 |
New York - Buffalo
Buffalo (600 alt.,292,648 pop.) largest industrial and commercial center in upstate New York, is at the foot of Lake Erie, source of the Niagara River.
Broad avenues, branching in all directions from Niagara Square, form with intersecting streets the squares that are a distinctive feature of the downtown section. About one mile south are the harbor, the maw of Buffalo, and the milling district. Buffalo Creek meanders from the east through flat, low-lying lands, the city's industrial area. Buffalo ranks eighth among the Nation's industrial centers. Buffalo has the largest linseed-crushing plant and the largest dye plant in the country and makes three-quarters of the country's wallboard supply. Delaware Avenue, the street of fashion and comfort, begins inauspiciously at the new county jail and is marred through the business district by parking lots and stores, but from beginning to end its broad asphalt is a motor speedway. Beyond North Street it is lined with impressive mansions, interspersed with older homes, modern apartment houses, and a succession of beautiful churches. North of Forest Lawn Cemetery, Delaware Avenue spreads out in a system of parks and parkways, with homes in a variety of styles—Elizabethan, Georgian, American Colonial. In 1924, when the street was widened at the sacrifice of hundreds of stately elms, a storm of protest arose; and Charles E. Burchfield, water-colorist, was stirred to the creation of his canvas, Civic Improvement, now hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Little Poland, on the East Side, contains about one fifth of Buffalo's population. The foreign-born generally converse and do business in the Polish language and read Polish newspapers. Signs along the streets read Apteka (drugstore), Adwokat (lawyer), and Gospoda (tavern). Dom Polski (Polish hall), Broadway and Playter Street, erected in 1905, is the social center. Old country customs, mainly those of a religious nature, survive. Easter baskets are taken to church to be blessed, and miniature theaters portraying the Nativity are carried from house to house. Children believe in Gwiazdor, the Polish Santa Claus. On November 28 girls tell their fortunes by 'pouring the wax': they melt candles down, pour the mass into cold water, and read the hardened shapes like tea leaves. Christmas wishes are exchanged by 'breaking with you the wafer': the head of the family breaks a wafer and gives half to his wife; both break their wafers and hand half to others, and so on; each time the season's greetings are exchanged. Second and third American-born generations, however, are rapidly adopting American customs, and many of them are achieving recognition in the professions, in business, and in politics.
The Germans, formerly the dominating foreign group, rank a close second to the Poles. Because of long residence they are less closely knit as a national unit. The Italian colony of 80,000 spreads along the water front. The 15,000 Hungarians live in Black Rock. Like the Poles, each group is a cohesive unit with a newspaper and various organizations; a large majority are unskilled laborers. Most of the 13,500 Negroes occupy a well-defined section around Jesse Clipper Square (named for a local Negro hero of the World War) at Michigan Avenue and William Street. The 'first families' of the community go back to the days of the Underground Railroad, of which Buffalo was an important station. During the World War several thousand Negroes came to work in steel mills and packing houses and along the docks.
German, Polish, Hungarian, and Italian singing societies have long played an important part in the city's cultural life. Drama finds expression in amateur theatrical groups. The city's educational system is topped by four degree-granting colleges, two of them Roman Catholic. The WPA adult education program provides 300 courses to more than 30,000 students. The Grosvenor Library is the third largest reference library in the country. The Buffalo Historical Society, the Museum of Natural Science, and the Albright Art Gallery are active centers of popular education.
On August 7, 1679, LaSalle's ship, the Griffon, which had been anchored for three months off Squaw Island (within the present city of Buffalo), was towed through the short rapids and sailed on her maiden voyage. This was the first vessel built by white men to navigate the upper lakes. The first white settlement in this region, made by the French at the mouth of Buffalo Creek in 1758, was destroyed by the British the next year. A village of 1,500 Indians, established two-and-a-half miles above the mouth of Buffalo Creek in 1780, formed the nucleus of the Buffalo Creek Reserve, a tract of 84,000 acres retained by the Seneca when they gave up title to their lands after the Revolution. This was the home of Cornplanter, Red Jacket, and Mary Jemison. As white settlement spread, the Indians sold this tract and moved to the Cattaraugus and Allegany Reservations.
Although Joseph Ellicott chose and mapped the site of Buffalo for the Holland Land Company in 1799, it was not until 1803-4 that he divided the land into lots and offered them for sale. He modeled the city plan after that of Washington, D.C., which his brother, Major Andrew Ellicott, had helped draw up several years before. Ellicott called the place New Amsterdam, but settlers preferred the old creek name.
During the War of 1812 Buffalo was a mustering place for troops. In December 1813, when a British force pillaged and burned the settlement, the 500 inhabitants fled; but most of them returned in March to rebuild. From headquarters in Buffalo, General Jacob Brown directed the American troops that captured Fort Erie on the Canadian side, July 3, 1814. His army then marched toward Niagara Falls to the battles of Chippewa (July 5) and Lundy's Lane (July 25). In ensuing engagements the Americans, under Major General George Izard, suffered setbacks and had to retire to Buffalo on November 5.
Buffalo was incorporated as a village in April 1816. The first steamboat on the Great Lakes, Walk-on-the-Water, was built here in 1819. The early welfare of the settlement depended on its function as a trading center for emigrants who traveled difficult roads to the lake shore and then continued westward by boat. Chief rival for this trade was Black Rock, two miles north, its interests promoted by General Peter B. Porter. The rivalry reached its climax in the crucial struggle over the choice of a western terminus for the Eric Canal. Black Rock had the better harbor. The commission to choose the terminal met in Buffalo in 1822 under the chairmanship of De Witt Clinton; Porter appeared for Black Rock, Judge Samuel Wilkeson for Buffalo. After the meeting Buffalo improved its harbor, the new' breakwater withstood the spring freshets, and Buffalo was awarded the prize.
The Erie Canal, opened in 1825, brought trade and prosperity on a new scale. Buffalo stood at the transportation break in the great east-west route, and its warehouses bulged with east-bound farm products and west-bound manufactured goods. Hundreds of emigrants arrived daily, and hotels were built to accommodate them while they waited for boat connections. Visitors to Buffalo a year or two after the opening of the canal were amazed at the rapidity of its growth. Mrs. Frances Trollope, who visited the city in 1828, wrote that 'all the buildings have the appearance of having been run up in a hurry, though everything has an air of great pretensions; there are porticos, columns, domes and colonnades, but all in wood.' In 1832, with a population of about 12,000, Buffalo was incorporated as a city.
Expanding commerce led Buffalo into manufacturing. In 1826 Edward Root built a foundry for the manufacture of plow irons and small castings. John Hibbard made the first steam engine here in 1829, devising tools for curving the iron sheets imported from England and for spacing and punching rivet holes. In 1836 Wilkeson & Goodrich advertised as iron founders and steam engine manufacturers. The Buffalo Steam Engine Works was incorporated in 1841; the Shepard Iron Works was built in 1847. In 1843 Joseph Dart invented a grain elevator propelled by steam, substituting mechanical power for human backs in the handling of cargoes. By 1845 Buffalo had an assortment of other pioneer industries: a stove and hollowware factory, a nail factory, a turner in metals, a cabinet factory, a silversmithy, a brass and bell foundry, plants making mirrors and picture frames, porcelain bathtubs, millstones, soap, and candles.
In the rapid development of railroads in the 1850's, Buffalo saw a threat to its commercial pre-eminence. It appeared that the railroads would supersede water and turnpike transportation and Buffalo would lose the advantage of its location at the break in the east-west trade route. The city sought a solution by diverting its capital and energy into the industrial field, and in 1860 the Association for the Encouragement of Manufactures in the City of Buffalo was organized. But these fears proved unfounded. The Civil War, by deranging the lines of communication and transportation in the middle States, threw a vast amount of commerce to the northern routes. Trade with the expanding West grew rapidly during and after the war, and Buffalo became one of the great grain and livestock markets of the world. The railroads, attracted by existing markets and established trade routes, converged upon Buffalo and made it a railroad center. With 11 main railroad lines served by five passenger terminals and 14 freight terminals, with 300 passenger trains coming and going and 3,000 freight cars clearing every 24 hours, it is today the second largest railroad center in the United States.
The stimulus to manufacture had its effect and Buffalo industry grew rapidly. In 1872 there were more than 800 small industries employing 18,000 workers out of a population of 150,000. Railroad connections were completed with the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in 1873. Pennsylvania coal and Lake Superior iron ore, transported by lake boats, provided the necessary elements for large-scale manufacture of metal products.
Buffalo began to take on the characteristics of a modern city. Streets were paved and lighted with gas; sewers and water and gas pipes were laid; street railways were built. Irish and German immigrants swelled the population. Churches and schools multiplied. The Young Men's Association opened a library, sponsored lectures, and in 1861 held the first public art show. The newly rich, aiming to outdo the established families, turned to the rococo architecture of the post-Civil War period, with its bell towers, serpentine wood carvings, cast-iron ornament, and colored windows. In the downtown section ostentatious hotels provided the expansive attractions of club life. Edwin P. Christy expressed the spirit of the time in his song hit, Buffalo Gals, Can't You Come Out Tonightl!
By the turn of the century a new economic resource was created by the harnessing of Niagara Falls, with a potential 11,000,000 horsepower available at low rates, and Buffalo industry entered upon a new period of expansion. Blast furnaces were erected on the lowlands along Buffalo Creek. Industrial concerns built long rows of cottages for laborers recruited from the new immigrant groups. The city spread rapidly to the north and east. Along the harbor huge modern grain elevators were built; lake shipping took on a new life with the introduction of iron ships. A golden stream of grain cleared through Buffalo. The World War brought new industries, especially the manufacture of dyes and airplanes.
Grover Cleveland was elected mayor in 1881 and by his aggressive opposition to municipal extravagance won State and national attention. In 1901 city staged its Pan-American Exposition, marred by the assassination of President William McKinley by the anarchist Leon F. Czolgosz. On September 14, the day McKinley died, Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office as President. In 1916 Buffalo established a commission form of government, with a five-man council elected at large on a nonpartisan ballot; but in 1928 the mayor-council form was restored.
|
|||
This website is created and designed by Atlantis International, 2006
This is an unofficial website with educational purpose. All pictures, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and may not be reproduced for any reason whatsoever. If proper notation of owned material is not given please notify us so we can make adjustments. No copyright infringement is intended.
