Frances Folsom was born in Buffalo in 1864. She was the daughter of Oscar Folsom, Grover Cleveland friend and law partner who dies while Frances was still young. Cleveland becomes a close family friend and helps in the upbringing of Frances. Frances Folsom and President Grover Clevelandare married on June 2, 1886. She is 22 years old and becomes the youngest First Lady. She is also the first White House bride. Mrs. Cleveland proves to be an excellent White House hostess. She replaces President Cleveland's sister, Rose, who served as hostess for the first two years of his presidency. The Clevelands will have five children: three girls and two boys. Philip Becker was the first German emigrant to be elected mayor of Buffalo, 1876-1877 and 1886-1889, and he is Buffalo's first three-term mayor. Little known fact: African-Americans played professional baseball in the 19th century but were forced out. Before Jackie Robinson, Buffalo had Frank Grant Buildings erected: Trinity Episcopal ChurchFrancis W. Tracy Monument390 Linwood Ave.405 Linwood Avenue412 Linwood AvenueSt. Stanislaus RC Church
1887
The Pictorial year-book and calendar for 1888. with Buffalo events in 1887, valuable statistics, etc. Entire publication reprinted online by Cornell U. By 1887, Buffalo is the terminal point of 11 trunk line railroads that radiate north, east, and south. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux design the Niagara Reservation at Niagara Falls. Prior to the construction of the New York State Thruway, Church Street extends all the way to Genesee, where it crosses over the canal, bearing the Beltline Railroad north between the Canal and Niagara River. This is presently the site of Exit 7, just west of the Buffalo Gas and Light Company building facade The originalRichmond Hotel (Architect: Cyrus Eidlitz), at Main and Eagle Streets, south east corner, burns down on March 18, 1887, one of the most horrific fires in Buffalo history. It kills 15 employees and guests and severely burns two dozen others. There are heroic rescues of trapped women and children. Nearby taverns and hotels throw open their doors to become makeshift hospitals. Nevertheless, guests plunge from windows, and a survivor testifies that the screams of the victims "were something I hope to never hear again." In the subsequent investigation, much blame falls upon Victorian high technology. The new telegraph and telephone companies had erected a dense network of overhead wires and cables that impede rescuers' access to the upper floor of the of the burning building. The City orders these wires be put in underground conduits, and the Richmond will be rebuilt, renaming itself the Iroquois Hotel. Presently the site of M& T Bank. Buildings erected: Church of the Good ShepherdSchwartz HouseJennie D. Bryant HouseSidney Lake HouseCarlton Ladd HouseRoos House TheBuffalo Public Library, on Washington Street opposite Lafayette Square, is dedicated on Feb. 7, l887 on the site of the Old Court House. Eidlitz won an architectural competition that also drew a design from the country's top architect, Henry Hobson Richardson. Architect: Cyrus Eidlitz Eidlitz's Romanesque building will be so beloved that when it will be razed in the early 1960s for a replacement Central Library, the demolition firm will receive dozens of phone calls from Buffalonians begging them to save its gargoyles. They will not, citing extra costs. Built in 1887, Tucker's store, 37-39 Court Street, supplies Buffalo's Victorian photographers with everything from cameras to chemicals. During the Pan American Exposition, it will be converted into a hotel. Architect:M.E. Beebe Note the , The Tucker has exotic round transom windows at the top floor a full decade before Louis Sullivan will design similar ones in his landmark Guaranty/ Prudential Building a few blocks away. The Tucker will be demolished to make way for the 1977 Buffalo Convention Center, a project intended to "save" downtown.
1888
The Pictorial year-book and calendar for 1888. with Buffalo events in 1887, valuable statistics, etc. Entire publication reprinted online by Cornell U. Charles Rohlfs, classified loosely as an artist in the Arts and Crafts movement, and his wife, Anna Catherine Green, who will become one of America's most successful detective fiction writers, move to Buffalo. International Industrial Fair: A forgotten predecessor to the Pan-American Exposition, the International Industrial Fair fair features industrial exhibits and all kinds of entertainments. The Exposition Grounds, a parcel borderedby Humboldt Parkway, E. Ferry, Dupont, Lonsdale Street, and Northland, was originally built by Chauncey Hamlin in 1868 as the Buffalo Driving Park - when "driving" meant carriages, not automobiles. Scajaquada Creek, not yet hidden under East Buffalo, traverses the northeast corner of the grounds. By 1903, the parcel will be subdivided into residential streets and lots, becoming the neighborhood known as Hamlin Park , and the Scajaquada will be buried in miles of underground tunnels. St. Paul's Church (Cathedral) on Church Street is destroyed in a fire on May 10, 1888. Based on electoral votes, Benjamin Harrison (right)defeats Buffalo's Grover Cleveland who wins the popular vote. Cleveland is the only person who won the popular vote for president three times. The Michigan Central distinguished itself from its railroad competitors by crossing through Canada, thereby providing a faster route to Chicago. Their offices were near present-day Cathedral Park. Building erected:Elam R. Jewett purchases the former Chapin farm for his retirement. He builds Willow Lawn, at Main Street, corner of Leroy, after the Civil War in the present day Central Park neighborhood, a country estate amidst active farms. It will be demolished circa 1890, and by 1900, Willow Lawn will be divided into the Parkside streets named for the man who donated the land. The Parkside neighborhood is envisioned as an tranquil alternative residential area to the rapidly growing industrial metropolis of late 19th century Buffalo. Designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted as the first planned suburb of a major American city, Parkside boasts curving tree lined streets and stately homes representing almost every type of residential architecture popular at the time. By 1888, soon after the completion of theBeltline Railroad, the neighborhood is surveyed and paved. With new electrical power lines from Niagara Falls and easy access to the city center via the Beltline, construction begins in earnest in the area adjacent to Olmsted's Delaware Park. Parkside is one of the most desirable addresses in Buffalo and attracts many professionals and business leaders, including Elam Jewett, publisher William Phelps Northrup, William Sydney Wicks, architect in Green & Wicks Max Beirel, architect (designed Central Presbyterian Church and St. Francis Xavier RC ChurchDarwin Martin, treasurer of the Larkin Soap Company William Simon, brewer Mathias Hens and David Kelly, department store owners The designs and influences of such noted architects as E. B. Green,H. H. Richardson,Frank Lloyd Wright,William Sydney Wicks, are represented in the houses found here, along with numerous Victorian, Craftsman,Tudor, Bavarian chalet and traditional American Four Square styles. Buildings erected: Richmond-Lockwood HouseForest Lawn Triple-Arch BridgePS No.46Carlton Sprague Summer House, HamburgPatrick E. Stanton HouseCyclorama Building417 Linwood AvenueBarnes & Hengerer Building
1889
Monument to "Buffalo's Own Regiment" - the First Battalion, Thirteenth US Infantry dedicated at old Fort Porter (Front Park). Maryniak, Ben.First at Vicksburg, Buried in Buffalo Essay, illustrations Fort Porter Illustrations, some history The enlargement of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal, and the construction of gigantic lake freighters like the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad's "Frank H. Goodyear," leads to an enormous increase in the amount of iron ore received in Buffalo. By the end of the 1880s Buffalo is ready to challenge Pittsburgh as the iron and steel capital of the country. Because Buffalo could now receive ore directly from Lake Superior without breaking bulk at Cleveland, Erie, or other lake ports, it is far cheaper to ship ore directly here than to Pittsburgh. Plans for the forming of the Lackawanna Steel Company are made. The Lackawanna Steel Company and the Buffalo and Susquehanna Iron Company Illustrations, history Five electric street cars begin service from Cold Springs to Delaware Park ("The Park"). 100 Miles an Hour ... Buffalo's Electric Cars. Reprint of article in August 3, 1889, The Buffalo News Later in 1896, the International Railroad Company's streetcar system in Buffalo will be the first in a large city to be electrified. Buildings erected: Watson House / Buffalo ClubWhite Brothers Livery & Boarding StableFred Eberhardt House, KenmoreSt. Louis RC Church
In addition to adequate means of transportation - railroads - industry requires labor and energy. Both were plentiful and cheap in Buffalo. The first is provided by the thousands of eastern European immigrants willing to work for almost nothing under practically any conditions. The supply of electricalpower from nearby Niagara Falls is equally cheap and virtually unlimited. The American Malting Company, known as "The Malt Trust," announces that it is shutting down its operations in Cleveland and Erie and will build a new plant along the banks of the Buffalo Creek in South Buffalo because of Buffalo's cheap electrical power. Cecil B. Wiener and Helen Z. M. Rogers are the first two women to graduate from UB Law School. Both will practice law for twenty years before they will be allowed to vote. Wiener will go on to become a judge; Rogers will be the first woman to argue a case before the New York Court of Appeals. Buildings erected: Clarence L. Bryant HouseOrphanage, 1140 Ellicott Street
1900
Buffalo is second largest railroad terminus in U.S. (Chicago is first). There are seven direct lines connecting Buffalo with six different East Coast cities. The New York Central is so big that it has its own police force. The railroad companies create a new industry in the city. They own 3,600 acres of city land and lay 660 miles of track within the city limits. They directly employ twenty thousand men and indirectly give work to thousands more in the car wheel shops, palace car shops, locomotive and freight car shops, and in the largest bridge company in the world, all of which are located in the city. As a result of the railroads, the Erie Canal is virtually obsolete. By the turn of the century almost every lake steamship company has been bought out by the railroads. Thus, by either controlling the freight rates on their railroads or by dictating lake freight policy, the railroads exert a controlling influence over the city's commercial economy. John J. Albright has quietly has bought over 1,000 acres of lakefront property for the relocation of Lackawanna Steelof Scranton, Pennsylvania. There are 25 electric streetcars in Buffalo (whereas in 1885 there were none), draining the old neighborhoods. Buffalo Automobile Club formed. Dr. V. Mott Pierce is president. Novelist Janet Miriam Taylor Holland Caldwell is born in Manchester, England. Her family will move to Buffalo when she is 6. As Taylor Caldwell she will write more than 40 books that sell more than 30 million copies. Two are television films: "Dear and Glorious Physician" (1959) and "The Captains and the Kings." (1972) Buffalo finishes in seventh place in baseball's American League, not yet a major league. In 1901, when the league will break away, Commissioner Ban Johnson will dump Buffalo to put a franchise in Boston. It is later learned Johnson had money invested in the Boston franchise. Henry Perky decides to make his shredded wheat breakfast food in Niagara Falls. C. 1900. Shelton Square is named after the Eminent Rev. William Shelton, rector (1829-1882) of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Buffalo'spopulation: 352,387; Erie County's: 433,686. Johnson Park and Elmwood Avenue: In 1900 Johnson Parkis an elegant residential mall within walking distance of the heart of downtown Buffalo. Originally the suburban home of Ebenezer Johnson, Buffalo's first mayor, and developed during the 1850s as an elite, in-town residential section, Johnson Park retains many of the qualities that had for so long made it the most venerable and exclusive residential quarter in the city. Its tree-lined mall is the home of many of the families listed in the social register. Here too is the Buffalo Female Academy (later renamedBuffalo Seminary), the most selective school in the city. Thus, close enough to downtown to be convenient, and yet far enough away to preserve its uniqueness, Johnson Park is a well-defined and cohesive urban place. Yet the expansion of downtown is such that peripheral residential areas soon become expendable and the characteristics that had made Johnson Park a cherished corner of the city barely survive the nineteenth century. Because it lay on an east-west axis, Johnson Park blocks movement to and from the new central business district. It is in the in the way. And despite the intense opposition of the wealthy and presumably influential residents of the park, the broad mall is cut in half in 1907 and Elmwood Avenue is extended through it to the downtown area. The park now changed quickly. A streetcar line is put on the Elmwood Avenue route and soon Johnson Park, its days as a fancy, in-town residential neighborhood over, is on the way to becoming tattered and tawdry, existing marginally on the fringes of downtown. Buildings erected: Colonial Apartments