Chandler Street

Linde Air Manufacturing - Table of Contents ................... Chandler St. Imdustrial Buildings Historic District - Table of Contents

155 Chandler Street -
Relevant Excerpts from the Chandler Street Industrial Buildings Historic District National Register of Historic Places nomination
155 Chandler St., Buffalo, NY

From the
National Register of Historic Places Registration Form prepared by Preservation Studios
found on
"History Uncovered: Chandler Street Industrial Buildings" on Buffalo Rising January 29, 2018 (online Sept. 2018)

Chandler Street location

Located roughly five miles from downtown in the area of North Buffalo, the [Chandler Street buildings are] just east of Military Road and immediately across the street from the former New New York Central Railroad's Belt Line At one time, Chandler Street was a small, local industrial corridor and a number of other early-twentieth century industrial buildings remain on both sides of the street along with several empty lots where similar buildings once stood.

The historic district is located in the Grant-Amherst neighborhood, which developed following the completion of the New York Central Railroad Belt Line (hereafter abbreviated to the Belt Line), a nineteen-mile railroad line that was completed in 1883 and looped the City of Buffalo. The Belt Line opened new portions of Buffalo to industry, particularly in the city’s thinly settled northern quadrant.

The Grant-Amherst neighborhood, bordered to the north and west by the Belt Line’s tracks, was one of the major beneficiaries of this industrial growth and industrial nodes developed at several points along the railroad. These industrial nodes encouraged immigrants, primarily from Eastern Europe, to settle in the Grant-Amherst neighborhood and work in the factories.

Largely due to its location near the Belt Line, Chandler Street became one of the Grant-Amherst neighborhood’s most significant industrial streets. Multi-building factory compounds like the Acme Steel and Malleable Iron Works Foundry (1895, nonextant), the Buffalo Weaving and Belting Company Factory (1891, nonextant), and the Linde Air Products Factory (1907, NR 2017) employed thousands of workers, many of whom came from the Grant-Amherst neighborhood. These large industrial buildings, specializing in heavy industry, were the most common type of industrial building in the Grant-Amherst neighborhood, however examples of smaller self-contained factories that produced specific consumer goods are present in the neighborhood.

Significance

The Chandler Street Industrial Buildings Historic District is also locally significant in Criterion C in the area of Architecture as a good representative collection of early twentieth century factory buildings. Additionally, the district is representative of the type of light industrial buildings that were erected on the south side of Chandler Street [the odd numbers, including #155 Chandler] and in the Grant-Amherst neighborhood the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. These factories lacked direct access to the Belt Line and were generally contained in one-to-two buildings, as opposed to the multi-acre complexes that developed on the north side of Chandler Street and elsewhere in the neighborhood.

The factories have a number of architectural similarities including load bearing masonry walls and numerous window openings to allow for natural light infiltration, all common features of early twentieth century factories. Inside the factories, heavy timber or steel framing was used to support the walls and floors. This framing method was common in the early twentieth century; heavy timber or steel beams were set at regular intervals, maximizing the available space for machinery and circulating workers. Additionally, the factories incorporated simple stylistic details such as detailed brickwork on the primary facades and arched window openings.

The buildings display architectural conventions common to factory architecture from the early twentieth century. These conventions include masonry load-bearing walls, numerous window openings to allow light infiltration and modest stylistic details such as detailed brickwork, arched windows, and simple cornices. The buildings retain integrity to form, detail, materials, and their overall appearance clearly communicates their function as industrial buildings dating to the early twentieth century.