Bush Families in Buffalo

John W. Bush House
6 Lincoln Parkway, Buffalo, NY

Erected:

1903
Architect:
Lansing & Beierl

Style:

Beaux Arts Classical

Location:

Other Lincoln Parkway Homes

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

Text Beneath Illustrations


John Westervelt Bush



"The handsome home of Myron P. Bush, west side of Delaware above Summer, was built in 1859-60, from plans by J. D. Towle, a Boston architect of distinction.  He was the designer of Mr. George Howard's house, and also of the William G. Fargo house. The first house in Buffalo, built in the style which Mr. Towle employed (Second Empire], was the Bronson C. Rumsey house.

"The Bush residence stood int he midst of five and a quarter acres, beautifully planted and kept. Mr. Myron P. Bush died in 1885, his son Mr. John W. Bush, residing there until 1896.  In 1903 the property was bought by Mr. Frank H. Goodyear, and the house was torn down before the erection of the [Frank] Goodyear house, now standing [razed in 1938]."

- Source: The Picture Book of Earlier Buffalo, Frank H. Severance, ed. Pub. by the Buffalo Historical Society Publications, Vol. 16, 1912, p. 433.  Cornell

See also: another photograph of the house

Houses at the left occupied the original lot



Beaux Arts Classical



White, glazed terra cotta ornamentation



Terra cotta tiled straight mansard roof




Terra cotta bay leaf  wreath



Window surround with keystone  .....  Wrought iron balconette







Stylized drops






Flemish bond brick pattern





Dentils



Tuscan capital








Front entrance with glazed terra cotta surround includes cartouche and bay leaf border








Canopy




Excerpt from

Buffalo's Delaware Avenue: Mansions and Families, by Edward T. Dunn.
Pub. by Canisius College Press, 2003


The lot was part of the purchase by Indian agent Erastus Granger in 1806. The lot extended south to Bird Street and west to Granger Street. A Stick style house faced Granger St.

The lot along Bird was subsequently divided into three lots. The Stick style house was demolished. when the lot facing Granger was sold.

John W. Bush

The first owner of 6 Lincoln was John W. Bush.

John W. Bush's father: The first house on the southwest corner of Delaware and Summer, #742, was built in 1859-1860 for Myron P. Bush, scion of a family that had come to America from Germany in the eighteenth century.

Myron P. Bush was born in Clarence in October, 1819, the son of a tanner. At age twenty-five, he formed a partnership with George Howard, Bush & Howard, sole leather dealers. Their success was such that both men retired from active business after eight years, permitting sons of each to continue the business. In later life, Bush helped develop several railroads, was once president of the Hannibal & St. Joseph [in Missouri]. He was partner in a New York brokerage firm, president of the Marine Bank, and a director of the Manufacturers & Traders Bank. He not only helped found the Buffalo Club but also the Buffalo Driving Park Association, a group of horse enthusiasts of great importance in that day.

Bush and his wife, Margaret Westervelt, had a daughter and two sons, John and George.

John Westervelt Bush was born in 1844. When his education was over, he joined his father in Bush & Howard. The senior Bush died in 1885. His son took over the firm and retained it until 1887, when he sold out to George Howard and retired.

John resided at 762 Delaware until it was sold in 1903 and the house was torn down to make room for one of the Avenue's grand but short-lived mansions.

Bush then moved to Lincoln Parkway. He died there in 1924 at seventy-nine.

(The Bush daughter, Katherine, and her husband William H. Hotchkiss, moved in 1904 into 20 Lincoln Parkway, a new house designed by Lansing & Beierl. They had sold their house at 37 Oakland Place, which also had been designed by Lansing & Beierl.)

Subsequent owners

Bernard Duffy, father of Margaret Duffy Troop and a cofounder of the Duffy Silk Company, owned # 6 Lincoln Parkway for many decades. 

A subsequent owner was Margaret Troup.


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

Brochure entry
from the 2011 Candlelight House Tour
during The National Trust for Historic Preservation Conference in Buffalo.

Sponsored by Preservation Buffalo Niagara.
 
One of the earliest homes to grace the parkway, the Bush house is a study of Beaux Arts Classical Design. Designed for John W. Bush by the architect firm of Lansing & Beierl and erected in1903, it was the first of 3 homes in a row on Lincoln Parkway designed by the company for the Bush family.

The Flemish bond brick patterned structure is adorned with white glazed terra cotta ornamentation and wrought iron accents. Tuscan columns grace the porch that welcomes you to the magnificent front door topped with a cartouche and surrounded by a terra cotta bay leaf border.

Beautifully decorated, the interior continues to add to the glamour and warmth of the home. A Buffalo home not to be missed!


The Parkway System
An excerpt from

Municipal Parks and City Planning: Frederick Law Olmsted's Buffalo Park and Parkway System

By  Francis R. Kowsky

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.


Research consultant: Martin Wachadlo

Photos and their arrangement © 2004 Chuck LaChiusa
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