3.2.2 Northland Survey Area

The Northland survey area is the northern-most of the two areas selected along the Belt Line railroad right-of-way. In the years before the Civil War, Buffalo’s economy revolved around transshipment and centered on the waterfront in the southwestern part of the city. As a result, its northeastern portion of the city was largely vacant.

In 1853, the city extended its boundaries to encompass the Northland survey area. Nineteenth-century maps  do not show any structures, except for several residences along East Ferry Street, and East Delevan and Fillmore avenues, within the selected parcels of the Northland survey area. What is now Northland Avenue did not exist until 1894 (as Puffer Street) and Scajaquada Creek was a prominent feature within the landscape during this period. By 1894, more residences had been erected along East Delevan Avenue as well as near the Fillmore Avenue-East Ferry Street corner. In addition, a two-story warehouse was located along the tracks of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad within or adjacent to the western-most parcel along the south side of what is now Northland Avenue.

In 1879, the New York Central Railroad reorganized its layout of stations in the City of Buffalo, which it shared with other lines entering the city. To simplify its operations, the New York Central linked the Buffalo & Niagara Falls line with the Exchange Street station, which resulted in the termination of the Erie Street station and the creation of a local passenger station on the Terrace by 1880. As a result, the infrastructure for passenger service extending around the entire city was laid. Beginning operation in July 1883, the so- called Belt Line used the tracks of the Junction Railroad on the eastern side, which had been completed to the International Bridge by 1872, and the tracks of the former Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad on the western side. A total of 2,100 passengers were served in the first week.

In its early years, stations on the Belt Line counterclockwise from Exchange Street were located at the
Terrace,
Georgia Street,
Water Works,
Ferry Street,
Clifton Avenue,
Black Rock,
(West) Amherst Street,
Austin Street,
Cross Cut Junction,
Delaware Park,
Villa Park,
(East) Amherst Street,
Main Street,
Driving Park,
Genesee, Broadway,
William Street, and
Seneca Street.
In 1885 twelve trains ran counter-clockwise from Exchange Street beginning at 5:55 A.M., and thirteen clockwise ending at 7:45 P.M. In those halcyon days one could circle the city for a nickel.

Driving Park Station along Fillmore Avenue was just west of the Northland survey area and was located just north of the Northland-Fillmore intersection. The extension of the Belt Line fostered industrial and residential development in this sparsely settled area of the city’s east side. The advent of hydroelectric power at the turn of the nineteenth century also facilitated this transition, as factories were constructed along the tracks of the Belt Line. However, by 1894 only limited development had begun in this survey area. Although many of the lots had been subdivided for development, only a few residences had been erected along East Delevan Avenue, Fillmore Avenue, Grider Street, and East Ferry Street. In addition, a Quarantine Hospital (identified as “Pest House” on the 1872 and 1880 maps) was located along the north side of East Ferry Street, south of Scajaquada Creek and just east of the western- most of the subject parcels on all three of the historical maps.

Workers during this time when public transportation was irregular or nonexistent tended to live near the places they were employed. This practice continued into the early decades of twentieth century when transportation was improving. As industry emerged in these sparsely settled areas of eastern Buffalo and along Scajaquada Creek along the Belt Line, workers, too, followed.

Germans were the dominant ethnic group in the Fruit Belt area in the early 1880s, but many of the new arrivals seeking employment in industries sprouting up in Black Rock were Eastern Europeans, particularly Polish immigrants, who had initially settled in Buffalo’s East Side. What would become Assumption Parish in Black Rock was one example of this process of residential development complementing industrial development.

Constructed in 1868 on the north side of East Ferry Street, the “Pest House” was a one-story brick building capable of supporting 40 patients suffering from illnesses requiring quarantining from the general population (e.g., small pox). As of May 1870, it had not admitted a single patient to its approximately four-acre facility.  In 1905, another building called the Municipal Hospital was erected to replace or augment the services of the Pest House. Constructed on the same grounds, this hospital treated people afflicted with tuberculosis. It is unclear whether the Pest House was razed or incorporated into the facility as part of the grounds. This hospital(s) kept patients isolated and segregated from the general population, and were identified as Quarantine Hospital in 1894. "What residents thought in general of it, is further indicated by the fact that until recently land in the entire neighborhood was compelled to remain vacant because no one would invest or move into the locality."

In 1909, a scarlet fever epidemic descended upon Buffalo, and the 3,000 cases of the illness overwhelmed existing facilities. When a spike in tuberculosis cases struck the following year, government officials purchased 71 acres along Grider Street for the construction of a new city hospital (this facility became the Erie County Medical Center). However, the success of small-pox inoculations in subsequent years resulted in the facility being converted to the Buffalo Municipal Tuberculosis Hospital in 1913. The Municipal Hospital was later renovated to treat other acute contagious and infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, as well as having wards for the mentally ill, alcoholics and drug addicts, and suffers from venereal diseases.

Large industrial manufacturing complexes emerged along the Belt Line in this survey area and included such firms as Buffalo Foundry & Machine CompanyCurtiss Wright (60 Grider Street); Houdaille Industries/Houdaille-Hershey Corporation (537 East Delavan Avenue); Niagara Machine & Tool Works (683 Northland Avenue); Otis Elevator Company (230 Grider Street and 741-742 Northland Avenue); Northland Rubber Company (701 Northland Avenue); and Metal Fabricating (683 Northland Avenue). Many of these companies began operations in this area during the early twentieth century and collectively employed thousands of workers during the course of their operations, including assisting the U.S. military during World War II. During the late twentieth century many succumbed to the difficult economic situation that affected the industrialized Northeast and western New York during this period and relocated or went out of business.

Founded in 1900, Buffalo Foundry Company moved to its Ferry Street location in 1902 becoming Buffalo Foundry & Machine Company in 1907. By the 1930s it was known for the design and manufacture of vacuum milk dryers and evaporators, advertising its products as “Buflovak” and “Buflokast.” It continued to manufacture single and double drum dryers, vacuum dryers, vacuum pumps, evaporators, and condensers after World War II. Both Buffalo Foundry & Machine Company and Buflovak Equipment Group were merged with Blaw-Knox Steel Company in 1945. It operated as Buffalo Technologies Corporation from 1993 to 2003, when it purchased by a group of investors and renamed Buflovak.

The Curtiss-Wright Corporation formed in June 1929 through the merger of Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company and the Wright Aeronautical Corporation. The company manufactured airframes, aeronautical engines, and propellers across several divisions. Curtiss-Wright relocated most of its operations to Ohio after World War II, but the Grider Street facility, which produced aircraft engines, remained in operation until about 1997. Houdaille Industries (Houde Engineering Division was located in Buffalo) was also involved in heavy industry producing aircraft landing-gear shimmy dampers, shock absorbers, hydraulic cylinders, vehicular suspensions, steering controls, and recoil dampers, as well as supplies for the United States military.

Niagara Machine & Tool Works was founded by George J. Munschauer and others in 1879. The company at one time built stamping presses, press brakes, and other similar types of equipment. For more than 100 years, it manufactured many of the machines that stamped out the sheet-metal parts that became automobiles, appliances and countless other items until the company went out of business in the late 1990s. It was later known as Clearing Niagara, which continues to operate out of Michigan.

The Otis Elevator Company nameplate remains the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems, and focuses on elevators and escalators. Its initial facilities in the Northland Survey Area were constructed during the first decade of the twentieth century. The local plant was constructed for the manufacturing of the plunger elevator as well producing guide rails for the other types of company elevators, oil buffers, and miscellaneous safety parts.

The Northland Tire & Rubber Company facility opened in March 1913, and was purchased four years later by the Kelly-Springfield Tire Company. The Kelly-Springfield company was acquired out of bankruptcy by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in 1935, although the Kelly-Springfield nameplate continued. (750 East Ferry Street);