of Prussia to force a union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. Hundreds of families left their country on that account. Rev. J. An. A. Grabau of Buffalo, preached to these people for about a year from 1843, when their former pastor, Rev. Mr. Ehrenstroem, arrived from Germany. He was succeeded a year later by Rev. Henry von Rohr, formerly a captain in the Prussian army, who remained until his death in 1874. A church was erected in 1848, and was called The Holy Ghost Church. A school was opened and taught by one of the pioneers, and later by G. Renwald. In 1845 the Lutheran Synod was organized in Buffalo and the Bergholtz church became a part of it. In 1866, through dissension, the synod divided into three parts, and in consequence the Bergholtz congregation was divided into two parties, one of which, consisting of fifty-two families, renounced its old pastor, Mr. Von Rohr, and called Rev. W. Weinback. This party had a rriajority of the members and remained in possession of the church property, consisting of about twelve acres of land, the church parsonage, cemetery, and school buildings. The other party, about thirty-seven families, remained loyal to Mr. Von Rohr, held services in a private house, which was later fitted up for a school house, and soon built a new brick edifice, taking the name of Trinity church. Mr. Von Rohr died in 1874, and about two thirds of the Trinity congregation now wished to join with the Buffalo synod; but as the remainder were not willing, they separated, called another pastor, and in 1875 organized the Lutheran St. Jacob’s Congregation. A lot was purchased, and in 1876 a new church, parsonage, and school house were erected. Bergholtz now contains the stores of Charles W. Kandt and August Lange, the latter being also postmaster, and the store of August Retzlaff. At Shawnee, in the northeast corner of the town, a Baptist church was organized in July, 1830, but the large influx of Lutherans caused the abandonment of that organization and the substitution of the other. Land for the church was donated by Isaac Carl and the building was erected in 1847. Shawnee was named from Timothy Shaw, who with Volney Spalding opened a store and ashery there in 1828. In 1863 an M. E. church was erected. Harmon H. Griffin is postmaster and general merchant, and Carl E. Eddy, blacksmith. St. Johnsburg is an outgrowth of Bergholtz, and lies to the southwest of the latter place on the 820 acres deeded by the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company, before mentioned. It has had very little business interest. A brick church was erected by St. John’s German Lutheran Society in 1846, to which was attached a school. A store was opened and a few shops established. William C. Krull is the postmaster and a general merchant, and Lewis Holland is a harness dealer and proprietor of the hotel. New Walmore, in the northwest corner of the town, was so named from a village in Prussia, whence the settlers came about 1843. A Lutheran church was built there, of brick, in The place is merely a rural hamlet. North Tonawanda formed one of the wards of Tonawanda from the incorporation of the latter village to 1857, when it withdrew, and for eight years was simply a part of the town of Wheatfield. The village of North Tonawanda was incorporated May 8, 1865, with the following trustees: David Robinson, Jacob Becker, George W. Sherman, Alexander G. Kent, Clark Ransom and J. D. Vandervoorte. At that time it contained a population of 440 and an area of 681 acres. The village government was established with its various departments of fire, police, schools, etc., and during the thirty-two succeeding years was brought to its present efficient condition. The village presidents were as follows: James Carney. 1868; Franklin Warren, 1869; John M. Rockwell, 1870; A. G. Kent, 1871; Franklin Warren, 1872—73; C. W. Watkins, 1874—75; Franklin Warren, 1876; C. W. Watkins, 1877—78; F. S. Fassett, 1879; Alexander McBain, 1880; John Taylor, 1881— 82; William Goinbert, 1883; Conrad Backer, 1884; J. S. Thompson, 1885—87; Fred Sommer, 1888—89; Joseph Pitts, 1890; Benjamin F. Felton, 1891; John E. Oelkers, 1892; James S. Thompson, 1893—94; George Stanley (resigned, and E. C. McDonald installed), 1895; Levant R.Vandervoort, 1896; Albert B. McKeen, 1897. On April 24, 1897, by a special act of the Legislature, North Tonawanda was incorporated as a city with the following boundaries: All that part of the county of Niagara, in the State of New York, comprised within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning at the junction of the middle line of the Tonawanda Creek with the Niagara River, the same being on the south bounds of Niagara county; thence running up said Tonawanda Creek, following the middle line thereof, the same being the boundary line between the county of Erie and the county of Niagara, to a point opposite the mouth of the Sawyers Creek, where Sawyers Creek empties into said Tonawanda Creek; thence northerly along and following the middle line of Sawyers Creek, to the junction of the east and west branches of said creek, in farm lot four, lying along Tonawanda Creek; thence northwesterly along the middle line of the westerly branch of said creek, to the intersection of said middle line with the north line of lot 12, in township 13 of range 8 of the Holland purchase (so-called); thence westerly along the north line of said lot 12, and lots 21 and 28 of said township and range, to the northwest corner of lot 28; thence continuing the same course westerly along the projection of said north line of said lot 28 to the point of intersection of said projected line with the north line of lot 73 of the New York State mile reserve; thence northwesterly along the said north line of said lot 73 and along the north line of lots 71 and 70 and 69 of the said mile reserve, to the intersection of the west line of said lot 69 with said north line thereof; thence southerly along the west line of said lot 69 to the easterly shore of the Niagara River; thence at right angles to the shore line of said river at that point, southerly to the middle line of the east channel of Niagara River. being the boundary between Niagara and Erie counties; thence up the said middle line of said east channel of Niagara River and along said boundary line between said Niagara and Erie counties, to the southerly point or angle of said Niagara county, in the middle of said east channel of said Niagara River: thence easterly and northeasterly in the waters of said river along the boundary line between said Erie county and Niagara county. to the place of beginning; shall be known as the city of North Tonawanda. The city, by this act, was divided into three wards, and the village officers became and held over as officers of the new city, as follows: Albert E. McKeen, mayor; Thomas E. Warner (who had been village clerk since 1886), city clerk; John Kaiser, William M. Gillie. Peter D. Hershey, William Nellis. William Ostwald, Frederick F. Wagenschuetz, Leonard Wiedman, and Martin Wurl, aldermen; Hector M. Stocum, treasurer; James F. Davison, superintendent of public works; Stillman C. Woodruff, superintendent of water works; Augustus F. Premus, city attorney. John Kaiser was elected the first president of the Common Council. A special election was held June 8, 1897, for the purpose of electing supervisors, and resulted as follows; First ward, Charles H. Kohier; second ward, Conrad J. Winter; third ward, John H. Bollier. The city is provided with well organized police, fire, and health departments, the mayor being president of the latter. The police department is under the control of three commissioners, appointed by the mayor, the first (1897) incumbents being Lewis F. Allen (president), George McBean, and John Mahar. The chief is John Ryan, who has under him one sergeant and six patrolmen. The fire department was organized about twenty years ago, the first company being Columbia Hook & Ladder Co., which is still in existence; there are seven other companies, viz.: Rescue Fire Co. (stationed in Martinsville), Alert Hose Co, Active Hose Co., Hydrant Hose Co., Live Hose Co., Gratwick Hose Co. (in Gratwick), and Sweeney Hose Co. The chief is Louis J Wattengel. The water system originated with the Tonawanda City Water Works Company, which was incorporated in 1885 with a capital of $50,000. The works were located on Tonawanda Island, and water was obtained by the Holly system from the Niagara River. The company supplied both Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, but the former finally built a plant of its own. About 1894 the village of North Tonawanda purchased these works at a cost of $275,000, and the city now operates it through its Board of Public Works. Public improvements, such as the laying of pavements and sewers, were commenced by the village about 1889, and up to the present time about $150,000 have been expended for the former and $161,000 for the latter. The Standard Gas Company was incorporated August 21, 1888, with a capital of $25,000, for producing and piping natural gas, which is obtained at Getzville in Erie county. George P. Smith is president. The Tonawanda Lighting and Power Company was incorporated February 23, 1897, with a capital of $150,000, and is the successor of the Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Light Company, which was organized in 1890 The company supplies both Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, and operates in all about 290 arc and 2,400 incandescent lamps. Frank M. Gordon is local manager. The Tonawanda Street Railroad Company was incorporated in 1891 with a capital of $50,000. George P. Smith is president. Besides this the city is connected with Buffalo and Niagara Falls by electric lines, and with Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Lockport by the New York Central and Erie Railroads. Much of the early history of North Tonawanda has been detailed in preceding pages of this chapter, and the reader has doubtless observed that no marked impetus was inaugurated until about 1875. The Sweeney and Vandervoort families were the first resident owners of land in the old village limits. James Sweeney bought farm lots 81 and 82 June 14, 1824, and later conveyed a one-third interest to his brother, Col. John Sweeney, and one-third to George Goundry, an uncle of the latter’s first wife. William Vandervoort, a brother-in-law of James Sweeney, bought farm lot 80 June 7, 1826. These three lots comprise three-fourths of the old corporate limits. As stated, development and settlement were slow until recent years, when an impetus was inaugurated that afforded an unprecedented growth and marked North Tonawanda as one of the most enterprising cities in the State. One of the first to effectually promote the business and shipping interests of the place was Col. Lewis S. Payne, who settled in this town in 1841. In 1845 he engaged in the lumber business and in 1847 erected the first steam saw mill here. He was a lieutenant-colonel in the Rebellion, served as county clerk, assemblyman, and State senator, and was long one of the most enterprising of citizens. Beginning within a few years after the completion of the Erie Canal and continuing to the present time, North Tonawanda has been one of the most important lumber markets of the great lakes. A great many energetic business men, both resident and non-resident, have been associated in this business, whose names even cannot be mentioned here. The rafting of logs from Canada and other lake points was commenced during the war of the Rebellion by Hon. H. P. Smith, but the great lumber business properly dates from 1873. Since then it has grown to enormous proportions. The following tables have been prepared by the Tonawanda Herald: [SEE PDF for figures] Among the leading lumber firms of North Tonawanda are the following: Smith, Fassett & Co., Huron Lumber Co., Calkins & Co., Rumbold & Alliger, Kelsey & Gillespie, James B. Huff, F. A. Myriçk, A. K. & W. E. Silverthorne, Rumbold & Bellinger. Dodge & Bliss Co., OilIe & McKeen, Robinson Brothers & Co. Ltd., Robertson & Doebler, John Godkin, Thompson Hubman & Fisher, J. & T. Charlton, Merriman & Merriman, Export Lumber Co., Willoughby & Hathaway, W. H. Cooper & Co., Skillings, Whitneys & Barnes, Harrison W. Tyler, Wisconsin Lumber Co., A Weston & Co., W. H. Sawyer Lumber Co., David G. Cooper, Fassett & Bellinger, Frost, Rider & Frost, Monroe & McLean, Cornelius Collins, George H. Damon. Among former lumber concerns were J. S. Bliss & Co., formed in i886, whose mill, which was burned recently, was built as a grist mill by John and James Sweeney in 1853; The Tonawanda Lumber and Saw Mill Company incorporated in June, 1891, with a capital of $300,000 which succeeded the Tonawanda Lumber Company, whose predecessor was the New York Lumber and Wood Working Company, which was incorporated by George P. Smith and others in 1885; the Hoilister Brothers Company, Ltd., organized in January, 1889, with a capital of $450,000, which on September 1, 1890, was increased to $600,000; the L. A. Kelsey Lumber Company, organized in 1886, which established the first hardwood lumber trade in North Tonawanda; W. E. Marsh & Co., organized about 1888; ; W. H. Kessler & Son, formed in 1887; Plumsteei, Gillespie & Himes, organized in 1890. A. M. Dodge & Co. began business here in 1883, erected a planing mill in 1885, and were succeeded by the Dodge & Bliss The firm of McGraw & Co., consisting of John McGraw, T. H. McGraw, C. B. Curtis and Ira D. Bennett, was for many years heavy dealers in lumber, their yards and docks covering more than six acres of land, with a main dock 400 feet long and two slips of 6oo feet each. W. H. Gratwick & Co., about two miles below the city, established an immense lumber interest several years ago. Others connected with this company were Robert S. Fryer, in Albany, under the style of Gratwick, Fryer & Co., and Edward Smith, in Michigan, under the firm name of Smith, Gratwick & Co. These companies owned more than 30,000 acres of Michigan pine lands, where their mills were capable of turning out 28,000,000 feet annually. Their docks had a frontage on the river of 2,000 feet, with every facility for handling and shipping lumber economically. William H. Gratwick came here and established a lumber business in 1870. In 1880 the Gratwick, Smith & Fryer Lumber Company was incorporated. P. W. Ledoux built a sash, door and blind factory about 1876 and Mr. Gratwick erected a planing mill in 1879 J. & T. Chariton's wood working mill was built by Charles Williams. John Charlton came here in 1862 and was soon followed by Thomas. Grand Island was purchased for the white oak timber in 1833 by the East Boston Company for $16,000. A large mill with gang saws was built and Stephen White, the manager of the company, purchased Tonawanda Island for his home and erected the mansion there. The company did an extensive business until 1837-38. Later William Wilkeson, of Buffalo, became the owner of the island, and from him Smith, Fassett & Co., who had been in the lumber trade since 1872, purchased it in 1882. The island comprises 85 acres, and is one of the largest lumber centers in the world. The W. H. Sawyer Lumber Company was organized in January, 1887. Skillings, Whitneys & Barnes succeeded to the plant of Hall & Buell in June, 1890, and have a dockage of about 1,300 feet on Tonawanda Island. Robertson & Doebler began business here in 1888 and erected a large planing mill in 1889. These and many other lumber concerns have brought the city of North Tonawanda into the front rank of lumber centers of the world during the past quarter century, and it is safe to say that no place in the country has had a more wonderful and sudden development in this respect. With unexcelled harbor facilities, upon which the government has expended thousands of dollars in improvements, and with the great lakes as a feeder and the Erie Canal and numerous railroad lines as outlets, the city has recently forged ahead with an unusual bound, and enjoys extraordinary prospects for the future. Much of the recent prosperity of the place is due to the efforts of the North Tonawanda Business Men's Association, which was organized in May, i888, and of which Edward Evans is president. While the great lumber business has brought capital and fame to the place, other interests have equally shared in promoting its growth and prosperity, and to the most important of these the reader's attention is now directed. The Niagara River Iron Company was organized in 1872 with a capital of $400,000. The company purchased real estate at North Tonawanda to the extent of 165 acres, and in 1873 completed the plant and began operations. The blast furnace was built to turn out fifty tons of pig iron daily, and all of the structures necessary for the business are models of strength and architectural harmony. Early officers of the company were Pascal P. Pratt, president; Josiah Jewett, vice-president; S. S. Jewett, H. H. Glenny, George B. Hays, F. L. Danforth and B. F. Felton, trustees. This company was finally succeeded by the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company, which tore down the old stack and erected a modern furnace at a cost of $250,000, and which subsequently doubled the capacity of its plant. William A. Rogers is president of the company. The Armitage-Herschell Company had its inception in a small brass and iron foundry established by James Armitage and Allan and George C. Herschel! about 1872. Their shop was burned in 1874, rebuilt, and again burned in 1875. Afterward the present site was secured on Oliver street, and the manufacture of engines, boilers, and machinery was conducted on a large scale. In 1887 they added the manufacture of steam riding galleries, or "merry-go-rounds," which has become a leading industry of the Lumber City and the largest of the kind in the country. James Armitage is president; Allan Herschell, vice president; and George C. Herschell, treasurer. The flouring mill of McDonald & Ebersole was started by C. C. Grove and L. D. Ebersole in 1883. The capacity is over 200 barrels per day. Franklin Getz established his present feed mill in North Tonawanda in 1883, coming here from Getzvilie, Erie county. The carriage and wagon works of McIntyre & Miller were started in 1876. The Tonawanda grain elevator, of which Louis Fick is proprietor, was erected in 1882 by L. G Fuller. The Niagara brewery was started by George Zent in 1867, and early in 1883 passed into the possession of the Niagara River Brewing Company, who in June, 1892, were succeeded by the Bush Brewing Company. The first permanent banking business was founded by Edward Evans on June 1, 1872. He was succeeded May 1, 1877, by the firm of Evans, Schwinger & Co., with James H. De Graff president; Edward Evans, vice-president; William McLaren, cashier. This concern was followed by the State Bank, which was organized May i, 1883, with a paid up capital of $100,000, and with James A. De Graff, president; Edward Evans, vice president; Benjamin L. Rand, cashier. The present capital, undivided profits, and surplus is about $165,000, and the officers are J. H. De Graff, president ; C. Schwinger, vice-president; Benjamin L. Rand, cashier. The Lumber Exchange Bank was organized May i, i886, with a capital of $100,000; Edward Evans, president; Joshua S. Bliss. vice president; James H. Rand, cashier; In 1889 the capital was doubled, and in 1890 Mr. Evans was succeeded as president by James S. Thompson. The bank discontinued business in April, 1897. George F. Rand started a private banking business in 1890. James H. Rand established his present private bank in 1894. Frederick Robertson & Co. began a private banking business in 1897. The various journalistic enterprises have been so intimately identified with both Tonawanda and North Tonawanda that it seems advisable to mention them briefly here. The first in the field was the Tonawanda Commercial, which was started by S. Hoyt on May 2, 1850, and lived a little more than a year. In September, 1853, S. S. Packard began the publication of the Niagara River Pilot, which was sold by him in 18,, to S. O. Hayward, who started the Niagara Frontier in November, 1857, and, after an absence, the Enterprise, which was continued till about 1891. The Tonawanda Herald was started July 19, 1875, by Jay Densmore, who a year or two later was succeeded by Warren & O'Regan. On October 14, 1877, Thomas M. Chapman bought out John O'Regan and in 1880 George Warren sold his interest to Thomas E. Warner; since then the firm has been Chapman & Warner. During six months in 1890 a daily edition was published; otherwise the paper has been successfully continued as an able, influential Democratic weekly. Thomas M. Chapman, of the firm of Chapman & Warner, editors and publishers of the Tonawanda Herald, of North Tonawanda, is the son of Thomas and Margaret Chapman, and was born in Queenston, Canada, November 17, 1844. His father was a native of Hull, England. Mr. Chapman moved with his parents to St Catharines, Ontario, where he received an academic education under Rev. T. D. Phillips. When sixteen he was apprenticed to the printer's trade, which he learned thoroughly. In 1877 he came to North Tonawanda, and on October 14 of that year purchased the interest of John O'Regan in the Tonawanda Herald, thus becoming a partner with George Warren in the publication of that paper. In 1880 Mr. Warren sold his interest to Thomas E. Warner, and since then the firm has been Chapman & Warner. Mr. Chapman is one of the oldest and ablest editors in Niagara county, and during a successful journalistic career has always stood in the front rank of his profession. He is a terse, ready writer, a good judge of literature, and an enterprising, public spirited citizen. In politics he has always been a prominent Democrat. He was deputy collector of customs four years and clerk of the village of North Tonawanda three years, and is a member of Niagara River Lodge, No. 527, I. O. O. F., and other social and fraternal organizations. January 27, 1870, he married Cecelia J., daughter of the late James Stephenson, of Canandaigua, N. Y., and they have two children, James Alfred and Alice M. Thomas E. Warner, of the firm of Chapman & Warner, publishers of the Tonawanda Herald, and the first clerk of the city of North Tonawanda, is the son of Hon. Ulysses Warner and Eliza Ann Jones, his wife, and was born in Orleans, Ontario county, N. Y., March 23, 1844. His father was member of assembly in 1858 and 1859, served as justice of the peace for many years, and was a prominent and influential citizen. Mr. Warner was educated in the common schools of his native town. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to the printer's trade in the office of the Geneva Gazette, where he remained three years. Afterward he spent some time as a journeyman, principally in Detroit, Chicago and New York, and while in the latter city was one of four or five compositors who put into type the first dispatch that came over the second Atlantic cable. He was also warden of the Jersey City (N. J.) Charity Hospital for four years. In 1880 he came to North Tonawanda and purchased George Warren's interest in the Tonawanda Herald, with which he has since been connected under the firm name of Chapman & Warner. He is an able writer, a man of energy and ability, and one of the most public spirited of citizens. He served as village clerk of North Tonawanda from 1886 until it became a city, when he became the first city clerk, which office he now holds. He is a past master of Tonawanda Lodge, No. 247, F. and A. M., and the present high priest of Tonawanda Chapter, No. 278, R. A. M. The Daily News, of North Tonawanda, was commenced about i88o by George S. Hobbie, who had been employed in the office of the Index, which was started in 1875 by J. A. L. Fisher. The News was originally a diminutive two-column sheet. George W. Tong became a partner in 1884, and soon changed it to a weekly, taking the name of the Standard, which was leased to J. W. Works in 1886. In 1887 Mr. Works resumed the publication of the Daily News, having as a partner his brother Arthur. Other owners following them were Hepworth & Lane, George P. Smith, and M. J. Dillon, who sold it on December 4, 1894, to Harlan W. and Walter S. Brush; the News Publishing Company was incorporated in May, 1895, with a capital of $12,000, and with H. W. Brush, president, and W. S. Brush, secretary and treasurer. A weekly edition was added April 1, 1897. Harlan W. Brush, president of the News Publishing Company of North Tonawanda, is a son of James A. and Amelia A. (McCall) Brush, and was born in Nelson, Portage county, O., May 27, 1865. He soon moved with his parents to Alliance, Ohio, where he attended the public schools and Mount Union College, which he left at the age of fifteen on account of his father's death. He spent one year in the office of the Alliance Weekly Standard learning the printer's trade, which he finished with F. W. Lordan, a job printer of that place. In December, 1884, he purchased Mr. Lordan's establishment, and in 1887 also bought the Standard, and combined the two plants. In 1888 he added the Alliance Weekly Review and consolidated the two papers under the names of the Daily Review and Weekly Standard, forming a stock company, of which he was the manager and has since been the principal stockholder. In 1894 he came to North Tonawanda, and with his brother, Walter S., purchased the Daily News. In May, 1895, the News Publishing Company was incorporated with a capital of $12,000, and Mr. Brush has since been its president. Mr. Brush has always been active in politics, as a Republican, and was president of the first McKinley club ever organized (1887) this was in McKinley's own county (Stark) in Ohio. As a journalist he is progressive and enterprising, and has been eminently successful in this profession. He has made the News one of the liveliest and best dailies in the county. Walter S. Brush, secretary and treasurer of the News Publishing Company, of North Tonawanda, is a younger son of James A. and Amelia A. (McCall) Brush, and was born in Alliance, Ohio, September 25, i868. He was educated in the Alliance public schools and Mount Union College, was for two years a clerk for the Solid Steel Company of his native city, and then took a course of short hand in Oswego, N. Y. He became chief clerk in the train master's office of the West Shore Railroad in Syracuse and later bookkeeper and manager of the Minneapolis branch of the Hall Safe and Lock Company. In 1894 he came to North Tonawanda, and with his brother, Harlan W., purchased the Daily News, of which he has since been the secretary and treasurer. Mr. Brush is an efficient business manager, as the prosperous condition of the News shows. The North Tonawanda Cemetery Association was incorporated in 1868 with Hiram Newell (president), Benjamin J. Felton, Garwood L. Judd, Selden G. Johnson, Franklin Warren, and John Simpson, trustees. The first bridge over Tonawanda Creek in the village was erected chiefly for military purposes soon after 1800. It was a temporary structure and soon went to ruin. Passage of the stream was then made by ferry until 1824, when a toll bridge was built under a legislative charter, which gave it an existence of twenty-one years. Prior to the expiration of the charter the shares were bought by the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad Company, which rebuilt the bridge to accommodate its tracks. When the charter expired the bridge became a county and town charge. The third structure was built by Niagara and Erie counties and stood until J875 when the present one was erected. In 1891 another iron bridge was built across the Tonawanda Creek to connect Delaware and Main streets, and still another was erected over Ellicott Creek on Delaware street. Within recent years a number of land enterprises have been inaugurated in North Tonawanda, giving the city an impetus commensurate with its business growth and development. The Ironton addition was replatted and placed on the market in 1890; the North Tonawanda Land Company was incorporated in June, 1891, with a capital of $100,000. One of the moving spirits in each of these incorporations was George P. Smith. At this point mention should be made of a number of business men and residents of North Tonawanda, past and present, who have been instrumental in developing the resources of the city and imparting to it that degree of prosperity which has brought it into prominence throughout the country. Among these are: John Schuimeister, Lehon & Warren, A. & B. M. Krauss, L. G. Stanley, Dr. C. C. Smith, Nice & Hmkey, William J. Kage, M. F. and G. F. Myers, (who succeeded G. L. Faulkner in the coal business in 1890), John 0. Ball, John T. and William Bush, W. W. Tlaayer (afterward governor of Oregon), B. H. Long, Hon. Garwood L. Judd, Lewis T. Payne, Frederick Sommer, Dr. R. G. Wright, Dr. W. L. Allen, Dr. W. V. R. Blighton, Levant R. Vandervoort, George P. Smith, A. F. Premus, James S. Thompson, J. H. De Graff, James Sweeney, jr., Frank Batt, Benjamin F. Felton, William Tompkins, Albert Dornfeld (postmaster), George 0. Miller, Henry Homeyer, C. F. Goerss, Thomas H. Tulley, John T. Hepworth, Edward C. Praker, August M Wendt, James H. Rand, Albert E. McKeen, Fred F. Wagenschuetz & Co., Mundie & McCoy, Charles Hagen. William Allen, Edward Evans, Hon. Henry F. Warner. John E. Oelkers, John P. Christgau, Batt, Kopp & Co. (manufacturers of church and school furniture). John H. Bollier, L. G. Fuller, Gillie Godard & Co. (manufacturers of steam riding galleries), August H. Miller, C. F. Oelkers, Christian Schulmeister. Among other prominent citizens of the town of Wheatfield may he mentioned: Edward A. Milliman, William Krull, Frederick and Martin Kopp, William Boening, William Fritz, Frederick Wurl, William Mauth, Gottlieb Walck, William Beutel, James Briggs, L. B. Bullard, John Chadrick, William Deglow, William Devantier, Frederick Geutz, F. D. and B. A. Habecker, Henry Hall, Peter Heim. Dennis G. Hoover. Martin Klemer, Ferdinand Lang, William Lehon, William Mavis, Oliver and John Miller, \Villiam Pfuhl, Christ Radlaff, Charles Rogge, George Schenek, Joseph Schenek, William Schmidt, John H. and William Schnell, Henry Treichier, William Vandervoort, Henry F. Wagner, Albert and August Walk, Christopher Walk, Gottlieb Walk, William Watt, Fred Weinheimer, William Wench, August and Charles Werth, Chauncey Wichterman, August and Gustav H. Williams, William Williams, George M. Warren, Christian George Krull, J. D. Loveland, Daniel Sy, William Clark, Martin Reisterer, Calvin Jacobs, J. S. Tompkins, Thomas Collins, Daniel Treichler, Harvey Miller. More extended notices of some of these and many others appear in Part III of this volume. Schools and religious services were among the first institutions to be inaugurated by the early settlers. The history of the beginnings of the former, however, is meagre. The first school in the north part of the town was taught by Ira Benedict in 1826, while the pioneers in the south part evidently sent their children over into Erie county, a school having been started there, near the creek, as early as 1816. In 1836, soon after the formation of the town, Wheatfield was conveniently divided into school districts, which in 1860 numbered seven; the present number is eight. In 1866 a portion of the Union School building in North Tonawanda was erected; this is a fine brick structure, known as the Goundry Street school, and was rebuilt in 1882, bonds to the amount of $14,500 being issued for the purpose. There are three other substantial brick schOol houses in the city, viz., the Ironton School, erected in 1889, and the Pine Woods and Gratwick Schools, built in 1892; the former cost $15,000 and the latter two $20,000 each. One of the most successful teachers and superintendents was Prof. Alexander D. Filer, who came to North Tonawanda from Middleport in 1881 and remained until his death, about 1891, being succeeded by Prof. Clinton S. Marsh, the present incumbent. The principal of the High School is F. J. Beardsley. Benjamin F. Felton has been connected with the Board of Education since 1876 and has served as its president since 1877; James H. Rand has officiated as clerk since 1882. Religious services were held in this section as early as 1816-20, when Rev. John Foster was a preacher on the Tonawanda circuit, but no church was organized until many years later. Some of the earlier churches of the town have already been mentioned. The inhabitants of Tonawanda worshiped for some time in a union church which was erected about 1830, on a lot on South Canal street donated by A. H. Tracy. The First Methodist Episcopal Church of North Tonawanda was built in 1842. on the corner of Main and Tremont streets. One of the prime movers in this as well as in the original movement was John Simson, who on July 4, 1867, presented the lot, edifice, etc., to the society free of debt. The present church was completed in 1882. A Baptist church was organized about 1852, but a few years later succumbed for lack of support. The First Baptist church of North Tonawanda was organized September 6, 1885, with eighteen members, and in 1887-88 an edifice was erected on Vandervoort street at a cost of about $8,000. St. Mark's Episcopal church, organized February 17, 1869, is noticed in the chapter devoted to Lockport. St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran church, of North Tonawanda, was organized October 31, 1887. by Rev. H. Kaufman, who also instituted a parochial school in connection therewith. The church was built about 1888. The Church of Christ of North Tonawanda was organized in 1888, and the next year an edifice was built on the corner of Christiana street and Payne's avenue; with the lot it cost about $12,000. The Church of the Ascension (Roman Catholic), of North Tonawanda, was organized by Rev. Father Bustin in i888, and a church and parsonage were erected soon afterward. The present pastor is Rev. Patrick Cronin. St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran church, on the corner of Wheatfield and Bryan streets, was built in 1888-90, the church organization being effected in January, 1890. The first pastor was Rev. W. C. Koch. Connected with the church is a flourishing parochial school. The Evangelical Frieden's church was organized by Rev. Paul Dittman in 1889, and an edifice was built the same year on the corner of Schenck and Vandervoort streets at a cost of $8,000. The North Presbyterian church was organized April 30, 1891, with seventy- five members, and purchased the building erected by the German Methodists in 1887. The Central Methodist church on Oliver street near Fifth avenue, North Tonawanda, was built about 1893. The Young Men's Christian Association of North Tonawanda was organized largely through the influence of the late Rev. I. P. Smith in December, 1886. In 1892 a handsome brick building was erected on the corner of Main and Tremont streets. One of the principals in fostering this institution was Dr. F. M. Hayes, the first president. There are two churches of the Lutheran faith in Martinsville, viz., St. Martin's, erected in 1846, and St. Paul's, built in 1861. Connected with each church is a flourishing parochial school. FROM LANDMARKS OF NIAGARA COUNTY, NEW YORK EDITED BY: WILLIAM POOL PUBLISHED BY D. MASON & CO. PUBLISHERS, SYRACUSE, NY 1897
Souvenir history of Niagara County, New York - Commemorative of the 25th anniversary of the Pioneer Association of Niagara County (1902).pdf
Niagara Falls Power Company - Information for Visitors, book (1907).pdf
Power or The Story of Niagara Falls, booklet (Elbert Hubbard, 1914).jpg
Greater Buffalo NY Industrial Commercial, book (1914).pdf
Hundreds of illustrations of Buffalo institutions and factories. Tonawandas section: 71: Lumber views, Sweeney Building 72: Tonawanda Iron, Buffao Bolt, Felton School 73: Bennet, Eastern Lumber Co., Buffalo Pump 74: Niagara Falls (Adama Power Plant) 77: Lockport 80: Depew
Landmarks of the Niagara Frontier, Peter B. Porter, book (1914).pdf
A Graphic Story of the Buffalo Bolt Plant, photo book (1920).jpg
Niagara County 1821-1921 Vol 1, Historical, book.pdf
Niagara County 1821-1921 Vol 2, Biographical, book.pdf
History of the Barge Canal of New York State, online book (Noble E. Whitford, 1921).htm
The War of 1812 on the Niagara Frontier, book (Babcock, 1927).pdf
North Tonawanda Centennial Magazine 1865-1965.pdf
A History of the City of Tonawanda, illustrated booklet (Dittmar, Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 1971).jpg
Waterfront Revitalization Plan, City of North Tonawanda (1988).pdf
City of North Tonawanda, Centennial Celebration, book (1997).pdf
City of North Tonawanda Brownfield Opportunity Area, report (2012-12).pdf
From the 376-page illustrated report's Introduction: The North Tonawanda Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) is an approximately 546 acre area located along the Niagara River and Erie Canal in the City of North Tonawanda, encompassing all of Tonawanda Island, the Little River and the majority of the City’s historic downtown core. The City and BOA are also located at the western gateway to the Erie Canal, and are within short distances to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Ontario, Canada. The study area includes a variety of waterfront, industrial, commercial, and retail land uses. In addition, the BOA is home to some of the City’s primary cultural and natural resources, most notably 15,000 feet of waterfront along the Niagara River and 3,500 feet of the New York State Erie Canal. This document is a summary of the full Nomination Study, which includes the detailed analysis and Master Plan for the North Tonawanda BOA. The Nomination Study is a framework to guide public and private investment within the Study Area, including the rehabilitation of vacant, underutilized and/or contaminated sites, the enhancement of parkland, and the efficient utilization and reinvestment in the City’s wealth of infrastructure.
Sweeney Estate - Reconaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources of City of North Tonawanda (kta preservation, 2019).pdf
A very readable overview of the area's early development from 1600, with special emphasis on early village luminaries in general and the Sweeney family in particular. The urban development of their land, and its use as Pine Woods Park is detailed. HISTORIC OVERVIEW LOCATION The survey area lies in the south portion of the City of North Tonawanda in Niagara County, New York. It is bordered by the New York State Barge Canal Historic District to the south, the Niagara River a few blocks to the west, and other residential and commercial areas of 5 Architectural fabric considers stylistic trends, materiality and construction technology. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 7 North Tonawanda to the north and east. The total area surveyed of the Sweeney Estate is approximately 307.59 acres. HISTORIC TRENDS AND THEMES This section of the report includes a general history of the area as well as a description of the development of the project area documented by historic maps. Archeologists and historians generally accept 1600 CE as the beginning of the Historic period in northeastern North America.6 Iroquoian-speaking Wenro, Neuter, and Erie nations occupied western New York at that time.7 In the 17th century European missionaries, traders, and soldiers arrived in the Great Lakes region. Widespread epidemics and wars followed the introduction of European diseases and the fur trade. Early History The present-day city of North Tonawanda, whose name derived from a Seneca word which translates to ‘swift water,’ was the site of several Indian settlements by 1687. Missionaries and traders were the first Europeans to visit the Niagara Frontier. French and English fur trades competed with one another in the business of trading fur with Native Americans. The various tribes trapped and traded beaver in exchange for guns and iron kettles. The desire to trade with the Europeans in order to acquire weapons and other goods resulted in the beaver almost being hunted to extinction in these territories. In addition to “modern” material goods, the Europeans also brought disease and, as a result, the Iroquois Confederacy, a defense league of nations whose combined territory in the early part of the 17th century stretched from the Mohawk River Valley west through the Finger Lakes to the Genesee River in central New York, saw its population diminish. “The Iroquois desired beaver and the hunting lands that yielded them, and they wanted captives to replace their dead, or to atone at the torture stake for their loss. The coupling of the demands of the fur trade with Iroquois cultural imperatives for prisoners and victims created an engine of destruction that broke up the region’s peoples.”8 With guns and powder supplied by the Europeans, the Senecas, westernmost nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, attacked and defeated or drove into exile most of the people in western New York, western Pennsylvania, and the Ohio River Valley. By the middle of the 17th century, the Erie, Wenro, and Neuter nations no longer existed as cohesive units; members were killed, dispersed, or adopted by the invading Seneca.9 Western New York became the fur-trapping and winter hunting grounds of the conquerors until the end of the 18th Century. 6 Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 19. 7 White, 23. 8 White, 1. 9 White, 1. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 8 The French and English battled for sovereignty over lands of the Iroquois (Smith 1884 Vol. I38-40). The Treaty of Ryswick in 1696 settled some of the territorial disputes between the French and English. The French eventually became the dominant European power in the Niagara Frontier and established better relationships with the Indians than did the English. During the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the Senecas sided with the French. 10 The British were granted a 4-mile-wide strip of land along the eastern shore of the Niagara River from Lake Ontario to Fort Schlosser as a portage route around the falls in the 1764 treaty that officially ended the hostilities between the Seneca and British. The British had gained political and military power in the region by this time. The Iroquois generally sided with the English in the struggle for domination of the fur trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. Most of the Confederacy swore allegiance to the British during the American Revolutionary War. Their involvement in several notorious massacres on the frontier resulted in the Sullivan Campaign of 1779. Dozens of Seneca settlements were burned. Many Senecas fled west, to the Buffalo area, Fort Niagara, and Canada while others made their way south along the Allegheny River.11 The 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the war between Britain and America, however it did not make provisions for the Indians. The land of present-day North Tonawanda was granted to the Seneca by treaty following General Sullivan’s 1779 destruction of Indian villages throughout western New York. The Seneca nation made peace with the new United States of America in 1784, when they signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix.12 New York and Massachusetts settled their claims to preemption rights in western New York, with New York gaining legal jurisdiction and Massachusetts gaining the right to purchase from the Senecas. Massachusetts sold that right to Phelps & Gorham. The two speculators went bankrupt and sold the right back to Massachusetts; who in turn sold them to Robert Morris, who would lose all of his money in land speculation. Morris sold to the Holland Land Company, organized by Dutch bankers in 1797, just before he went off to debtor’s prison.13 The Seneca gave up title to most of Western New York at the signing of the Big Tree Treaty in 1797. The Indian population retained 11 reservations as a result of the 1797 Phelps and Gorham Purchase, including the Tuscarora reservation three miles east of Lewiston and the Tonawanda reservation, part of which formed the extreme southeast corner of Niagara County.Joseph Ellicott, an agent for the Dutch bankers, began surveying the area in the 10 Robert Bingham, Cradle of the Queen City: A History of Buffalo to the Incorporation of the City (Buffalo: Buffalo Historical Society, 1931), 36- 40. 11 Charles Congdon, The Historic Annals of Southwestern New York, v. 2 (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1940), 622-623. 12 Wilma Laux, “The Village of Buffalo, 1800-1832,” Adventures in Western New York History; v. 3 (Buffalo: Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 1969), 3. 13 Bingham, 145. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 9 same year. The Dutch company developed its holdings, planned town sites, and sold the lands on liberal terms directly to settlers. The Seneca who lived in the area did not like Ellicott and called him Skin-in-do-shah, Mosquito, because they said he was always buzzing in their ears for more land. Legislation passed in 1802 gave New York State possession of a mile-wide strip of land along the Niagara River. The strip was surveyed in 1803 and 1804. Niagara was established as a county, which originally included the present Erie County, in 1808. In 1821, Erie County became a separate entity and Niagara County as it is now known was distinguished from its southern neighbor. Niagara County included all lands north of Tonawanda Creek, including what later became North Tonawanda. The county seat was first located in the Village of Lewiston, but many new buildings needed to be constructed in order to create this newly independent county. At the time, roads were little more than wide paths cut through wooded areas, supporting only foot, horse and small carriage traffic. These roads tended to follow the higher ground in order to be self-draining, resulting in winding paths.14 The Holland Land Company realized that the key to increased land sales and settlement was construction and improvement of the primitive transportation system that existed in western New York at the end of the 18th century. Many early settlers in western New York were farmers who had trouble making their mortgage payments, often because of the high cost of transporting their goods to distant markets on roads in typically very poor condition. Joseph Ellicott allowed farmers to work off a portion of their debts by maintaining and improving the roads that were so critical to development.15 Some of the earliest recognized roads in Niagara County were laid out to follow earlier Indian paths. Ridge Road was one of the earlier Indian roads, which some new settlers stumbled upon while hunting cattle in 1805. In 1808, surveyors General Rhea, Elias Ransom and Charles Harford laid out the road along this path that was soon known as Ridge Road. By the early 1810s, “by the Ridge Road most of the pioneers entered the county, and along or near it they first settled.”16 The area around present day North Tonawanda was still relatively wild at this point, filled with forests that would soon prove profitable for early settlers engaged in the lumber industry. North Tonawanda in the Nineteenth Century 14 Niagara County Sheriff’s Office, “History of the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office,” http://www.niagarasheriff.com/early-history.html 15 White, 366. 16 “History of Niagara,” Accessed via https://archive.org/stream/cu31924100387392/cu31924100387392_djvu.txt Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 10 The first American settlement of North Tonawanda took place in the early nineteenth century, when the abundance of forested land was slash-burned and cleared for farming. Agriculture was an important occupation in the district throughout the 1800s. General farming, including the raising of oats and wheat, fruit, and dairying, were practiced.17 The earliest recorded citizen was George M. Burger, who is said to have constructed a log tavern along the Niagara River in 1809. In 1810, he was followed by Joshua Pettit, who also built a tavern. The arrival of the War of 1812 and the subsequent annihilation of Lewiston and Youngstown, extinguished the gradual settlement that had been occurring in North Tonawanda prior to this time. After the War of 1812, the area that was to eventually become the “twin cities” of North Tonawanda and Tonawanda did not see much development prior to the arrival of the Erie Canal. Up until 1821, only about half of the Holland Purchase in this area had been sold.18 In 1823, Judge Samuel Wilkinson and Dr. Ebenezer Johnson constructed a dam across Tonawanda Creek to facilitate canal traffic. The dam was essential to keep the canal waters at the same level as Lake Erie, as it was determined that the city of Buffalo to the south would be the canal terminus. Wilkinson and Johnson were also hired to construct ¾ of a mile of the nascent canal. A toll bridge was erected, and on the south side of the canal, a store was constructed. With the digging of the Erie Canal, the population steadily increased and North Tonwanda, with its sister city Tonawanda, located near the canal, became one of the largest lumber ports in the country. Upon the completion of the canal, the area was described in 1824 as “at the confluence of the Niagara and Tonawanda rivers, where the Erie Canal from Buffalo enters the Tonawanda, and where boats pass from the canal into the Niagara River by a lock,” was considered, “a safe and spacious harbor, as well for canal boats as for vessels navigating Lake Erie.”19 A dam across the Tonawanda River raised its level to that of Lake Erie and supplied water for mills. George Goundry, James Sweeney and John Sweeney advertised in 1824 the advantageous position of the village to settlers who were interested in purchasing building lots for trade, market and manufactures. All this activity began to spur interest in the Tonawandas, and a small village of shanties appeared rapidly, mostly along the south side of Tonawanda Creek. The north side of the canal did not garner as much initial interest apparently, although its potential was recognized. In 1824, the lands to the north of the canal and Tonawanda Creek were purchased by James Sweeney, John Sweeney, and George Goundry, purchasing 17 White, 494. 18 History of Niagara County (New York: Sanford and Company, 1878), 92 19 History of Niagara County, New York, 376. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 11 between them 2 of the 3 original farm lots north of Tonawanda Creek, which they dubbed the Village of Niagara. A handbill from 1824 advertises the village as possessing a “safe and spacious harbor,” for canal boats and lake freighters, mentions daily stagecoach access to Buffalo and Lewiston, and describes an “abundant and steady supply” of water to power hydraulic mills. The same handbill goes on to state the “advantageous position of the village for trade, market and manufacturers,” as well as accurately predicting that “the village (will become) the depot of the products of the West, destined to the city of New York, and of return cargoes of merchandise.” With the purchase of the farm lots north of Tonawanda Creek, brothers James and John Sweeney of Buffalo, and George Goundry of Geneva, New York, became the first real estate agents in the area. The handbill previously mentioned offers lots for sale to settlers, indicating the first time a concerted effort was made to market the area. Interested buyers were encouraged to contact either James Sweeney of Buffalo or George Goundry of Geneva.20 William Vandervoort relocated to the area in 1825. He had a business plan to procure timber and staves for Boston, and open a mercantile business. He contributed to the reemerging area through investment; in 1828, he built the first known public house, which he called the Niagara. He also built the first bank, in 1836. Within a few years, railroad companies established lines throughout the region to supplement and compete with the canal. In 1844, the first locomotive was put on the track between Tonawanda and Black Rock. The canal and railroad allowed companies to profit from readily available lumber and the ability to easily transport their goods across the country and to distant markets. By 1852, the village nucleus had developed with thoroughfares extending northward to Goundry Street and eastward to Payne Avenue. These roads stretched from where Tonawanda Creek and Ellicott Creek converged at the toll bridge, and at this time, a smattering of residential and industrial buildings crossed the village. Despite straddling two different counties, the “twin cities” of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda were considered part of the same “Village of Tonawanda” until the ward comprised of presentday North Tonawanda withdrew from the village corporation in 1857. After 1857, and until 1865, the removed ward was considered part of the nearby town of Wheatfield, until citizens petitioned for incorporation as a distinct “Village of Wheatfield.” The petition was successful, upon which the village became known as the Village of “North Tonawanda,” incorporated May 8, 1865. The area remained relatively sparsely settled in the midnineteenth century. “Until well after the Civil War, North Tonawanda remained a cluster of buildings in the angle made by the creek and the river, and the northern limit was more 20 History of Niagara County, 102 Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 12 realistically along Sylvan Street [Thompson Street].”21 At the time of its incorporation in 1865, the village was 681 acres with a population of 404. At that time, dozens of buildings were scattered within the village nucleus whose edges were then Thompson Street to the north and Payne Avenue to the east. With North Tonawanda possessing a new identity as its own village, industry began to grow. Straddling Tonawanda Creek, the area of the Tonawandas developed as a major stop for the transshipment and processing of lumber during the mid-nineteenth century. Large swaths of forested land still covered the area around North Tonawanda in the early 1800s, setting the stage for the lumber industry that would soon follow. This natural resource, combined with the increased presence of shipping networks by waterways and then rail, led North Tonawanda to host a major lumber industry beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. As early as 1833, the East Boston Lumber Company was headquartered on Tonawanda Island and bought 16,000 acres on Grand Island to use its white oak trees for clipper ship construction for its shipyards in Boston Harbor.22 The Erie Canal made this multi-location business possible at the time, attesting to the impact of this waterway on the early development of North Tonawanda. Other lumber businesses soon arose in the area. In 1847, Colonel Lewis S. Payne constructed the first sawmill, which was steam operated. A similar industrialist, John Simson of Tonawanda, formed the joint stock company Tonawanda & Cleveland Commercial Company in 1849, acknowledging the potential for the area to be a stop on an as of yet to be developed transshipment route. The first planing mill, a mill that turned cut lumber into useable building materials, was constructed in 1856 by William Emerson. The same year a new industrial concern was formed, under the moniker Burrows, Lane & Company. The company was the first to construct multiple docks and wharfs for large lake barges to stop and unload goods and materials, starting with grain. The first shipment of lumber from lands to the west was delivered in 1867, and by that point the Tonawandas were recognized as a major port for transshipment of goods and materials. By the mid 1870’s, lumber was considered the dominant industry of the area, and the village grew readily, the municipal nucleus filling in and roads expanding northward with a new settlement around Wheatfield Street. Lumber dominated the local economy and was named the “prevailing feature of business” as early as 1878, and by the 1880s North Tonawanda itself was being referred to as the “Lumber City.” Lumber and timber from the forested areas of Michigan and Canada could be inexpensively shipped on barges across the Great Lakes to the Tonawandas, planed, dressed and processed, and then transported by rail and canal to markets in the east. Many people were employed unloading, sorting, and 21 Wilma Laux, “North Tonawanda Streets,” Tonawanda News Frontier (June 12, 1976), 21A. 22 Claire Ross, “Carnegie Library,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 1995. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 13 shipping lumber to eastern markets. Saw, lath, planing, and shingle mills as well as storage areas and docks for loading and unloading lumber stretched miles along the Niagara River shoreline. Lumber products such as logs, sawn and planed lumber, rough cut timber, shingles and lath were processed and sent on their way. By 1891 the lumber industry was booming, by local accounts second only to Chicago as a market for lumber. Some of the lumber firms at this time included: A. B. Williams Saw and Planing Mills which made doors, sashes and other products; Eastern Lumber Co., who were wholesale lumber dealers; Fassett and Bellinger’s transshipment business; P. W. Scribner, a wholesaler; George E. Hill’s Planing Mill; Scanlon, Bush and Company Rafters, which tied large bundles of timber together in “rafters” for transport; J. S. Bliss and Company; A. M. Dodge and Company wholesalers; Tonawanda Lumber and Saw Mill Company. After 1891, Chicago’s place was bested by the Tonawandas twice in its history– in both 1903 and 1906 at the peak of the lumber industry. Between ca. 1870 and ca. 1900, over 60 companies associated with the lumber trade had flourished in the Tonawandas, contributing to the rapid commercial and residential development of those areas spanning Tonawanda Creek and the Erie Canal. As the area attracted more industries and residents, many public improvements were made in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Improvements to transportation systems continued in the late nineteenth century, connecting disparate parts of the growing city as well as the greater region. The New York Central & Hudson River Railroad swing bridge, which connected the Tonawandas to Tonawanda Island, was constructed in 1885. By 1895, the installation of the electric streetcar allowed for travel within the city, and for connection to inter-urban rail lines. An individual could use the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Electric Railway Company line to travel between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, through Tonawanda, North Tonawanda, LaSalle and back for fifty cents.23 Power for most of the line was provided by the Power House in North Tonawanda at 184 Sweeney Street. Other public improvements were designed to both provide comfort and accommodate increased development. In 1885, the public water system was originated with the Tonawanda City Water Works Company, which supplied the twin cities with potable water. By 1894, North Tonawanda purchased the water works from Tonawanda. Natural gas was made a public commodity for heating and lighting, with the incorporation of the Standard Gas Company in 1888. The laying of brick pavement on streets and sewers began in 1888. North Tonawanda grew quickly in the last decades of the nineteenth century. In 1880 the 23 Kerry Traynor, “The Herschell-Spillman Motor Complex,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 2013. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 14 U.S. Census recorded 1492 residents, and by 1890 that had more than tripled to a population of nearly 4800. Many of the old farmsteads in that area were subdivided for the creation of large estates for wealthy businessmen and a few residential subdivisions for middle class families. With this era of subdivision, the Sweeney estate entered a new phase of development, which made great strides towards settling the former farm lot 81 with multiple single-family residences intended for the middle and upper class residents, many of whom made their fortune in the lumber industry. On April 24, 1897, by an act of the New York State legislature, the village was incorporated as a city. It was divided into three wards and a special election was held to elect the ward supervisors. It was plainly apparent that by the city’s incorporation, North Tonawanda was an industrious municipality. Unprecedented population growth and a rapid building boom, propelled by the lumber industry, had created massive changes on the physical landscape over the decades between 1880 and 1900. Area Development Patterns in the Early Twentieth Century The first half of the twentieth century brought several changes to North Tonawanda. Changes to shipping networks were accompanied by the diversification of the city’s industrial sector, as well as an increase in population. Dozens of new industrial businesses were established in the area around the turn of the century, attracted to the combination of shipping networks via extensive railroads and waterways, and cheap power from Niagara Falls. In 1900, 9,096 people lived within the city’s boundaries. Just 7 years later in 1907, the population was over 12,000. Changes to the canal and shipping networks began to impact these new industries in the 1910s. In the early 1900s the canal was still a busy place, “with a large number of boats in Tonawanda’s port, and 1306 canal boats clearing from this port in 1906.”24 Despite the continued use of these waterways, the canal still needed some updates if the area was to keep up with other shipping networks. By 1907, the canal was too small to accommodate increasingly large boats, as “the size of the largest boats is limited to 200-ton capacity.”25 Around this time, the state of New York approved the building of a barge canal designed for steam tug-barges of 1000-ton capacity, initially costing about $100 million. The western end of this barge canal was to be located on Tonawanda Creek. Once this was completed, this meant that the old Erie Canal, in the middle of Tonawanda, with its 200-ton mule-drive barges, was subsequently obsolete and later abandoned.26 The end of the old towpath era 24 C. E. Burke, The Tonawandas of Today: Their Industries the Nation’s Greatest Lumber Mart (Buffalo: MatthewsNorthrup Works, 1907), 6. 25 Burke, 7. 26 Ross, 8.5. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 15 was marked in 1917, when the old dam was removed during the winter of 1917-18 and the flow of the lower part of Tonawanda Creek reversed, lowering the level of canal water between Tonawanda and Lockport by 3.4’ but enabling vessels to go directly from the Niagara River into the canal.27 Rising to prominence by the late 1800s, the lumber trade began the first stages of decline in the first decades of the 1900s. While it continued to have a notable presence in the city, the dwindling of resources eventually meant the waning of the industry and the subsequent rise of other industries in the area. Shortly after 1900 the lumber supply from the Great Lakes states and Canada began to dwindle. The hundreds of acres of timber that had been harvested for over thirty years had never been replanted with new trees. The increased scarcity of this natural resource thus led to a rise in prices for the lumber supply, changing the economy of the industry henceforth and thereby reducing its profitability over time. These changes to the lumber supply meant the waning of the “Lumber City” era and a new incarnation for the Tonawandas as an industrial center producing a more diverse array of goods. The Sweeney family was particularly instrumental in transitioning North Tonawanda into this new industrial era, as James Sweeney Jr. made considerable efforts to attract industrial businesses to the region. Advertising the area’s access to multiple shipping networks via waterways and railroads, James Jr. was instrumental in aiding North Tonawanda during a time of transition between the dominant lumber industry and the establishment of new facilities processing iron, steel, cardboard and a wider diversity of products. Many of the former longshoreman took on work in newly opened factories making products such as office equipment, paints, roofing products, fiber and laminated products, steel products, paper boxes, and machine tools. The iron industry began to have an increased presence in North Tonawanda during the early 1900s. As one local pamphlet noted in 1907, “The iron industries are today a close rival of the lumber business for the place of first importance in [North Tonawanda]. The largest plant in the world for the manufacture of nuts and bolts is located here...Many forms of machinery and manufactured iron are profitably and extensively made here.”28 In addition to multiple factories affiliated with the iron industry, businesses producing or processing goods such as cardboard boxes, steel products, metal fences and other items were established in North Tonawanda during the early 1900s. Following the introduction of new industries, a new population of working class laborers, as well as middle and upper class business owners and managers, also began to settle in 27 Duncan Hay, “New York State Barge Canal” (National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 2014), 182. 28 Burke, 5. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 16 the survey area during the 1900s-1920s. Many of these new citizens purchased lots that were subdivided from the Sweeney Estate, settling in the newly constructed houses that ranged from larger upper class residences to smaller middle class houses. Laborers, too, sought housing in the broader North Tonawanda area. This population was “largely German and in most cases own their own homes, and are interested in the general welfare and advancement of the city quite as much as their daily wage.”29 As one pamphlet boasted, admittedly with some bias towards inflating their perception, “These laborers are industrious, intelligent, willing and contented.”30 Municipal buildings and institutions also emerged in the survey area and greater North Tonawanda in order to serve this growing residential population during the early twentieth century. Multiple schools, banks and commercial buildings were constructed, as well as buildings such as the Carnegie Library at 240 Goundry Street in 1903 (NR 95NR00867) and the post office at 141 Goundry Street in 1912 (NR 90NR01972). As one pamphlet attested, North Tonawanda is a “pleasant place in which to live.”31 Given the large range of industries, successful businesses, and pubic institutions in the area, conditions were ideal for the growing population of North Tonawanda in the early twentieth century. The Sweeney Family Estate The eminent Sweeney family played a crucial role in the initial development and ultimate success of the city of North Tonawanda for over 100 years. Three generations of the Sweeney family- led by James and John Sweeney Sr., James Sweeney 2nd, and then James Sweeney Jr- were subsequently responsible for the development of the survey area from the 1820s-1920s. While their involvement as developers and realtors at times overlapped, in general the history of the survey area, which roughly corresponds to the original borders of the original lots purchased by James Sweeney Sr., can be detailed in three major phases. Each of the following three phases corresponds to a single generation of the Sweeney family. Their approach to development also corresponds to and reflects broader changes occurring in North Tonawanda at each phase over time as well. Phase 1: James Sweeney (Elder) and John Sweeney, 1820s-1850 Pioneering Village of Niagara resident James Sweeney the elder was easily the largest landowner in the area. Born in 1786 in Carmel, NY, the elder James Sweeney relocated from Westchester County downstate and settled first in Buffalo in 1811. Arriving there shortly before the War of 1812, family records indicate “he was one of those who fled up 29 Burke, 8. 30 Burke, 8. 31 Burke, 11. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 17 the beach road, when the British and Indians sacked the town in 1814.“32 In 1815, Sweeney moved to Tonawanda, NY, at the north edge of present day Erie County. Purchasing land in this area first, “he was subsequently actively identified with the early railroad interests in this section of the State, and was one of the stockholders of the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad, which ran between those points as early as 1836 and was later merged with New York Central.”33 Recognizing the value of recently surveyed land to the north in what later became present-day North Tonawanda, Sweeney soon after became the first major purchaser of land in this area. On June 14, 1824, James Sweeney the elder purchased lots 81 and 82, which comprised the majority of what later became North Tonawanda. He then conveyed 1/3 of his interest to his brother, Col. John Sweeney, and 1/3 to George Goundry of Geneva, New York. William Vandervoort, a brother-in-law of James Sweeney, purchased the remaining farm lot 80 June 7, 1826. The three lots composed ¾ of the old corporate village limits. This meant that James Sweeney the elder, his brother Col. John Sweeney, and his brother-in-law William Vandervoort, essentially owned the vast majority, about 500 acres, of what would soon become North Tonawanda. The industrious nature of the Sweeney brothers, James and John Sweeney, ensured that what would eventually become North Tonawanda would flourish and grow. Land near Tonawanda Creek was the first to be cleared in preparation for development, and to supply timber for the city of Buffalo. “The clearing of the land was commenced for the purpose of furnishing timber for the Buffalo pier, and to prepare the way for the sale of village lots.”34 The cleared land was then offered for sale as small lots. Ultimately, James moved to North Tonawanda, erecting one of the first frame dwellings and residing there until his death. Recognizing the importance of generosity and its ability to attract new settlers, James also donated land for civic purposes, upon which the first school and Methodist church were built in 1837.35 As he continued to sell lots and thus added to his means, “his benefactions increased, and he aided worthy objects wherever aid was needed. He worked earnestly to extend the benefits of local schools, manifesting the interest he felt by furnishing books and often clothing to destitute children, placing them in a condition to be benefitted by them.”36 32 Larry E. Gobrecht, “North Tonawanda Post Office,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 1986), 8.3. 33 Josephus Nelson Larned, A History of Buffalo – Delineating the Evolution of the City (New York: The Progress of the Empire State Company, 1911), 189. 34 History of Niagara County, 104. 35 History of Niagara County, 104. 36 History of Niagara County, 104. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 18 James and John established the first grist mill, and John built the first saw mill, which was later destroyed by fire. John also oversaw the construction of the first railroad, and was the first station agent for the railroad depot in North Tonawanda for many years. John also constructed the first dock built on the creek, employing Elijah V. Day to supply the foundations and planking.37 Sometime in the 1830s or 1840s, James Sweeney regained full interest in his real property from John Sweeney and George Goundry. At the time of reacquisition, a great deal of the land was still unimproved, characterized by an “unbroken wilderness.”38 When James Sweeney the elder died in 1850 at the age of 57, much of the area was still undeveloped. The Gifford map from 1852 demonstrates this relatively undeveloped area, as only the J. Sweeney house and Sweeney estate appears, with no official roads laid out in the area. When Sweeney the elder died in 1850, his son, also named James, inherited his father’s large land estate at that time. In texts from the era, his son is referred to alternately as James Sweeney Sr. or James Sweeney 2nd; son of the seminal resident James Sweeney. This is because in 1866, his son would in turn also have a son named James Jr., who would eventually become very active in divvying up the namesake estate. For the sake of clarity, this document refers to James Sweeney the elder, his son James Sweeney 2nd, and his subsequent son as James Sweeney, Jr. Phase 2: James Sweeney 2nd , 1850-1898 James Sweeney 2nd was born c. 1831 to James the elder and his wife Moicah (Vandervoort) Sweeney. He received a formal education in Tonawanda and Buffalo, and in 1859 was elected to the New York State Assembly. Also in 1859, he married Catherine Ganson, daughter of John S. Ganson, a president of the New York and Erie Bank. Upon the end of his term as assemblyman, he became cashier of the New York and Erie Bank. In the early 1890’s he became a trustee of the Erie County Savings Bank. His home was Buffalo, New York, where he lived on Summer Street near Richmond Avenue, in the present-day Elmwood Village. Although he lived in Buffalo for his adult life, he was instrumental in the management of the Sweeney land in North Tonawanda during the second half of the nineteenth century. As heir to the large amount of land residing in North Tonawanda, James Sweeney 2nd (b. 1831-d. 1912) began to assist his father James the elder in the management of his large holdings in North Tonawanda around 1840. First working together with his father and then on his own after his father died in 1850, James 2nd continued to clear, develop and sell 37 History of Niagara County, 105. 38 Ross, 8.2. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 19 land for private profit as well as for the benefit of the budding community of North Tonawanda. In 1868, the Sweeney Estate contributed the land on which the Sweeney cemetery was established, where it is still located at the southeast corner of Payne and Thompson Streets.39 Many prominent citizens have purchased lots in the cemetery and beautified them. Among the number are Hon. Henry J. Smith, Hon. John Simpson, Franklin Warren, Benjamin F. Felton, Hon. Lewis S. Payne, Garwood L. Judd, James Carney, Asa Ransom, Frederick Sommer, James G. Primer and others.40 A few roads began to be laid out during the 1860s, as maps identify Tremont Street and Goundry Street, as well as unlabeled versions of an early Vandervoort St and Division Street, existed at that time. Gradually, streets began being laid out eastward beginning in the mid-1800s. In 1868, for instance, Goundry Street was extended eastward across Payne Avenue.41 During the 1870s, a great deal of the original Sweeney lots remained relatively undeveloped. By 1875, Christina Street and Payne Street appeared on maps. It was noted that “the developments east of Oliver Street and north of Thompson were very tardy and none worthy of note had been made up to 1880.” However, due to increased transportation and shipping networks, the decade between 1880 and 1890 displayed a marked interest in the city as development began to occur at a quicker pace: Nothing can bring more convincing proof of the rapid development of North Tonawanda than to make comparisons with former years. As late as five years since the progress had just reached Payne’s Avenue, while now this whole section has been transformed into a city up to and extending beyond the old corporation limits on both the north and east lines. Stores, halls, hotels, offices, cottages and more pretentious residences have arisen on all sides, until there are but few vacant lots and these generally owned by some person intending to build in the near future. The lots and buildings, too, are generally owned or under contract by the tenant, so that the Lumber City is rapidly becoming a place of homes; of neatly built cottages surrounded with handsome grass plats, rather than tumble-down tenement structures where workmen only stay until they can get away. This section of the place enjoys all the city conveniences of the older portion. Lands east of Payne Avenue appeared best offered as residential building lots, and in 1891 the land east was described by the Sweeneys as a “gravelly ridge, with good natural drainage and with the system of sewerage, water, and electric lights, put in the present year.” Streets were paved with brick beginning in 1888, but the pavement did not extend east of Niagara Street at that time. By 1893, maps indicate that most of the streets in the 39 History of Niagara County, 105. 40 History of Niagara County, 105. 41 Laux, “North Tonawanda Streets,” 21A. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 20 central and south portion of the survey area existed, including Bryant St, Falconer St, Niagara St, and Division Street. Whiting Street had not yet been laid out at this time. The northeast portion of the survey area was slower to develop. The portion of land furthest to the east, site of the present-day Pine Woods Park, ended at the Mile Reserve and is described as a “natural grove,” 40 acres of which was fenced in to preserve the natural setting. A portion of the grove, nicknamed “pine woods,” and slated for development, housed the first “Sweeney Estate” real estate office. Managed by James Sweeney 2nd’s son, James Sweeney Junior, the Sweeneys are noted as taking “payments extending from ten to twenty years” for those seeking a home on Sweeney property. It was at this time that some of the oldest remaining residences were constructed, typically sold to wealthy entrepreneurs. As the developer and financier of the Sweeney Estate, James 2nd sold, leased, and mortgaged select parcels as commerce increased in the latter half of the 19th century. The Sweeney real estate office on the estate would eventually be relocated, to 15 Webster Street at the city’s inner core. This building became known as the “Sweeney Building,” and today is called the “Webster Building.” In 1895, an advertisement in the Tonawanda Evening news shows that the residential portion of the Sweeney Estate was being actively marketed at this time. The ad implores interested homebuyers to visit the Sweeney Building: “WANTED – People to borrow money at 5 and 6 per cent, or to rent or buy real estate. Apply Jas. Sweeney, Jr., corner Sweeney and Webster St.” Business was brisk, as evident of the Sweeney family visiting Egypt on a Nile River excursion in 1892. By 1898, however, James 2nd’s “advanced age forced him to retire from the active management of the property.”42 Much like his father James the elder had transferred the business to him, James 2nd began training his son James Jr in order to transfer the Sweeney Estate development business to him in the following decades. Phase 3: James Sweeney Jr (3rd ), 1898-1929 By the early 1890’s James 2nd’ son, James Jr. (b. 1866-1929), was an active partner in brokering the estate. Under direction from his father until 1898 when he took over the business, he managed the real estate office during North Tonawanda’s rapid growth spurt. Born, raised, and residing in Buffalo at the family mansion at 335 Summer Street his entire life, he nevertheless was an active participant in the extreme growth of North Tonawanda 42 Larned, 189. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 21 as it moved forward into the 20th century. He attended Buffalo’s public schools and Professor Briggs’ Classical School, then worked in a law firm briefly and spent a year in Europe before joining the family business. From the 1890s until he died in 1929, he “was engaged in the real estate business and in the management of the extensive Sweeney estate.”43 When James Jr began managing the estate in the 1890s, the Sweeneys still had many lucrative land holdings well into the first quarter of the 21st century. Around 1905, James Jr. rapidly increased the subdivision of lots and construction of residences, particularly in the areas east of Payne Avenue. Over the next fifteen years, many houses were built for middle and upper class residents on the Sweeney estate. A typical Sweeney Estate advertisement from 1912 states a “Splendid opportunity for getting a home,” noting “choice locations on Goundry, Christiana, Schenk, Robinson, Ransom, Niagara, Bryant and Thompson streets.” As manger of the estate, Sweeney Jr. continued in the footsteps of his father in combining his own interest in personal profit with a commitment to bettering the community at large. As one newspaper noted, “It is a matter of common knowledge and often spoken of by the older residents who established homes in the vicinity of Sweeney Park 30-35 years ago [1880s] that thanks to Mr. Sweeney they secured those homes- that he not only allowed them to purchase a lot to be paid for in small installments, but also in many instances paid for building houses for them or secured loans for them.”44 The Sweeney family was known for its willingness to work with customers on their purchase, assisting with flexible payment plans. They offered, “Splendid opportunity for getting a home. We offer choice locations for sale on small payments down, 12 years balance in monthly payments if purchaser desires, providing party will pay enough down to warrant. We would be glad to talk on putting him up a place. Apply James Sweeney, Jr agent, Sweeney property, corner Sweeney and Webster St.”45 Choice locations for factories are also mentioned in advertisements during the first two decades of the 20th century. Particularly in the early 1900s, Sweeney Jr. made his mark on the history of Sweeney land development by applying many efforts to attract new industries as well as residents. As one account has noted, “Jr has paid particular attention to the building up of large factory buildings and industries on the property.”46 From about 1900-1905, he managed to attract 23 new factories to the southern part of the Sweeney estate near the creek. He was able to achieve this success by maintaining ownership of the 43 “James Sweeney is Laid at Rest in Forest Lawn.” The Evening News (September 17, 1929). 44 “People’s Forum,” The Evening News (February 2, 1918), 5 45 Advertisement, The Evening News (March 13, 1912), 3. 46 Larned, 108. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 22 land and building factories that industrial businesses could then lease from the estate. The arrangement Sweeney Jr. offered was as follows: The owners of the land erect the factories on the property and lease them to the manufacturers on long terms of from 10-25 years. These factories, combined, employ about 2000 people, and the desirability of the property as a site for manufacturing purposes is plainly manifest. It is situated on the 1000 ton barge canal and the Niagara River, accessible to connections with every important railroad line in this part of the country. Natural gas and electric power from Niagara Falls add to its desirability.47 Several factories affiliated with the lumber, iron, steel and other industries were drawn to North Tonawanda as a result of Sweeney Jr.s efforts at this time. This increased industrial activity also encouraged more residential settlement in the areas north of the creek, accommodating upper and upper-middle class citizens affiliated with managing and running these businesses. Streets continued to be laid out on the estate at this time, and by 1908 all of the present-day streets in the estate were present on maps. By 1908, the “Sweeney family [still] has about 150-200 acres, and this comprises what is left of the original grant of the three farm lots.”48 While many of the lots had been sold by this time, residential construction continued to occur at a steady rate into the next decade. Additionally, Sweeney Jr. continued to actively purchase any adjacent land that became available as well. For instance, in 1912, Sweeney Jr. purchased the Sloat Property on Sweeney St between Webster and Tremont St. This plot was about 160 sq ft and included 2 frame houses with stables.49 At this time, the Sloat property “was one of the few remaining plots in the block bounded by Webster, Tremont, Main and Sweeney Street that was not owned by the Sweeney Estate.”50 This indicates that Sweeney Jr. continued to maintain in active interest in buying and selling land for development in the early twentieth century. In 1913, James Sweeney Jr. decided to focus his efforts on subdividing lots and constructing residences in the 10-acre area bounded by Christiana, Niagara, Schenck and Division Streets. At this time a newspaper reflected, “The Sweeney Estate is planning on cutting Sweeney Park up into numerous building lots and erecting many houses during the year.”51 This led to a flurry of concern amongst North Tonawanda citizens, who desired the land for an official public park. This eventually led to the establishment of Pine Woods Park on the former Sweeney Park land in 1917 (see section on Pine Woods below). 47 Larned, 108. 48 Larned, 188. 49 “Sweeeneys Now Own Almost Entire Downtown Block,” The Evening News (February 17, 1912), 3. 50 “Sweeeneys Now Own Almost Entire Downtown Block,” 3. 51 “Many Houses to be Built,” The Evening News (December 13, 1913), 1. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 23 In 1918, James Sweeney 2nd passed away. James Sweeney Jr. officially became sole manager of the Sweeney Estate as executor and trustee granted in his father’s will. The last will and testament of James Sweeney Sr., dated 1909, notes that the lands held in the estate have been rapidly increasing in value over the last five years. In the will, James Jr. is advised to keep the property together until the most advantageous time, but may use discretion to divide, sell, and develop it how he pleases. He seems to have begun dividing and developing land in this way before his father’s death, and his management of the estate continued in this manner for another decade. A full-page advertisement in the Tonawanda Evening News from 1928 outlines the history of the Sweeney Estate and proudly boasts of the improvements the family has made to North Tonawanda over the decades. “One of the prettiest residential sections in North Tonawanda is the Sweeney Park section. This was subdivided and sold through the Sweeney Estates. Today some of the most beautiful homes in this vicinity can be seen in this section, attesting to the progressive foresight of the Sweeney Estate.”52 By the time of James Jr.’s death a year later in 1929, all of the residential streets within the survey area had been laid out. After James Jr.’s passing, his sister Louise became executor of the estate. Louise Parkway, developed after the park was purchased to the city, was named after Louise Sweeney. Louise W. Sweeney married Edward H. Ballard of Pelham Manor in 1913, New York. Together they lived first in Buffalo at the Sweeney house on Summer Street and then she moved to Bronxville NY with him in 1937, where she lived until she died in 1959. Shortly after becoming executor of the Sweeney Estate, Louise Sweeney passed the management of the land to a newly formed company in 1930. This company, James Sweeney Properties, Inc, “had taken over all the property of the late James Sweeney in the Tonawandas.”53 This marked the end of an era for the Sweeney Estate, as the remaining properties were no longer managed directly by the Sweeney family for the first time since their purchase in 1824. Development of the Pine Woods Residential Section Pine Woods Park, located in the northeast portion of the survey area between Christiana and Schenck Street east of Niagara Street, underwent a different history of development 52 “Sweeney Estates One of the Tonawanda’s Biggest Real Estate Firms.” The Evening News (September 7, 1928): 8. 53 “New Application for Permit for Gas Station on Webster St. Presented,” The Evening News (January 16, 1932), 2. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 24 than the remainder of the Sweeney lots. Prior to its subdivision and redesign in 1917, this area was known as Sweeney Park or Sweeney Woods. Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, “this area had been used by the children of several generations as a playground and as a picnic park by the older people.”54 This land had been owned by the Sweeney Estate since the family’s initial purchase in 1824, and the Sweeneys had all 40 acres fenced in “to protect its natural beauty.” While the Sweeney Estate owned the land, it remained undeveloped and functioned essentially as a park that was free for all to enjoy. Although they offered the land for public use, the Sweeney Estate still paid taxes on the land to the city through the nineteenth and early twentieth century.55 As population pressures grew at the turn of the century, it seemed inevitable that it would be given up to development. Public discussions surrounding the official purchase of land for a public park began in the early 1900s, but it took another ten years to secure the location, funding and transfer of deeds. Sweeney Park was often mentioned as the first choice for a park location and it “has always been the most prominently mentioned when park sites were discussed.”56 Other sites were discussed, such as Payne Hill outside the district, but Sweeney Park offered some natural advantages for the design of a park: “The site has the fundamental advantages of easy access and general suitability...the statements of experts who hold that better results can be obtained by making over bare ground into woodland and artificial water.”57 The ease of creating this park was seen as a benefit: “The Sweeney Woods are a natural park and are the only site in the city of any size which can be secured which will not have to be cleared of houses and planted to trees in order to make a park.”58 Given that it had essentially functioned as a semi-public park space for several decades, “it would require little change to make it meet all requirements for a breathing spot.”59 Negotiations between the city and the Sweeney family, however, seemed to be only lukewarm by 1908. One local newspaper noted, “The owners of Sweeney Park are evidently not over-anxious to sell this private park to North Tonawanda. On the other hand there seems to be no over-anxiety on the part of the city to buy all or part of Sweeney Park.”60 Settling on an appropriate price seemed to be the largest issue, as “the Sweeney family would be glad to do still more for the city, but after paying taxes for more than half a century and allowing the people of North Tonawanda to enjoy the property, the point has 54 Arnold, “Proposed Park and Playground,” The Evening News, (July 18, 1917), 5. 55 “Sweeney Park Offered to City,” The Evening News (July 10, 1917), 3. 56 “New Location is Suggested for Municipal Park,” The Evening News (March 2, 1912), 5. 57 The Evening News (June 4, 1908), 2. 58 Arnold, 5. 59 “New Location is Suggested for Municipal Park,” 5. 60 “People’s Forum,” The Evening News (February 8, 1918), 5. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 25 been reached where the Sweeney estate must turn this property into money, to meet obligations of the estate.”61 By 1912, discussions surrounding the establishment of an official public park became more frequent. As the public became more aware of the push for development in the remaining open land, “public spirited citizens are anxious for North Tonawanda to own a park site before the best locations are gone.”62 Local newspapers addressed the pressure from developers, stating, “Sweeney Park is in danger of being cut up into building lots...The growth of the city has encroached so closely that the eye of the real estate promoter and home builder is upon it.”63 With this threat of development imminent, negotiations between the Sweeneys and the city became more substantial by 1915. Despite “undisclosed outside parties who want the property for real estate investment,” the Sweeney’s remained committed to selling the land to the city for the purposes of establishing a public park.64 As purchasing options became more formal, the estate reiterated, “Mr. Sweeney and his sister very much desire the city of North Tonawanda to have Sweeney Park, just as Mr. Sweeney Sr. always desired that Sweeney Park should become a possession of the city.”65 In late 1916, the Sweeney Estate “offered the entire forty acres less the four lots already sold at the corner of Niagara and Christiana for $125,000 or about $3000 an acre.”66 The land to be acquired was ““part of the Sweeney property bounded by Niagara, Thompson, Schenk and Division Streets. Such portion would include practically all that is best adapted to park purposes.”67 The city was to secure an $85,000 municipal bond at 4.5% interest for the purchase of the park.68 There was pushback from some residents who were against the tax increase that would come with the bond, and some were concerned that with the war, it was the wrong time to invest. However, this increase, residents were assured, would “be a very few cents each month on each thousand of his valuation.”69 The Chamber of Commerce of the Tonawandas led the efforts to create the public park and spare the 40 acres; they lobbied repeatedly for its approval. In order to finalize the city’s purchase of the land, the transaction was to be put to a public vote in July of the following year, given that public funds would be required in order to obtain the park for public use. 61 “Sweeney Park Offered to City,” 3. 62 “New Location is Suggested for Municipal Park,” 5. 63 “No More Time to Talk,” The Evening News (August 24, 1915), 2. 64 “Sweeney Park Purchase,” The Evening News (August 26, 1915), 9. 65 “Sweeney Park Purchase,” 9. 66 Arnold, 5. 67 “No More Time to Talk,” 2. 68 Arnold, 5. 69 Arnold, “5. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 26 The Chamber of Commerce “inaugurated a sweeping campaign of publicity in which it convinced the community that great benefits are derived from parks and playgrounds.” Every taxpayer in the city received a “two-color” sketch of the proposed development of the park, along with a postal ballot. Also included with the sketch was a text that argued the benefits of the project. Taxpayers were to return the ballot with their comments, and those who did not were personally called on by the chamber. On July 25, 1917, the day of the vote, the Chamber went as far as to offer free transportation to the polling place via automobiles driven by volunteers. The vote passed by almost two to one and the city closed on the purchase of the parcel of land from the Sweeney Estate on October 19, 1917. This purchase plan stated that the first payment would be made in 1925 and annually thereafter at the rate of $5000 a year until paid.”70 When these voting North Tonawanda citizens decided to approve the purchase this land, these “taxpayers decided that Sweeney park should not be cut into building lots and lost to the Tonawandas...The city proved that it is a unit, one and inseparable when greatest good for the greatest number is concerned.”71 In the months before and after the July 1917 vote, designs for the new park were prepared by Professor Alan F. Arnold, Assistant Professor of Forest Extension and Instructor of Landscape Engineering, Syracuse University. A North Tonawanda native, “Arnold has promised to return to the city without cost to lay out the park and to furnish a detailed plan and program for the park.”72 Released and circulated prior to the July vote, Arnold’s new site plan divided up 40 acres of the heavily wooded portion of the Sweeney Estate that stretched from Division Street west to Niagara Street, north to Schenck Street and south to Christiana Street. Arnold embraced a naturalistic approach, as he “recommended that only a gradual change be made in the woods if they are secured, trimming and doctoring the trees to save them from decay, cleaning up the brush to increase the open spaces but leaving the larger part rough woodland.”73 He stated, “Paths and roadways could be cut through the woods at very small expense, wildflowers encouraged to grow and within a few years this city would have a park would attract attention all over Western New York.”74 The plan also included a playground, wading pool, and sports fields for recreation space which “would greatly add to the beauty of the district.”75 This combination of naturalistic space with more formal recreational facilities was in keeping with park designs of the early twentieth century. 70 Arnold, 5. 71 “Sweeney Park Retained,” The Evening News (July 27, 1917), 2. 72 “Looks Like Four to One In Favor of Purchase of Sweeney Park by the City,” The Evening News (July 25, 1917), 1. 73 Arnold, 5. 74 Arnold, 5. 75 Arnold, 5. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 27 Arnold’s plan devoted 30 acres to the park, while the remaining ten acres would be retained for future residential development. In addition to designing the 30-acre park, Arnold also agreed to “lay out the residential section which is to be retained by the Sweeney interests and in which lots will be sold for the building of fine homes.”76 At the time of the plan’s design, four lots had already been purchased within this 10 acres section, and one had been constructed already. Prior to the vote, there was fear that if the 30 acres designed as parkland wasn’t purchased from the Sweeney Estate, eventually all of the wooded portion would be cleared for future development. Once the parkland was purchased in October 2017, the ten-acre residential portion was retained by the Estate, which maintained the winding street grid and park-like residential design created by Alfred T. Arnold. This portion of the district was developed much more slowly, and over a longer period of time than the majority of the district. Development occurred between ca. 1920 and ca. 1970. Presumably the decline of the lumber trade, death of James Sweeney, Jr. in 1929, and the arrival of the Great Depression, slowed the remaining development. The park retained the name “Sweeney Park” upon its initial purchase by the city and redesign by Arnold in 1917. As early as February 1918, the Women’s Civic Club unanimously voted to change the name of park to indicate its new ownership by the city, but others resisted this change. Ultimately the name ‘Sweeney Park’ was kept for two more decades “as a way of showing some slight appreciation of the many benefits conferred upon this city by the late James Sweeney, and later by his son, the present James Sweeney.”77 The Women’s Civic Club pushed again for a name change in 1939, as by that time they essentially functioned as the stewards of the park who often donated their time to maintenance and recreational programming. Awarded the naming rights by the city, the Women’s Civic Club changed the name from Sweeney Park to ‘Pine Woods Park’ in October 1939, 21 years after the city purchased the land from the Sweeney Estate. In choosing the name, they stated, “For many years, the park was known as Pine Woods, because of the large number of pine trees within its bounds.”78 Along with this name change, the club also conducted improvements in the park, when they “decided to reforest the park with pine trees, they have become very scarce there in recent years, due to various causes.”79 In addition to these new plantings, the park entrance at the corner of Niagara and Christiana Streets was also completed at this time. This entrance, “consists of four pillars, constructed of cobblestone and is semi-circular in effect. Surmounting the two highest pillars are lanterns which add greatly to the attractiveness of the entrance.”80 This entrance is still 76 “Looks Like Four to One In Favor of Purchase of Sweeney Park by the City,” 1. 77 “People’s Forum,” 5. 78 “N.T. Park Named By Women’s Civic Club,” The Evening News (October 5, 1939), 2. 79 “N.T. Park Named By Women’s Civic Club,” 2. 80 “N.T. Park Named By Women’s Civic Club,” 2. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 28 intact today, where Arnold’s original plan still provides plentiful space for the public at Pine Woods Park much as he envisioned in 1917. Notable Residents Aside from the Sweeney family themselves, many notable residents lived in the survey area during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several of the streets in the survey area were named for the early founders, friends and family members of the Sweeneys. Aside from Sweeney Street itself, another member of the Sweeney family is honored with the street name of Louisa Parkway. Goundry Street is named after another early purchaser of land in the area, George Goundry, who helped lay out and develop the first streets with the Sweeneys in the early nineteenth century. Schenck Street was named after an early developer of the area in the mid-nineteenth century. According to one local newspaper, Schencks, “name was nearly lost in 1888 when James Sweeney 2nd opened an extension of Schenck St, through the Sweeney Woods, and wanted the whole length named Saginaw Street.”81 This was avoided, as the street still honors his name today. Thompson Street (formerly Sylvan Street) and Oliver Street are both named after Oliver Thompson, and Geneva Street is named after his wife. An early settler of North Tonawanda, the Thompson homestead was located at the intersection of Goundry, Main and Tremont Streets since the mid-nineteenth century. Oliver Thompson’s son with his wife Catherine Sweeney, James Sweeney Thompson, was a prominent banker with interests in the lumber industry who lived at 378 Goundry Street. By 1907, he was the largest remaining individual landholder within the estate, owning about two blocks of property from Thompson to Goundry and Falconer to Niagara. Always active in the lumber industry in some way, he partnered with Edward H. Hubman and George Fisher, to create Thompson, Hubman & Fisher, a planing mill that made doors, sashes, blinds and planed lumber. Christiana Street derives its name in relation to one of North Tonawanda’s earliest settlers, as Christiana was the name of Mrs. H.P. Smith. Christiana’s mother, Mrs. Benjamin Long, was the widow of Tonawanda’s first permanent settler, and it was from her that the Smiths “purchased a tract extending from Payne Avenue almost to Vandervoort, and from both sides of Christiana Street to Thompson.”82 Grant and Lincoln Avenues are also related to this family, as they were both named after men that Mrs. Christiana Smith esteemed. She lived at 52 Christiana for over twenty years in her old age, and “many of the other lots on the street were owned by her son and daughters.”83 81 Laux, “North Tonawanda Streets,” 21A. 82 Laux, “North Tonawanda Streets,” 21A. 83 Laux, “North Tonawanda Streets,” 21A. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 29 Payne Street bears the name of Hon. Lewis S. Payne, an early example of the type of opportunity and success that North Tonawanda represented in the nineteenth century. Payne was born in the town of Bergen, Genesee county, N. Y., in 1819. His parents being poor he had no advantages of education, except the imperfect common schools which then existed, and the academies of Monroe and Genesee counties. At 16, he found employment at Tonawanda, N. Y., as clerk in a store. By the age of 21, he succeeded his employers in the mercantile business, soon became engaged in the lumber business. In 1841, he moved to North Tonawanda, and in 1844 he was elected supervisor of his town, and for many years afterward represented the town in that capacity. In 1847, Payne built the first steam sawmill in Tonawanda. In 1849 he was appointed collector of canal tolls at Tonawanda, his being the first appointment made at that place; and in 1850 was re-appointed to the same position. In the fall of 1850 he was elected clerk of Niagara County, and in 1854, at the end of his term, retired with the approbation of the citizens of the county universally, for the courteous manner in which he had discharged the duties of the office. In 1855 Mr. Payne engaged in the forwarding, shipping and commission business, with the extensive elevator and docks at Tonawanda, and in 1858 turned his attention to farming and politics. In 1859 he was nominated as a Democrat for the office of State Senator for the district. Payne was a celebrated war hero in the American Civil War. In the fall of 1861 he raised, at his own expense, a company of volunteers, and formed a part of the one hundredth regiment, which was recruited from western New York at Buffalo. He was at war for 3 years before returning home to North Tonawanda in 1865. In the following year, he was again nominated and elected county clerk, though in a county giving several hundred Republican majority. He served his term of three years, and in 1869 was elected member of Assembly from his district, service as chairman of the committee on claims, and was also a member of the committees on canals and military affairs. In November 1877, he was again nominated for senator for the 29th district, and was elected over his opponent, the Republican nominee, being the first Democrat ever elected in the 29th senatorial district. He died at his home on Payne Hill to the north of the survey area in North Tonawanda in 1898. In 1964, a commemorative marker honoring Col. Payne’s Civil War exploits was erected at the triangle at Webster, Main and Goundry Streets. Many of those residing in the grander houses in the older, southwest portion of the district were major businessmen, politicians, and industrial entrepreneurs. Several residents were affiliated with the lumber industry, which brought significant wealth to North Tonawanda, and specifically the survey area, during the nineteenth century. Fassett Street is named after a business, attesting to the prominence of the lumber industry in the survey area for many decades. Since the early 1870s, the lumber firm of Smith and Fassett owned Tonawanda Island and extensively used the river to ship and receive lumber. The Fassett Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 30 name today marks the two-block right of way section between Robinson and Schenck in the northeast portion of the survey area.84 Other prominent residents of the district were afiiliated with the lumber industry. Paschal S. Humphrey and George B. Vandervoort both started out lumbermen, but partnered in the late 19th century to form Humphrey & Vandervoort Insurance, which is still in business today. Humphrey’s mansion was located at 332 Goundry Street, and Vandervoort’s was 184 Goundry Street. Frank Batt, and his brother Michael Batt both worked with the lumber concern Bliss & Co. for many years until it dissolved in 1893. After that, Frank opened a large hardware store on Webster Street in 1897, and Michael became a real estate agent. Frank was active in public matters, and was trustee of North Tonawanda for four years. Frank’s large home was at 303 Goundry Street, and Michael’s was at 346 Goundry. William E. Kelsey and James Gillespie were partners in the wholesale lumber firm Kelsey & Gillespie, which handled about twenty million feet of lumber annually. Kelsey’s home was at 412 Goundry Street, and James Gillespie’s was 266 Goundry. W. J. Curtis, a lumberman who worked with Export Lumber CO. and Hall & Munson Co., lived at 115 Christiana Street. William Evans, lumberman and trustee of the Niagara County Savings Bank, had a home at 130 Christiana Street, and 147 Christiana was the home of Doctor Charles W. Clendenan. William H. Bellinger, who resided at 103 Christiana Street, was according to accounts, “associated with the lumber business since its inception in this place,” as well as state inspector of lumber. In 1891, Bellinger founded Rumbold & Bellinger, which claimed a dock frontage of 600 feet and the ability to handle the transfer of twelve to thirteen million feet of lumber annually. The large frame residence at 209 Niagara Street was built for another major lumber baron, Ray H. Bennett. Bennett began his lumber business at Main and Island Streets as Hoadley and Bennett in 1902, eventually expanding to 190 Oliver Street, the former W. G. Palmer Lumber Co. facilities.85 In addition to lumber, the Ray H. Bennett Lumber Co. also sold prefabricated mail order ‘kit homes,’ known as Bennett Redi-Bilt Homes. These kit houses were vernacular architecture of wood construction, with pieces produced at the manufacturing site, mailed, and then assembled according to a standard design on the building site. It represents an important typology of prefabricated houses that was common amongst middle and working class residents. Bennett houses, either built from a Bennett kit or simply with Bennett lumber, constructed in the first half of the twentieth century are located throughout Western New York as well as in other parts of the country. 84 Laux, “North Tonawanda Streets,” 21A. 85 Martin Wachadlo, “Historic Treasures Tour Guide” (North Tonawanda, NY: North Tonawanda History Museum, 2007), 3. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 31 In the twentieth century, the wealthy families from the prior century often remained in the survey area, and were joined by an influx of upwardly mobile middle class residents as well. In 1907, houses from within the survey area were featured in an illustrated brochure titled “The Tonawandas of Today,” published by the North Tonawanda Board of Trade. The brochure extolled the benefits of the Tonawandas as both a place to live and a center of industry, and boasted statistics. A two-page spread, titled “A Few of the ‘Tonawandas’ Residences,” features photos of over a dozen large homes representative of the prosperity of the region and all of which were located within the boundaries of the proposed district. The homes are identified by their owners, and of the homes, 9 remain to this day: Guy White’s residence at 359 Goundry Street; Alfred C. Tuxbury (324 Goundry); Wallace G. Palmer (341 Goundry); James Sweeney Thompson (378 Goundry); H. Jason Knapp (206 Christiana Street); John Schulmeister (325 Goundry); William Stradella (335 Goundry); Stanley C. Peuchen (309 Goundry); Lewis A. Kelsey of the L.A. Kelsey Wholesale Lumber Company (358 Goundry). John E. Oelkers lived at 366 Goundry Street, and was a successful grocer. Very active in the community, he was a founding member of the German American Bank, serving as its Vice President for a time. He also served as trustee, treasurer, and president of North Tonawanda at different times. John Mundie was a well-known jeweler, of Mundie & McCoy, whose advertisements are placed frequently throughout the North Tonawanda City Directory. Mundie’s home was at 286 Goundry Street. Prominent businessman Farny R. Wurlitzer lived in the survey area at 373 Goundry Street. He moved to this location in 1917, hiring North Tonawanda architect Louis F. Eggert to design the Colonial Revival mansion on the site today. For 62 years, Farny Wurlitzer was a moving force in the Wurtlizer Company, manufacturer of pipe organs, founded by his father. It was largely Farny’s efforts to locate the manufacturing plant of the company in North Tonawnda.86 The James DeGraff household occupied a brick mansion located on the southwest corner of Payne Avenue and Goundry Street. James DeGraff got his start as a lumberman in 1863 in Michigan, and returned to the Tonawandas a decade later to engage in banking. He became president of The State Bank in 1883, and built his homestead in 1884. Legrand S. DeGraff, James DeGraff’s son, was manager for A. Weston & Son wholesale lumber dealers. With his fortune, he founded the DeGraff Memorial Hospital in his own name in 1914. The survey area was also home to two former Mayors of North Tonawanda, Benjamin Long Rand. Born in Batavia in 1855, B. L. Rand worked as a cashier with James DeGraff in the 86 Wachadlo, 4. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 32 State Trust Bank. A prominent citizen, Rand later had his own bank on Webster Street. He served two terms as Mayor, from 1915-1918, while living in his residence at 257 Goundry Street. After his first wife, Kate Stanley Rand, died in 1929, he later lived with his second wife Lucy Wakeland Rand next door at 261 Goundry, where he died at the age of 96 in 1952.87 Another prominent North Tonawanda citizen lived in Rand’s first residence next door at 257 Goundry during the late 1930s and early 1940s, Ralph Taber. Taber was the lead engineer, inventor and founder of Taber Instruments, a materials testing instruments production company later known as Taber Industries. This business was founded at 111 Goundry Street in 1941, a building formerly operated by the Rand Company operations.88 Mayor Henry P. Smith III, a descendant of Christiana Long Smith the namesake of Christiana Street, built 353 Christiana Street as his residence. After serving as Mayor of North Tonawanda, Henry III eventually became a Congressman, and it was at this time that U.S. President Gerald Ford slept in this house when visiting North Tonawanda.89 The Survey Area after 1930 The formation of James Sweeney Properties, Inc. in 1930 marked a new era for the survey area, as this large swath of land was no longer directly managed by members of the Sweeney family estate. One of the first problems the new company faced was paying off taxes on the land, some of which had been inherited from the Sweeney Estate. In 1933, the company proposed donating land at the corner of Robinson and Fassett Streets to the city for the purpose of a public playground, in exchange for waiving past, present and future taxes owed by the company. The city denied the exchange.90 Faced with this need to raise more income, the company turned its efforts towards developing the remaining empty lots in the survey area during the mid 1930s. While the vast majority of the buildings in the area had already been constructed by 1930, but there were still pockets of empty lots scattered throughout the district that had yet to be developed. Overall, development had occurred slower on the east side of the survey area, since the general development pattern had crept north and east from the southwest corner of the survey area near the canal since the early nineteenth century. As the James Sweeney Properties Inc. took over managing the land in this area, development after 1930 occurred primarily in the southeast portion of the survey area. This development was focused first on Louise Parkway and Pine Woods Drive near the park, and then on Niagara and Whiting Streets south of the park near the DeGraff Memorial Hospital. The Park was 87 Wachadlo, 4. 88 Wachadlo, 5. 89 Wachadlo, 12. 90 “Remember When,” Tonawanda News (August 22, 1958), 2. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 33 officially established in 1917 and the hospital in 1914, but the residential lots around these two areas were slow to develop in the following decades due in part to the degradation of the lumber industry around that time. By the time James Sweeney Properties Inc took over the land in 1930, these areas remained open for development and the company thus continued to build houses in this part of the survey area through the 1950s. By the mid-1930s, nearly all of the houses were constructed in conjunction with a small private garage on the back of the property, reflecting the domination of automobile use by the neighborhood residents. While some of the larger houses built during the 1910s were originally constructed with their own garages, many of those that did not tended to construct a garage on the property in the following decades. Building permits for many addresses in the district reveal that several private garages were constructed during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Most of these garages tended to house one car, and were accessed by a small paved driveway leading from the street to the back of the property behind the house. The majority of garages were constructed with simple stylistic elements that echoed the style of the house on the property. The presence of these garages reveal that cars were the primary transportation method of the district’s residents by this time, attesting to the dominance of the automobile as well as the comfortable socioeconomic class of the residents. By this time, upper class and many middle class American citizens could afford an automobile, and its prominence was reflected in the built environment of the district in the presence of garages. The overall architectural character of the district remained intact during and after World War II, with the bulk of the remaining construction occurring in the postwar period. The majority of these later houses were built in the typical midcentury residential styles, with Cape Cod Revival and Ranch style houses appearing in the survey area as remaining lots were filled in. These styles are particularly prominent on Niagara Street near the hospital, as this part of the survey area experienced a new wave of development activity during the mid-twentieth century. Most of the small single family houses in this portion of the survey area were built in these midcentury styles, with only small variations in terms of ornamental details, building materials, size and massing to accommodate different numbers of occupants. The Degraff Memorial Hospital underwent several more phases of construction in the midtwentieth century as well, continually expanding to accommodate new patients, procedures and technology. Funded entirely by LeGrand DeGraff, the hospital was first built by architect Leon Gray in 1914, on land donated by the Sweeney Estate. New wings Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 34 and additions were constructed in 1930, 1944, 1953, 1956 and 1964.91 As the hospital expanded to meet the healthcare needs of the Tonawandas, the area immediately surrounding the hospital also filled in with residential properties. This is particularly evident on Niagara Street south of the hospital, where the majority of the houses reflect midcentury architectural styles. With nearly all of the properties in the survey area developed by the late 1950s, the physical fabric of the neighborhood remained somewhat stable through this time. Today the area’s major instructions such as the DeGraff Memorial Hospital, NAME Library, and Herschel Carousel Museum still anchor this overwhelmingly residential area. Many of the area’s larger residential buildings attest to the prominent wealth of the lumber industry during the nineteenth century, and its early to mid twentieth century residences attest to the later settlement of the area by middle class citizens. While some buildings suffer from disrepair or neglect today, overall the architectural fabric of the area attests to its historical development as a late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century grouping of primarily residential architecture. HISTORIC MAP ANALYSIS A number of historic maps show landscape features, buildings, property boundaries, road alignments and development trends in the survey area. Maps generated between 1849 and 1966 were consulted for this study. These maps include the 1841 Burr Map of Niagara County (Map 1), 1849 Hall and Mooney Subdivision of Tracts In the Village of Tonawanda (Map 2), 1852 Gifford Map of Niagara County, NY (Map 3), 1860 Map of Niagara and Orleans Counties, NY (Map 4), 1875 Beers Niagara and Orleans County Atlas (Map 5), 1893 Hopkins Atlas of City of North Tonawanda (Map 6), and 1908 Map of North Tonawanda (Map 8). The 1886, 1889, 1893, 1910 (Map 9), and 1951 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps were also consulted, as well as the 1900, 1953 and 1966 United States Geological Survey 7.5 Minute Quadrangles (Maps 7, 10 and 11). The 1841 Burr Map of Niagara County was created about a decade after the Erie Canal was opened (Map 1). The survey area within the present-day city of North Tonawanda is located within the boundaries identified as Wheatfield on this map. This map shows the Holland Land Company’s original lots, including Lots 80, 81 and 82, owned by the Sweeney family at this time. The Buffalo and Niagara Falls railroad is visible on this map, running through lots 80 and 81 parallel to the Niagara River. The Erie Canal is also depicted, running parallel to the railroad to Tonawanda Creek. 91 “Hospital History,” DeGraf Memorial Hospital, web accessed https://www.kaleidahealth.org/degraff/visitors/history.asp Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 35 The 1849 Hall and Mooney Subdivision of Tracts In the Village of Tonawanda (Map 2) is the first map available to identify streets in the survey area. It is also the first known map to label the survey area as the Village of Tonawanda, Niagara County. At this time, the Sweeney lot 81 was subdivided into smaller lots, although not all of these lots are labeled with corresponding numbers on this map. Approximately six lots were located on each block between several streets identified in the western portion of lot 81. The streets located within the survey area are identified with Oliver and Vandervoort running northsouth, and Sweeney, Tremont, Goundry and Emslie running east-west. Emslie was essentially a path running along the north side of the state ditch, and this is not represented by a street existing today, although in some places it is near Christiana Street. Small alleys are also depicted running north-south between lots on the blocks between Tremont and Goundry as well, but these do not exist today. The lots to the east or north of Vandervoort do not appear to be significantly subdivided at this time. To the south, a small dock appears along Tonawanda Creek and the Erie Canal near Sweeney and Oliver Streets. The Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad still runs generally north-south through the west portion of lot 81, outside the survey area, along Webster Street. The 1852 Gifford Map of Niagara County, NY (Map 3) is the first map available to show individual buildings and some property owner names. By this time, the area’s settlement was most dense in the southwestern portion of the survey area and areas immediately to the west, in the blocks between Sweeney Street and Goundry Street and between Oliver and Vandervoort Street, where several residences were clustered together. While this map does not indicate street names, the street layout in the blocks along Tonawanda Creek correspond to the 1849 map. This map does not identify details about the buildings or their function. To the north and east, where lots likely remained much larger in size, a few property owners are also listed. James Sweeney’s house appears to the north of the rail line in the lower third of lot 82. W. Vandevoort’s house also appears. The area north of Goundry Street is labeled as Sweeney’s Estate on this map. The railroad still appears along Webster Street running north-south, with an additional railroad branch heading northeast to the north of the survey area. The New York State Ditch appears in the survey area running to the south. The area north of Goundry Street appears largely undeveloped at this time, with the remainder of the Sweeny lots in the survey area occupying large spaces with multiple trees that may have been used as farmland or a source of lumber. The 1860 Map of Niagara and Orleans Counties, NY (Map 4) details the boundaries of lots and their ownership, which is becoming increasingly dense in the southeast portion of the survey area at this time. Within the boundaries of the survey area, the development appears most dense in the blocks between Sweeney and Goundry Street, heading east from Oliver Street towards Payne Avenue. Payne Avenue appears on this map but is not yet labeled by name. No streets have yet been laid between Vandervoort Street and Payne Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 36 Avenue. The lots sizes between these blocks are still substantially large in comparison to those east of Oliver Street. Only about 28 buildings are located between Oliver and Payne Avenue, between Goundry and Sweeney Street at this time. Names affiliated with these buildings include the Vandervoort family, the Warren family, and the Jacobs family. Mrs. Sweeney is affiliated with two buildings just east of Payne Street near Goundry Street at this time, and another building affiliated with J. Sweeney’s Estate is located to the northwest of the survey area. The map’s directory indicates the professions of some of these residents. For instance, Daniel Jacobs was a butcher and W. Jacobs was a New York City Rail Road foreman. Most of the professions of these residents were working or middle class at this time. However, those located on larger lots to the south, such as S. Huntly who was a Justice of the Peace, were of a higher station. Notably, the south portion of the survey area, south of Sweeney Street, included two steam mills and a black smith shop by this time. The NYC Railroad and the State Ditch still crosses the survey area at this time as well. The 1875 Beers Niagara and Orleans County Atlas (Map 5) indicates the further subdivision of lots along with the presence of additional buildings. Compared with the 1860 map, the 1875 map demonstrates the general movement of the development activity is heading north of Goundry Street at this time. Payne Street appear on this map, running from Sweeney to north of Robinson Street. The lot size to the west of Vandervoort Street appears significantly smaller, usually at least half the size, than some of the lots to the east. A building affiliated with the Sweeney Estate is located between Tremont Street and Goundry Street east of Payne Avenue, on a very large lot. A small portion of Christiana Street has been laid out between Vandervoort and Payne, with Grant and Lincoln Street beginning to run north from Christiana Street as well. Only one building has been built in this block by this time. Thompson Street, Schenck Street and Robinson Street appear, but little subdivision has occurred in these blocks by this time. The area east of Payne Street is still largely undeveloped, with only the Sweeney estate residence and the C. Kuggel residence in this portion of the survey area. Mill Street now appears at the east edge of the survey area, later renamed Division Street. Notably, the cemetery appears at the corner of Payne and Thompson Street by this time. Multiple rail lines cross the survey area by this time. A rail yard appears on the west side of Payne between Thompson and Christiana Street, where it will remain for several decades. The 1893 Hopkins Atlas of City of North Tonawanda (Map 6) indicates the increased density of development in the survey area. This development is overwhelmingly residential, with dwellings appearing on regularly divided lots on each block stretching as far north as Robinson Street by this time. Most of the dwellings are constructed of frame, although a few larger brick or stone dwellings do appear, typically in the southern portion of the survey area. While many buildings had been constructed by this time, empty subdivided lots do remain in the survey area, particularly in the northeast corner between Robinson Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 37 and Christiana running east from Bryant Street. James Sweeney owns a very large lot occupying most of the block between Schenk Street and Robison Street, Niagara Street and Sweeney Park, owned by James Sweeney, occupies the area between Schenck Street and Christiana Street between Niagara Street and Division Street. Extensive railroads cross the area, and the State Ditch still exists at this time. Whiting Street first appears on this map although there is virtually no development on the east side of this street by 1908. The 1900 USGS 7.5 Minute Quadrangle Map (Map 7) depicts the survey area with street layout and some buildings. The rail tracks, state ditch and canal figure prominently in this map, crossing the survey area. Robinson Street extends across the northern boundary of the survey area, extending east to Division Street. The east portion of the survey area is far less developed than the west portion by this time, where buildings line streets particularly in the southwest portion. The 1908 Map of North Tonawanda (Map 8) depicts the survey area as a primarily residential area in the early twentieth century. The map details building construction materials and lot ownership. Most of the lots in the survey area contain frame dwellings, some even with a small shed or garage by this time, but a few brick or stone dwellings also appear. Multiple brick institutional buildings also appear in the survey area by this time, including schools, libraries, churches and community centers. The south portion of the survey area along Sweeney Street and the Tonawanda Creek contain a few industrial businesses by this time, including the Herschell-Spillman Co, the Niagara Motor Boat Co, and several small docks. Railroads run through the area, including the Erie Railroad, the Batavia Branch, and multiple lines owned by the NYCRR. A frame rail station was located near Oliver and Christiana Streets, and larger rail depots were located outside the survey area to the north and west. By this time, most of the survey area was developed, with only a substantial amount of land remaining to the east. All of the undeveloped land along the west edge of Division Street belongs to James Sweeney, as well as the sizeable area of Sweeney Park. The 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (Map 9) depicts the survey area with detail regarding lot sizes, building form and materials. The sample from this detailed map included below in Map 9 indicates the variety in lot sizes that still existed in the survey area at this time, before larger estates were subdivided to accommodate middle class dwellings. Map 9 illustrates the combination of larger estate lots with grand dwellings on Goundry Street, adjacent to smaller dwellings on the same street. The public library is also depicted by this time, as it was constructed in 1903. The State Ditch still runs across the survey area. The 1953 USGS 7.5 Minute Quadrangle Map (Map 10) depicts the survey area in the midtwentieth century. By this time the streets have all been laid out and paved in their current configuration. The hospital, cemetery and park appear on this map, as well as the Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda HISTORIC ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT As indicated on the historic maps, the survey area was a sparsely settled forested area in the early nineteenth century before undergoing the development of multiple stages of subdivisions beginning in the mid-to-late nineteenth century.92 With only a few American settlers in the early 1800s, the survey area’s population grew gradually at first. James Sweeney the elder was one of the first settlers to purchase land in the area, and he and his family acquired about 2/3 of the present-day city of North Tonawanda in 1824, including the entire survey area. The opening of the Erie Canal in the 1820s, the establishment of rail networks in the 1840s, and the improvement and extension of multiple shipping networks by water, rail and road in the 1870s each attracted another wave of residents to the survey area during the nineteenth century. As new groups of workers, entrepreneurs and upper class citizens moved to the area, the Sweeney family divided their massive estate in multiple stages. Each subsequent generation of the Sweeney family subdivided lots for residential construction, with development generally beginning in the southwest portion of the survey area and then spreading to the north and east during the late nineteenth century. The establishment of a new wave of industrial businesses around the turn of the twentieth century led to another boom in development and new residential construction during the first two decades of the twentieth century. By the time the property was no longer directly managed by a descendant of James Sweeney in 1930, much of the residential construction was complete. Another small wave of development occurred into the 1950s, particularly along the southeast side of the survey area near Degraff Memorial Hospital and Pine Woods Park. Over time, the movement of people into this neighborhood extended north from the north edge of the Erie Canal and Tonawanda Creek, defining the area’s trends and attitudes toward architectural design and neighborhood planning. This movement can be traced through a study of historic maps, specifically in the subdivision of lots and planning of new roads. The paving of roads, improvements in both public and later automobile transportation, and the introduction of new businesses and public institutions set the stage for a boom in real estate development by the Sweeney Estate particularly during the 1900s-1920s. As the primary landholders in North Tonawanda for about 100 years, the Sweeney estate controlled most of this development. They often sold directly to the homeowner, or to small-scale developers who would then construct and sell homes on subdivided lots. The Sweeney Estate also laid roads, installed utilities and planned communities to be distinctively residential rather than urban. Architectural styles tended to be in keeping with one another in the area, as several of the same styles tend to appear throughout the district due to the developers’ imposition of design restrictions. Architecture in the survey area is overwhelming residential but other building types, 92 The Historic Maps used are documented in the Historic Map Analysis section of this document. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 50 including institutional, ecclesiastic and recreational, were constructed out of necessity to support these developing subdivisions. The survey area is a rich study in the development of a rural forested community into a late nineteenth and early twentieth century style community characteristic of America at this time. Nineteenth Century Recognizable American Architectural Styles The significant recognizable nineteenth-century American architectural styles2 represented in the survey area are Italianate and Queen Anne. Generally, the structures recommended demonstrate significance for the quality of their architectural design. The styles represented by buildings in the project area are briefly summarized below. Italianate The Italianate style was part of the Picturesque movement. It was a romantic style popular in the 10 years before the Civil War, and remained popular in New York State through the Civil War decades into the 1880s. The style was borrowed from the rural architecture of Northern Italy. Typically the style is characterized by two or three stories; a low-pitched roof; widely overhanging eaves with decorative brackets; tall, narrow round-headed windows with hood moldings; bracketed and/or pedimented rectangular crowns; corner quoins; square cupola, tower or centered gable. In the survey area, the most common subtype of this style takes an asymmetrical form, typically with an L-shaped massing formed by a cross gable roof, such as at 169 Vandervoort Street, 334 Payne Avenue and 184 Goundry Street. Other variations on the style appear in the survey area at 107 Falconer Street, where a centered gable is present, and at 277 Oliver Street and 11 Bryant Street which have a typical front gable massing. Queen Anne The Queen Anne style was inspired by late Medieval prototypes, and made extravagant use of complex shapes and elaborate detailing which would have been cost-restrictive prior to the industrial revolution, mass-production of complex house components, and the advent of the balloon frame and wire nails. The style was popular during the 1880s- 1890s and is characterized by steeply pitched roofs of irregular shape, typically with front facing gable end, asymmetrical plan and massing, and prominent partial or full-width porch, usually one-story high, often extending along one or both sides. Decorative elements include smallpaned windows, Palladian window motif, door opening with fan and side lights, turned balusters, intricate latticework, patterned shingles, cut-a-way bay windows and other devices to avoid a smooth-walled appearance. Spindlework detailing or Eastlake detailing is often found in porch balustrades, as a frieze suspended from a porch ceiling, in gables Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 51 and under wall overhangs left by cut-a-way window bays. Towers are a common Queen Anne feature and may be round, square or polygonal, with the square form the least common. One example of the style is at 257 Goundry Street, where the residence has an asymmetrical massing with a dominant gable projecting slighting from the exterior façade below. There is a projecting bay interrupting the front faced and extending upward until it meets the gable. Also typical of the Queen Anne style is the polygonal tower just behind the front corner that rises from the ground level. Another interpretation of the style is at 238 Tremont Street, where the asymmetrical massing features two front gables, with fishscale shingles and clapboard siding providing an alternation of textures between each story. Workers’ Cottage The workers’ cottage is a significant house type because of its wide popularity in American urban and semi-urban areas during the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Additionally, it is considered one of the first forms of fully industrialized housing for working-class Americans. The social and economic benefits that accompany the Worker’s Cottage style are also reflected in its architectural design. During this period, it was typical for factory owners to invest in adjacent lands, constructing housing for their workers. Workers then had the opportunity to purchase the house and the lot. While there is no clear evidence that companies directly constructed these cottages in the survey area, their presence is indicative of the time and values of their construction in this style. Architecturally, many of these houses would take the form of the modest one-story shotgun cottage. These modest buildings incorporated many of the most advanced technological and planning ideas of its era. Machined components included doors, windows, casings, hardware and decorative detailing, as well as standardized components for wood structural and material finishing systems. The most common form for this typology is a one-story front gabled residence with an offset entry, sometimes with a full width porch. Examples of this can be seen in the survey area at 328 Oliver Street, where verge board adorns the roof, at 7 East Oliver Street where turned spindles support the porch, and at 315 Falconer Street, a gabled example with hipped roof porch. The survey area also contains some examples of one-and-a-half to two- story variations as well, including those at 182 Lincoln Ave, 286 Bryant Street and 351 Bryant Street. Late nineteenth century cottages were typically expanded and transformed in the early twentieth century, leading to their appearance filling in smaller remaining lots in the early twentieth century as well. Twentieth Century Recognizable American Architectural Styles Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 52 The last decade of the nineteenth century saw European-trained architects designing houses for wealthy patrons, evoking correct historical interpretations of European styles. Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 furthered this emphasis on period styles. These eclectic styles include Colonial Revival, American Foursquare, Craftmsan/Bungalow, French Eclectic, Tudor Revival, and Post WW2 Standardized Neighborhood Vernacular styles. These were among the most popular during the first two decades of the twentiethcentury. Other recognizable American architectural styles represented during the early decades of the twentieth-century in the survey area are the Foursquare, Craftsman, Bungalow, and Prairie style houses. A small amount of residential buildings date from the post-war period, including midcentury Ranch styles. Generally, the styles are represented by residential, educational and ecclesiastic buildings. The structures recommended demonstrate significance for the quality of their architectural design. The styles represented by buildings in the survey area are briefly summarized below. Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival style was the dominant style for domestic architecture during the first half of the twentieth century. As it is used here it refers to a revival in the interest of early Dutch and English (Georgian and Adam styles) houses from the Atlantic seaboard. The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 and the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 sparked a renewed interest in colonial architecture and the colonial period in general. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the Colonial Revival influenced the Queen Anne style, producing classical details such as Palladian windows. A number of publications including The American Architect and Building News and Ladies Home Journal promoted the style to both the professional and private sector. Typically the style tends to be eclectic with the free combination from two or more of these early precedents. Common elements associated with the style include regular massing, symmetrically balanced facades, embellishment of front entrances with pedimented porches and classical surrounds, multi-light double hung wood sash, brick or wood clapboard walls and gabled roof dormers. Several examples of the Colonial Revival style can be found in the survey area, ranging from grand mansions from the early twentieth century to more modest incarnations of the style from later decades. An early example of the style is located at 249 Goundry Street, constructed c. 1894 for George C. Dailey, one of the first presidents of State National Bank. The five-bay center entrance design features a rare foundation of quarry-faced granite blocks with clapboard on the floors above. An usual approach to the style is expressed in the polygonal porch with smooth Tuscan columns, which achieves an atypical asymmetrical effect for the typically symmetrical Colonial Revival style. The imposing mansion at 373 Goundry Street is a later, textbook example of the Colonial Revival style, designed by architect Louis Eggers for Farny Wurlitzer in 1917. The symmetrical façade is Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 53 framed by pilasters at the corner, with a prominent two-story projecting portico with slender colossal columns supporting a pediment containing an oculus. A more modestlysized, later example of the style is at 26 Louisa Parkway. This side gabled residence presents a symmetrical, three-bays wide façade to the street, sheathed in clapboard. The eight-over-eight wood sash windows are indicative of the style, and the entry door is framed by fluted Tuscan pilasters topped by an entablature of six triglyphs. Another variation of the Colonial Revival style is the Dutch Colonial Revival interpretation, derived from the Dutch Colonial farmhouse of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries featured a gambrel roof, with flared eaves and multi-light double-hung sash. An override shed dormer across the length of the house was common, providing height and light to the upper story. Elements of the Dutch Colonial Revival style can be found at houses like 9 Louisa Parkway, which combines the side gabled gambrel roof of the Dutch Colonial Revival style with a prominent front-gabled entry that evokes the Tudor style. The generous gambrel roof allows for a full second story on this modest frame dwelling, proving more space than is immediately apparent from the street. Another typical example is located at 291 Tremont Street where a gambrel roof faces the street above a full width enclosed porch under a front gable. American Foursquare The American Foursquare style refers more to a massing typology than it does to a stylistic ornamental language. American Foursquare houses are defined by cubic massing, hipped roofs, overhanging eaves, dormers, and full width-front porches. The ornament can reference Craftsman, Prairie or Colonial Revival styles. The style first appeared in ca.1890, and was promoted by builder’s magazines and catalogue companies who sold house ‘kits’ The simplified ornamental language gave the buildings a clean, dignified appearance, which appealed to the budget and aesthetic sensibilities of the modern homeowner. The simple massing lent itself to a variety of cladding materials including brick, stucco, clapboard and shingle. The style is prevalent throughout the survey area. Good hipped roof examples include 227 Bryant Street and 203 Christiana Street, which has a hipped roof with hipped dormers, and a hipped roof with square wood columns on a full width fist story porch, and at 48 Falconer Street, where the enclosed porch retains original vertical 3- over-3 wood sash windows. Gabled variations are also common, evidenced at 216 Bryant Street and 103 Falconer Street. Craftsman & Bungalow The Craftsman style was popular between 1905 through the early 1920s. The style was inspired by the Greene brothers who designed simple Craftsman-style bungalows in Pasadena, California. Influences on this style include the English Arts and Crafts Movement Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 54 (particularly in America the philosophy of Gustav Stickley) and an interest in oriental wooden structures. The style was promoted in periodicals such as Western Architecture, House Beautiful, Good Housekeeping, Architectural Record, Ladies Home Journal, and The Craftsman magazine. The style was also relatively easy to build, typically with a small rectangular massing. The style is characterized by low-pitched, gabled roofs; hipped roofs; wide, unenclosed eave overhangs and exposed rafters; decorative beams or knee braces beneath overhangs; full or partial width porches with square-tapered columns that sometimes extend to the ground level. The exterior wall is sometimes broken up by the use of different materials. Dormers are common, with exposed rafters and braces. One story vernacular examples are called the Bungaloid or Bungalow style. There is an extensive sampling of this style in the survey area ranging from a few large scale designs to more common modest builder/developer standardized types. Craftsman examples include the residences at 257 Tremont Street, 453 Goundry Street and 223 Christiana Street. In the latter example, the style is applied in a side gable roof with front gable dormer, with an enclosed front porch with central entry between broad square columns. Exposed rafter tails are a typical motif present on this example. Bungalow styles are also present in the survey area, including the example at 19 Pine Woods Drive which features a hipped roof and dormer with overhanging eaves and rafter tails. At 455 Goundry Street, a sloping side gable roof with overhanging eaves is topped with a prominent front gable dormer with wood braces. Decorative sash windows and an offset entry with side lights under a front gable with paired column supports complete the primary façade. The Bungalow style is also very versatile as it makes it possible to incorporate other styles in the decorative traits of the building. The house at 262 Christiana Street, for instance, incorporates Colonial details on the exterior, such as decorative touches seen in the columns, frieze and pediments. Tudor Revival In the early twentieth century, architects looked to the traditions of the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth-century English architectural traditions. In a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, similar to the Arts and Crafts movement, designers were looking for a more honest expression of materials, craftsmanship and form. Common elements of these Late Medieval prototypes included in the revival style are asymmetrical massing, a steeply pitched gable roof, multi-light casement windows and massive chimneys. Brick and stucco clad walls with decorative half-timbering typically complete the composition. A brick example is located at 268 Christiana Street, with an asymmetrical cross gable massing distinguished by a steeply sloping front gable over the primary entrance. Another good example of the style can be seen at 210 Niagara Street, built in 1929 for insurance agent Evan M. Davies. This two-story cross-gabled house maintains an original slate roof, one of few left in North Tonawanda. A variety of materials were used on the primary elevation to Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 55 achieve an overall picturesque effect indicative of the style, with stucco as the principal material, brick for the recessed front entrance and chimney, and clapboard in the upper section under the front gable. The tall narrow windows are grouped in bands, as are the original steel frame windows with leaded casements. French Eclectic The French Eclectic style was a romantic, picturesque style that looked to elements of domestic buildings in the northwestern regions of France. The style was popular in the 1920s and 1930s in suburban residential developments and private estates as it evoked a sensibility of country estate living. The style typically incorporated a prominent steeply pitched hip roof, casement windows, tall chimneys, masonry or stucco cladding and hip roofed dormers. Although the style is not common in the survey area, one prominent example is the residence at 202 Niagara Street. Constructed in 1929 for George Richardson, this large cross-gabled house features a round stucco-clad main entrance tower capped by a conical roof, typical of the style. Diamond pane windows in he tower and small half-timbered dormers further accentuate the style, with the use of clinker bricks on the exterior heightening the picturesque effect. Post World War II Standardized Neighborhood After World War II, and in response to the GI Bill 93, a number of neighborhoods were constructed that exhibited a standardized site-plan, and articulation designed to accommodate anew middle-class suburbia. The residences tended to be small, approximately 1000 square-feet, single-story or one-and-one-half story cubic or rectangular structures with a uniform setback, and broad expanse of lawn. The result was a dynamic rhythm along the street, broken only by the change of entrance located from center to side. Often a simple, cubic garage is located to the rear or attached to the side of the house. Picture windows, hipped roofs and metal awning supports are common in the typology. The residence as a single unit is not significant and is outside the period of significance for the proposed district’s significance in association with the Sweeeney Estate before 1930. It is the repetition of a standardized type on a street with similar setbacks, sidewalks, landscaping and relation of driveway to entry, and entrance path that is significant. Examples in the survey area at 276 Tremont Street and 343 Christiana Street exhibit characteristics of the uniformly planned, post-World War II standardized type. 93 Officially titled the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, the GI Bill provided college or vocational education for World War II veterans, as well as providing low interest, zero down payment home loans backed by the Veteran’s Administration. This allowed people to move out of urban rental units into a suburban home. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 56 SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARY OF RESOURCES Total Historic Resources Totals Buildings: 1170 Districts: 1 (identified for nomination in this report) Other (parks, gates) 3 Historic Resource Type Totals Residential 1139 Commercial 17 Educational (Schools) 1 Religious (churches, etc) 8 Transportation (station, rail) 1 Industrial (factories etc) 0 Civic (fire station etc) 3 Landscape (cemetery, park) 2 National Register Status Totals NRE 2 NRL 3 Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 57 Survey Area Overview Map For detailed views of the survey area, see Appendix 4. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 58 The entire survey area was a predominantly forested, rural community during the early nineteenth-century. After the construction of the Erie Canal in the 1820s and the installation of new transportation networks along waterways and railroads into the 1850s, the original Sweeney Estate lots 81 and 82 were gradually subdivided for multiple stages of development, beginning with those managed by James Sweeney the elder. At first, building tended to occur in the south and west portions of the survey area, due to its proximity to the canal and Tonawanda Creek as well as rail lines. Only a few roads in the survey area were laid by the mid-nineteenth century, including Oliver Street, Vandervoort Street, Sweeney Street and Goundry Street. By the 1870s and 1880s, settlement patterns shifted in the survey area due to an increase in population catalyzed by the installation of more extensive transportation networks, public utilities, and a booming lumber industry in the vicinity. A number of upper and upper middle class families began to purchase lots that the Sweeney family estate, now managed by James Sweeney 2nd, subdivided from their larger land holdings piece by piece. At first, these lot were relatively large and accommodated a upper or upper-middle class residence that reflected the economic success of North Tonawanda during the late nineteenth century. In the survey area, these residences were located mostly between Oliver, Goundry, Sweeney and Payne Streets. As North Tonawanda’s lumber industry experienced a major boom into the 1890s, the Sweeney Estate was further subdivided to accommodate a slightly more diverse population. By this time, lots were subdivided to a smaller size, yet still enough to accommodate a dignified middle class residence. Accompanied by advancements in transportation via waterways and railroads, these new settlement patterns enabled citizens to live in a residential area away from major industries and still commute to work, school or other institutions. As James Sweeney Jr. began to take over the family business around the turn of the twentieth century, the pace and density of development increased in the survey area. Following in his ancestor’s footsteps, Sweeney Jr. attracted new industries to the area and donated land for parks and institutions to serve the community he intended to cultivate. Sweeney Jr laid out several new roads in the north portion of the survey area and subdivided the land into lots for the construction of houses that were designed to be affordable by the middle and middle-upper classes. The formerly forested landscape defined was becoming defined by a pattern of roads and housing lots that developers laid out as they bought more land from Sweeney Jr., constructed more roads and marketed to a middle-class homeowner. In 1917, Sweeney Jr. sold one of the last sections of undeveloped land in the survey area, then known as Sweeney Park, to the City of North Tonawanda. It then became a suburban style development known today as Pine Woods Park. This development pattern continued, managed and owned by the Sweeney family, until Sweeney Jr. died in 1929. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 59 Today, the resources in the north and southwest part of the survey area are the most threatened. These areas have suffered from neglect, disrepair and/or dilapidation as a result of disinvestment in the community due to broader demographic changes. There are also cultural resources that are not in danger of being demolished, however inappropriate alterations to, or replacement of historic material fabric will compromise their integrity. The survey area in general has a rich collection of architectural resources that contribute to an understanding of the area’s growth, and an understanding of a century of American settlement patterns overall. This survey has identified 713 potentially significant resources that define the area physically and historically. The following recommendations suggest various tools designed to protect and enhance these resources: 1. Designate historic districts and local landmarks. The City of North Tonawanda’s Historic Preservation Commission is a CLG that provides for the identification, designation and protection of historic resources. The Historic Preservation Ordinance from Chapter 51 of the City Code provides an added level of protection that will delay and possibly prevent the demolition of these resources.94 The current survey identified individual properties that have been determined to be National Register Eligible and National Register Listed. Designating these properties as Local Landmarks would further their protection. The ordinance also provides that the Historic Preservation Commission will review plans for the alteration, construction, removal, or demolition of a landmark, and improvement to a landmark site, or a structure within a historic district before a Certificate of Appropriateness is issued. For this reason it is imperative that the Historic Preservation Commission designate resources identified as local landmarks, specifically the resources identified since this will help preserve the character defining features of the area. There is sufficient information regarding the history of the Sweeney Estate and of the development of the survey area in this document, which when combined with the patterns of development identified in the current survey suggests that at least a portion of this area could be designated as a district or a series of local landmarks with a minimal amount of effort. The Historic Preservation Commission should consider thematic designation of individual resources that are linked architecturally and/or historically. The survey recommends the National Register listing of the Sweeney Estate Historic District identified in this survey. This district contains many streets that were once part of the Sweeney Estate and emerged as part of the same multigenerational history of development, as detailed in this document. As the overall historic development patterns and architectural styles are very similar on all 94 To read this chapter in detail, it can be found here: https://ecode360.com/13624615 Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 60 of these streets, the boundaries of this recommended district have been drawn to coincide with the greatest conglomeration of resources with a good to high level of architectural integrity in terms of their existing conditions today. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 61 Proposed boundaries for nomination of the Sweeney Estate Historic District to the National Register of Historic Places Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 62 Use the information and research from this survey to complete National Register Nomination Forms. This document has identified both National Register Eligible and National Register Listed properties. In addition, it has resulted in the identification of one potential historic district that is recommended for nomination to the National Register. This district has been identified and bounded by its historic context as well as the architectural integrity of the existing conditions. Within these boundaries, properties color-coded blue and green are considered to be contributing properties, whereas those coded yellow are considered noncontributing. This color-coding applies to the architectural integrity of the existing conditions of each building, and is designed to be a tool for analyzing large amounts of data on a map in order to view and identify the boundaries of the recommended districts at a large scope. Based on the historic research and fieldwork conducted regarding existing conditions in the entire survey area, this report recommends the nomination of one historic district identified for its significance and integrity according to the National Register Criteria for Evaluation. Taking account of both the existing conditions evident in the color-coded maps and the overall historic context shared amongst each street, the Sweeney Estate Historic District was identified as recommended for National Register listing. The boundaries of this district have been drawn in order to most closely reflect the strongest grouping of architectural integrity as surveyed by their existing conditions. Each of these streets contained within this district emerged from a similar historic context of settlement patterns between 1824-1930, historically distinguished only by different generations of development by the Sweeney family on the grounds of the original Sweeney Estate. Each of the streets in this district today appears relatively similar in architectural style, feeling and association as an example of mostly late-nineteenth to early-twentiethcentury development patterns. In this sense, the boundaries have been drawn in order to contain the densest cluster of high quality architectural integrity in the historically unified area today. This recommended district was identified in relation to National Register Criteria for Eligibility as well as the criteria put forth in the National Register Bulletin entitled Historic Residential Suburbs: Guidelines for Evaluation and Documentation for the National Register of Historic Places. The Bulletin defines a historic suburban residential district as: A geographic area that was historically connected to the city by one or more modes of transportation; subdivided and developed primarily for residential use according to a plan; and possessing a significant concentration, linkage and Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 63 continuity of dwellings on small parcels of land, roads and streets, utilities and community facilities.95 According to these principles, the Sweeney Estate Historic District can be classified as a historic suburban residential district by this definition. The Bulletin also clarifies that while a suburban district may be outside the official boundaries of the central city, it is defined by this pattern of suburban development more so than the past or present legal boundaries of the city. Following this, the recommended district evolved as suburban-style development even though it is technically inside the official city boundaries today. The district recommended in the present survey was identified for its historic significance in the context of the National Register criteria for Historic Residential Suburbs as put forth in that bulletin. The bulletin states several determinations that must be made in order to consider National Register eligibility in this context, identifying the following: How the district illustrates an important aspect of America’s suburbanization, and reflects the growth and historic development of...where it is located and Whether the district possesses 1) physical features characterizing it as a historic residential suburb and 2) attributes of historic integrity conveying its association with important historic events or representing significant aspects of its historic design.96 In applying these considerations to the survey area, the Sweeney Estate Historic District emerged as part of the recommendations portion of the survey. Using color-coded maps in conjunction with photography, fieldwork and the historic research outlined in the Historic Overview portion of this document, the survey identified this district as an area that maintains sufficient architectural integrity to convey the history of its development as individual residential subdivisions within the broader context of the settlement patterns that occurred in this part of North Tonawanda during 1824-1930. Following these guidelines, this district maintains the physical features and historic associations required to satisfy the criteria outlined by the bulletin and the National Register Criteria for Eligibility. Significant under Criterion A for Settlement Patterns and Criterion C for Architecture, this district is a good example of the history of residential suburban-style subdivisions in North Tonawanda during a period of intense development from about 1824-1930. 95 David Ames and Linda Flint McClelland, National Register Bulletin: Historic Residential Suburbs, Guidelines for Evaluation and Documentation for the National Register of Historic Places (Washington, DC: National Park Service, September 2002), 4. 96 Ames and McClelland, 7. Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 64 The Sweeney Estate Historic District is bounded by Division Street to the west, Vandervoort Street to the east (100-195 Vandervoort), the south side of Thompson Street to the north, and Tremont Street to the south (201-401; 196-480 Tremont Street). These boundaries reflect the strongest collection of resources with significant architectural integrity remaining today within the historic boundaries of the area originally purchased by James Sweeney the elder in 1824. Developed in pieces over several generations of management and ownership by the Sweeney family estate, this district was home to some of North Tonawanda’s wealthiest residents by the late nineteenth century, and they were joined by middle class citizens in the early twentieth century. The boundaries do not contain many commercial properties, as these properties reflect a different architectural style, function and historic context that is distinct from the overwhelmingly residential style of development that occurred between these streets. This proposed district contains 421 properties, with 338 contributing (color-coded green and blue) and 83 noncontributing properties (color-coded yellow). This district contains some of the oldest buildings in the survey area, mostly dating from the 1870s-1930. The majority of the properties were constructed before 1930 and today exhibit a largely intact cohesive collection of architectural residences including those built in the Worker’s Cottage, Italianate, Queen Anne, Tudor Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, American Foursquare and Colonial Revival styles. The district also includes significant landscapes, such as Sweeney Cemetery and Pine Woods Park, both historically part of the original Sweeney Estate. There may be sufficient historic research completed in this survey to nominate additional properties and districts to the National Register as recommended. It should be noted that not all local landmarks are National Register eligible. 2. Comply with State and National Historic Preservation Laws This survey report provides an excellent resource to expedite NYS-OPRHP review for stateand federally-funded rehabilitation projects and projects that trigger a Section 106, or SEQRA review. Laws governing the review process are: Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, directs federal agencies to consider historic resources in their project planning. New York State has a parallel law for state agencies in Section 14.09 of the State Historic Preservation Act of 1980. Local environmental review for municipalities was initiated under the State Environmental Quality Review At (SEQRA) of 1974. 3. Develop programs for public education and to promote awareness of the value and treatment of historic resources. The attitude the public has concerning the area’s cultural resources, including their own property, is vital if the integrity of those resources is to be maintained. An informed public Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 65 makes better decisions. There are a number of approaches to increasing a community’s awareness regarding the town’s historic resources including: • Preservation Workshops: historic window repair, masonry/mortar, water problems, wood siding and so on; • Neighborhood walking tours that provide a history of the areas development; • Public Meetings and Presentations: people are often unaware of the history in their own backyard; • Co-ordinate efforts with the Amherst Museum: exhibits, workshops, presentations • Interactive website with a comprehensive town history, historic resources, programs, linked to National Parks resources. Most people just “Google” it. • All of the above but at the grade school level. A lot of schools have “expedition” learning programs that look for inexpensive ways to expand the learning experience. 4. Investigate Archaeological Resources The topography and settlement patterns in the area suggest a medium to high sensitivity for Archaeological resources (historic and prehistoric). This information is vital in preservation planning, land-use planning and development. 5. Use Property Database and GIS color-coded maps supplementing this document to facilitate communication with other town boards and committees. As a final component of the survey, each historic resource was mapped in GIS, and linked to a photograph with information including address; year built; contributing/noncontributing structures in districts; Local Historic Landmark Status; and National Register eligibility/listing data where applicable. The property database table, photographs and maps can be used as preservation planning tools and are intended to provide a survey of the area for future consideration. Survey Area Overview The earliest phase of development occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, after James Sweeney the elder purchased lots 81 and 82 in 1824. Prior to this time, the area was very Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 66 sparsely settled and consisted mostly of forest. As shipping networks improved on the Erie Canal, Tonawanda Creek and Niagara River as well as the installation of railroads in the 1840s, the forested area gave way to a blossoming lumber industry. In the survey area, properties near Oliver Street and Vandervoort Street between Sweeney Street and Goundry Street were some of the first to be established. Over the next few decades and into the 1870s, more streets were laid out in anticipation of a boom in construction following the success of the lumber industry and more extensive transportation networks. Sweeney the elder’s son, James Sweeney 2nd extended the borders of development at this time to Robinson Street and Payne Street. While these streets were laid out by 1875, historic maps and records indicate that most of the land in this area was still not throughout subdivided and sold as individual lots until the 1880s. By 1893, most of this subdivision of lots had occurred in and about 2/3 of the houses has been constructed in the survey area by this time. The area east of Bryant, however, had been subdivided but not much construction had occurred in the east portion of the survey area by this time. Some large estates still remained east of Niagara at this time, as well as Sweeney Park. As the lumber industry boomed in the late nineteenth century, some of North Tonawanda’s wealthiest citizens constructed their houses in the survey area. Large mansions lined Goundry and Christiana Streets in particular, built in styles popular at the time such as Queen Anne and Colonial Revival. Around the turn of the century, these larger residences were peppered with smaller houses built for middle class residents, who filled in the survey area as development spread to the north and west. The addition of Pine Woods Park in 1917, purchased from the Sweeney estate, led to another round of development in the east portion of the survey area in the following decades. By the late 1920s, many of the houses had been constructed in the survey area, which contained a mix of middle and upper class residents at that time. Following the death of James Sweeney 2nd in 1929, the management of the remaining Sweeney property passed into new hands, not directly managed by the family descendants, beginning in 1930. This marked a new era for the survey area, as it was no longer directly related to the Sweeney estate but to a new corporation, James Sweeney Properties, Inc, henceforth until the mid-twentieth century. Another wave of development occurred after this time, stretching into the 1950s as the remaining available lots in the southeast portion of the survey area were filled in, mostly near the Degraff Memorial Hospital, along Niagara Street. Non-Residential Properties While the area is overwhelmingly residential, a number of non-residential properties arose to serve the needs of this residential population over time. The earliest buildings affiliated Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 67 with the earliest nineteenth century phase of settlement in the survey area have been demolished to make way for the more substantial, denser style of development that occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many of the churches in the survey area were constructed in the YEAR, and thus appear in the next section. Some civic buildings are present in the district, including the National Register listed Carnegie Library (1903; NR 95NR00867) and United States Post Office (1912, 90NR01972). A fire station is located at 71 Vandervoort Street (1957). The Grant School at 25 Grant Street is an elementary school that was constructed in 1953 to serve the community’s educational needs. The property was determined Not Eligible, and an inventory form for the property is on file at the NYS-OPRHP (USN 06341.000495). Residential Properties The majority of the survey area is defined primarily by residential development, and most of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century residences in this area were built from the 1880s-1920s in modest or large forms of the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Craftsman or American Foursquare style. Many of the buildings are significant for their contribution to North Tonawanda’s architectural history, as this area was integral to the establishment of settlement patterns in the city. Larger residences were constructed for wealthy citizens, many affiliated with the lumber industry, primarily along the major east-west streets in the survey area but also along Niagara Street and near Pine Woods Park. High-style examples include large residences at 249 Goundry Street (c.1890, Colonial Revival), 325 Goundry Street (C.1893, Queen Anne), 338 Goundry Street (C.1895, Colonial Revival) and 373 Goundry Street (C.1924, Colonial Revival), as well as 126 Christiana Street (C.1890, Tudor Revival). The area is also peppered with more modest examples of the Craftsman, Bungalow, American Foursquare and Workers Cottage styles, aimed to suit the historically middle and working class residents at 257 Tremont Street (C.1910, Craftsman), 262 Christiana Street (1924, Bungalow), 97 Christiana Street (C.1900, American Foursquare), and 50 Bryant Street (C.1885, Workers Cottage). Many of the residential properties in the survey area maintain good to excellent architectural integrity, contributing to the historic context and stylistic character of the proposed district. Significantly Altered Properties: Some properties identified in the survey area have been altered and therefore no longer retain sufficient integrity to be considered a cultural resource. Replacement materials and windows are generally viewed with leniency only if the original massing and form remains sufficiently intact enough to convey historic context and style. For instance, the simple Italianate massing at 395 Falconer Street, was substantially altered by the addition of an enclosed entry space over a sunken attached garage. Another example can be seen at 41 Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources Sweeney Estate, City of North Tonawanda 68 Bryant Street, where a non-historic porte cochere with metal supports was added to the side of the house, disrupting the original massing and form.
History of the North Tonawanda Police Department (Westphal, Butler, Belbas, ed. by Chief Glass, 2022).pdf
On the Avenues and Beyond by John Kolecki, 2007, book review (Dennis Reed Jr, 2023).htm
It’s disorienting to contemplate how different the Avenues would have appeared to young Master Kolecki in 1925. If you’ve seen photographs of the era, you realize they might as well have been taken in Slovenia. It’s a decidedly more rural existence. Most families keep their own small vegetable gardens “either on their own lot or on a nearby vacant city-owned lot. Many ‘lot gardens’ were located between Gilmore Street and Payne Avenue” (35). The “upper” avenues (9th through 19th) only begin to get filled in with homes during the post-WWII era. Livestock abounds, including poultry, rabbits and pigs (“The aroma of smoked sausages, hams and bacon signaled the Easter season” (35)). The author, John Kolecki, is about as homegrown as they grow ‘em: Born in North Tonawanda in 1920 and educated at OLC and NTHS, he later earns a degree from Canisius. He is a proud Polish WWII war veteran and educator. In the Acknowledgments he says he is now 86 years old, “more like an old horse than a young colt.” The earliest recollections are likely from around 1925, when he is a boy at 5 (a charming cover photo shows him on a palomino pony; we learn later it was staged by an entrepreneurial photographer who roamed the Avenues with the animal). It’s a time when the Polish presence on the Avenues is developing into a self-sufficient community; a time of new automobiles, Prohibition, and then the further privations of the Great Depression and WWII. His narrative is supplemented by church pamphlets preserved by his wife, Violet; articles from the Am-Pol Eagle; resources from local libraries and historical societies. Neither Burger King nor McDonald’s were offering their Big Fish or Fishwich sandwiches yet, so the Niagara River had to provide protein in fish form. The rod and reel, baited throw lines and night lines were common among the “slip area” of the river where the avenues’ fishermen most often plied their skill. In other areas of the river, fisherman use the “unsportsmanlike method” of putting dynamite in a bottle, dropped to the bottom and detonated, stunning the fish above for relatively easy collection. The first and second slips are also popular swimming holes for the kids. The first slip, he writes, is now Fisherman’s Park, while the second is covered by the “industrial disposal complex” (68). Religion is the center of this straight-as-an-arrow military hero. He takes some pains to explain the 1392 origin of Our Last of Czetochowa (it is named after an icon of Mary said to be painted by Saint Luke himself) and the founding in North Tonawanda of the Polish Roman Catholic parish on Oliver Street at Center Ave. “Young men competed to operate the bellows on the antique [church organ]. The Mass was in Latin, but the gospel, homily and hymns were in Polish” (2). There is a good description of the early development of the church and its related buildings, and even a few photographs. Kolecki also describes a short-lived but vicious rivalry between his establish Polish Roman Catholic Church and upstarts from the Polish National Catholic Church, who “initiated a movement to entrench itself on the avenues” by establishing a church at Oliver Street and Wheatfield Street (4). As a proud Pole, Mr. Kolecki palpably resents the tradition of the “Polish joke,” which he says surfaces after WWII. He has two responses to people who want to tell him a Polish joke: either tell it to him in Polish, or say it “in the language of your ancestors so nothing is lost in translation” (92). The upshot: this so-called “dumb Pole” can speak two languages. Can you? One imagines that challenge was especially intimidating issued in-person by a Marine paratrooper. Poles are mistreated in other ways. Prospective Polish home buyers are told properties they are interested in in other parts of the city are suddenly off the market. It is the same with jobs. A qualified mechanic, Mr. Krajanowski, applies for Remington Rand, and is turned down. He applies for the same job two days later under the name “Mr. Taper” and is hired (91). North Tonawanda has always been a hard-drinking town, from the rowdy canawlers and lumbermen to the later industrial workers. According to Mr. Kolecki, taverns are on Ironton. In some circles, Prohibition must have seemed like an existential threat. Not so much the avenues. Mr. Kolecki maintains that the Poles were neither upset or happy about Prohibition. “A casual indifference prevailed” (11). They collectively shrug, and begin brewing at home, as they plant, and milk, and sew. They buy malt and yeast from a local hardware store for beer (three are listed on page 25). To make wine, they ferment whatever they can find. “Cherries were popular because they were inexpensive at 5-6 cents per pound. Dandelions also were experimented with” (15). Even after Prohibition, the practice continues. “A small number of avenue home wine cellars continued with the art of wine making. To them, there was an element of pride and a badge of accomplishment to grace a table with homemade wine” (15). A strength of Mr. Kolecki’s book is that the financial fortunes of the “avenuers” are traced with the national picture in the background. WWI’s conclusion does not immediately increase prosperity, as industries have to be refitted to resume production of consumer goods, and returning “veterans flooded the unemployment ranks and exacerbated a bad situation” (31). Soon things do pick up, and the stock market soars. A few cash in their Liberty Bonds and buy stock—to their eventual ruin. Most of the Polish on the Avenues however were either uninterested in such investments, or couldn’t afford them. “Vast majorities of families were penny-pinching to save enough to own a lot, which was adequate equity to negotiate a mortgage to build a house…Mothers wished to pay off the installments on a Swinger sewing machine; fathers had their hopes on a Ford Model T or A” (32). Even if they didn’t invest directly, residents feel the effects of the 1929 crash in almost immediate widespread unemployment. “The standard of living on the avenues plummeted…Lincoln Radiator on Ironton and Pierce Arrow on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo were just two examples” (33). Unemployment is at 75%. Values of everything from homes to automobiles continues to sink. Scavenging the railroad tracks for spilled coal is a common pastime. When people talk about the good old days and low prices, they sometimes fail to note it was partially because nobody had any money to buy anything. The Strand Theater at First and Oliver asks just 5 cents for Sunday admission; during the week, it was two people for 6 cents. The cinder-covered back alleys are a convenient place to repair and test the early automobiles popular on the Avenues. During the Depression, these go for a song. Mr. Kolecki’s father buys a used 1924 four-door Chevrolet Sedan for just $5. John and his friends raise $35 for their own Model A four-door sedan, steering it around the alleys and fields east of Gilmore Street. (This sedan provides occasion for the funniest moment of the book: when the car needs a replacement carburetor, one of his friends tries to steal one from a local junkyard. A policeman catches him as he is pawing around the old parts. The boy claims he is just urinating. When the policeman demands to see his hands and observes they are black, he quips, “‘You surely have a greasy prick, let’s go to the station for an oil change’” (43)). The sixth chapter is devoted almost entirely to “the play culture of children in the 1920s and 1930s,” and recounts such Avenues pastimes as “Pitching to a box” (throwing coins into a box on the ground), “Baby in the hole” (a form of tag involving rolling a ball into a competitor’s dug hole in the ground), and “Nip” (something like baseball but with a small chunk of wood for a ball). Two pages of photos of OLC sports teams follow. The Avenues belong to the city’s Third Ward, and are mostly registered Democrats. Dom Polski Hall hosts boisterous campaign rallies. Progressive, 5’5,” red-headed Mayor Myles Joyce, Mr. Kolecki relates, becomes the subject of everlasting ridicule for the excuse he offers when he is pulled over for erratic driving in the city’s health car. When asked if he has been drinking, the visibly intoxicated and aromatic mayor replies that he has been drinking only buttermilk. This thigh-slapper allegedly reaches the pages of the New York Times (the only mention I find of the mayor in the Times is a March 26, 1944 article noting a failed attempt to evict him from his home.) Mr. Joyce must have been doing something right: the “fiery” Labor progressive is a six-time mayor of the city, wining in 1937, 1943, 1945, 1951, 1953 and 1959, and running for a 7th term in 1969; This June 18, 1969 article in the Tonawanda News narrates the Buttermilk and other misadventures of the mayor. A chapter on Oliver Street describes it as the “main artery bisecting Polonia” (17). Its evolution from gravel to red brick is recalled, as well as the Gratwick Line of the trolley that joins Oliver from Robinson and continues north to Ward and beyond. After Prohibition, Oliver Street leaps to life with “taverns, ice cream parlors, delis, eateries and candy stores…the butcher and the baker” (18). “Cash registers rang and family coffers were clear of cobwebs” (Ibid). Call boxes for both the fire department and police are provided at Oliver and Center, “almost human-size electric devices” (18). He remembers the State Ditch, aka Pettit Creek, which “most of the year was just a 6-foot wide muddy stream,” once requiring a small stone bridge from the 1880s and just west a “narrow pedestrian bridge with wood handrails” to cross the stream at Oliver. It is now concealed by the OLC grotto. Two pages are dedicated to the taverns of the Avenues, almost every name with a word or two about its specific claim to fame (if you want to talk politics, you went to Turecki’s on 10th; if you want a great fish fry and maybe a floor show, Palka’s Mirror Room on 8th is the place to go). Mr. Kolecki repeats the urban legend that Oliver Street once had the most taverns per mile than “any other municipality in the United States” (21). The many factory jobs in the area are pointed to as the reason for all these “watering holes,” and he lists a few. He tips a toe into the water of the origin of the name of Oliver Street (22) but endorses no one view. The chapter concludes with eight pages of business names, sorted by type. On the Avenues begins with something between a mission statement and a prayer: “Lest we forget, the little, inconspicuous places, people and things that made life on the avenues interesting and unique” (i). Throughout the book, Mr. Kolecki pivots from prose into lengthy inventories of these “inconspicuous places” and once-familiar names, from bakers to milkmen. They are names that will “ring a bell” for an ever-dwindling number of people. But this isn’t mere nostalgia: it's a conscious act of resistance against the erasure of a shared past. It’s the veteran fulfilling his mission. From an 86-year-old who's navigated global upheavals, fought at Iwo Jima, and lived as an exchange student in the Soviet Union, the message is clear: remember, or risk losing the communal fabric that defines us.