John D. Larkin- Table of Contents .............................. Larkland

Harold and Frances Larkin Esty House
176 Windsor Avenue, Buffalo, NY

Designed:

1911
Architect:
Wood & Bradney
Designed 1910 by McCreary, Wood & Bradney

Style:

Colonial Revival
Owners:
1912-1963 Home of John D. Larkin's daughter Frances Elberta "Daisy" Larkin (Mrs. Harold M. Esty)  (Mrs. Esty was the niece of Elbert Hubbard)
1912-1986 Daughter Elberta Larkin Esty

1986-2016 William H. Zacher
2016- Dr. A. Marc and Nancy Tetro

Location:

Larkland
See also: "Water Tower, " by Harold M. Esty, Jr.

History
Beneath Illustrations





" Additionally, Larkin had built a limestone wall to surround the entire block almost immediately after he bought the land, and that wall remains intact today. He also put in a service road cutting through from Rumsey to Forest for delivery of coal and other items, and erected a large garage for his own house in the center of the block, with an apartment for his chauffeur and family. There were also greenhouses and utility buildings." - Jonathan D. Epstein (see below)




Harold Esty on Windsor Avenue in 1925
Photo courtesy of Daniel Larkin




Built for Harold and Frances Daisy Larkin Esty   ...
176 Windsor was the first house on the Larkland block and was completed in September 1911, when the Estys moved in    ...
Colonial Revival style ..... Symmetrical composition enriched with classical detail ...... Five bays



Pedimented portico supported by Doric columns .....  Triglyphs ..... Center entrance ..... Fanlight ..... Side lights ..... Paneled door



Fanlight  ..... Side lights ..... Paneled door



Triglyphs  .......... Doric columns



Slate roof ...... Modillions ..... Dentils



Broken-bed pediment dormers ..... Keystone in round arch sash ...... Fanlight transom ...... Six-over-six double sash windows



Photos below courtesy of Alexandra Esty Stocker







"Frances Elberta 'Daisy' (Larkin) Esty was the niece of Elbert Hubbard and you’ll see a Roycrofter bas relief above the mantel in the parlor.  It was made for Daisy and depicts a basket of flowers (her motif which is repeated throughout the house) and says 'The fire is the flower of the winter's day'.  It wasn’t there by the time I came along in the 1960s." - Alexandra Esty Stocker



















Frances "Daisy" Elberta (Larkin) Esty
  • b. 1876
  • Named for her uncle Elbert Hubbard  (Source:  Alexandra Esty Stocker, grandaughter)
  • M. Harold M. Esty in 1899. Harold had come from Framingham, Mass, to attend the Buffalo's Heathcote School on Delaware Ave.. run by his relatives. Soon employed by his future father-in-law
  • 176 Windsor Avenue deeded to her and her husband in 1917
Excerpts
Historic Larkin Home in Buffalo Sells for $1 Million
By Jonathan D. Epstein
The Buffalo News, September 8, 2016


It was the early 1900s and Buffalo was in its heyday when John D. Larkin built five homes around Lincoln Parkway near Delaware Park for his wife, Frances, and their four children.

Larkin, founder and head of the soap manufacturing company that dominated the Hydraulics District east of downtown, had purchased an entire block of land then known as Rumsey’s Wood from the estate of Dexter P. Rumsey. Largely bordered by Rumsey Road, Forest and Windsor avenues and Lincoln, the area became the family compound, which the family dubbed Larkland.

The grand mansion at 107 Lincoln Parkway belonged to Larkin himself, and overlooked Delaware Park at the corner of Lincoln and Rumsey. But it was demolished in 1939.

The other four – at 65 Lincoln Parkway and at 160, 175 and 176 Windsor – remain standing today, harkening back to a bygone era.

And one of them just changed hands for the first time in 30 years.

A Buffalo orthopaedic surgeon and his wife have purchased the seven-bedroom Harold Esty House at 176 Windsor, paying just shy of $1 million for the three-story red-brick colonial. The couple, Dr. A. Marc and Nancy Tetro, say they see it as their “vintage dream home” and plan to “preserve the home’s exquisite historical detail while refreshing it, with a caring touch, for the 21st century,” according to an emailed statement.

The 5,353-square-foot red-brick Colonial mansion was designed by McCreary, Wood & Bradney, which also designed the Sidway Building, the Spaulding Building and the two Lincoln Parkway homes. It was built in 1916, for Larkin’s daughter, Frances “Daisy” Larkin, and her husband, Harold M. Esty. It later passed to their daughter, Elberta Larkin Esty, who owned it from 1963 until 1986, when William H. Zacher bought it.

It remained in his family until now. And it went under contract for $999,900 just one day after it was listed by Hunt Real Estate Corp.

The architecturally detailed home has three-and-a-half bathrooms, grand living and dining rooms, a sun porch, a den and library, a recreation and game room on the lower level and a third-floor guest suite. The first two floors are air-conditioned. There’s also a carriage house with two bedrooms and one bathroom above a two-car, 1,550-square-foot garage. And the entire home is surrounded by gardens and patios, on a large Buffalo parcel of 0.7 acres.

Additionally, Larkin had built a limestone wall to surround the entire block almost immediately after he bought the land, and that wall remains intact today. He also put in a service road cutting through from Rumsey to Forest for delivery of coal and other items, and erected a large garage for his own house in the center of the block, with an apartment for his chauffeur and family. There were also greenhouses and utility buildings.

The three homes for his sons were built by 1915, a year before the Esty house. Each had a garage with an apartment for the chauffer’s family above, and a heating plant in the basement, bringing heat through steam pipes through a tunnel from the garage to the house.

Consultant:
Martin Wachadlo

Photos and their arrangement © 2004 Chuck LaChiusa
| ...Home Page ...| ..Buffalo Architecture Index...| ..Buffalo History Index...| .. ..Related Pages ..|.. E-Mail ...| .
.

web site consulting by ingenious, inc.