Bush Families in Buffalo

Myron P. Bush House
14 Lincoln Parkway, Buffalo, NY

Exterior photos

Foyer

Living room

Dining room


Erected:

1902
Architect:
Lansing & Beierl

Style:

Colonial Revival

Location:

Other Lincoln Parkway Homes
..... Buffalo Park and Parkway System
Distinction: The 2011 National Trust for Historic Preservation Conference in Buffalo Candlelight House Tour



Brochure entry
from the 2011 Candlelight House Tour
during
The National Trust for Historic Preservation Conference in Buffalo
Sponsored by Preservation Buffalo Niagara
 
14 Lincoln Parkway is the middle of three homes designed by the Buffalo architecture firm of
Lansing & Beierl  for members of the John Bush family. This home, built in 1902, was first occupied by Myron P. Bush, and his wife, the former Carrie Benson.

 A prominent banking attorney, Myron further distinguished himself by wearing winged collars long past their general fashion acceptance.

The brick of the colonial revival style home runs in a Flemish bond pattern.

The public room floors sport a field of full-length hardwood boards within a perimeter of wood. The perimeter extends uninterrupted into the adjoining rooms, where the format repeats.

Trim and ceiling moldings vary from room to room, with the library molding bearing the telltale “ears” of a Lansing design. Although updated with modern cabinetry, the kitchen boasts an original built-in bread oven. Bread would bake just from the heat streaming through the chimney nearby.


Architect

Lansing & Beierl  designed three houses in a row for related members of the Bush Family: John W. (#6),  his son Myron P. (#14),  and his daughter Katherine Bush Hotchkiss (#20).  Katherine's husband, William Hotchkiss, and Myron P. Bush were law partners.

Lansing & Beierl had also designed the previous Hotchkiss house at 37 Oakland Place in 1897-98  Williams Lansing designed his own house at 29 Oakland in 1898, so Lansing and the Hotchkisses were neighbors.

Of equal importance to the new public grounds were the parkways and avenues that Olmsted and Vaux planned to connect them to one another. These sylvan tributaries of the parks extended in a wide arc across the northern part of the city so that one could travel the six-mile distance from The Front (the present Front Park) to The Parade (the present Humboldt Parkway) under a canopy of green.

At 200 feet in width, the parkways were much broader than the normal streets of the city and provided separate lanes for different types and directions of traffic. Areas of turf planted with rows of overarching elms created a park-like environment for those who could afford to live along their borders.

Spacious circles marked junctures where parkways came together or where they encountered major city streets. Unprecedently pleasant avenues, the parkways in Buffalo were among the first to be constructed in an American city.

Terming parkways "broad thoroughfares planted with trees and designed with special reference to recreation as well as for common traffic," Olmsted defined a special relationship between the new parkways and The Park (later Delaware Park).

Four parkways approached The Park.

The longest of these was Humboldt Parkway, which joined The Park to The Parade nearly three miles away on the east side of town.
  • From the west, Bidwell Parkway, starting at Bidwell Place (the present Colonial Circle), ran northwest to Soldiers Place, a circular space 700 feet in diameter.
  • Soldiers Place also formed the terminus of Chapin Parkway, which met Delaware Street (the present Delaware Avenue) at Chapin Place (the present Gates Circle). Both Chapin and Bidwell Parkways retain their broad central medians designed for horseback riders and pedestrians and their side roadways for vehicles.
  • From Soldiers Place one drove north to The Park along majestic Lincoln Parkway. Its broad central carriage way was separated by grass and trees from outer roadways that were designed to afford access to the mansions that Olmsted and Vaux foresaw being built here.

Special thanks to owners Mollie and Jerry Verdi for their cooperation in 2011.
Research consultant:
Martin Wachadlo

Photos and their arrangement © 2011 Chuck LaChiusa
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