142 Bidwell Parkway
Buffalo, NY

Built for John P. Derrigan

Additional sources of information found beneath the 2015 photos

Bidwell Parkway Bidwell Parkway is an excellent example of Olmsted’s Buffalo parks and parkways system, cutting diagonally through the Elmwood Historic District (West) from Richmond Avenue and Colonial Circle through Elmwood Avenue near Potomac Avenue further on to Soldier’s Circle in the north-east. The street and parkway itself were previously listed on the State and National Registers as a contributing element to the Delaware Park-Front Park system in the Olmsted Parks and Parkways Thematic Resources. A divided roadway with grassy median, Bidwell Parkway is an excellent example of the type of road-as-park that Olmsted envisioned; linking pre-existing settlement at Black Rock and Cold Spring with ribbons of trees and landscape to Delaware Park. The entire street measures approximately 200-feet in width, creating a broad roadway. The median is planted with numerous elm trees on a grid layout, helping give this area a shady, forest-like orderly appearance. Streetlights on Bidwell Parkway are cast iron decorative luminares on poles with Art Nouveau flourishes and glass globes. Houses on Bidwell Parkway date from approximately the 1890s to 1900s, and many feature more high-style examples of Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles. The street also contains several apartment buildings, compatibly scaled to the neighboring 2 1⁄2 or 3-story houses. - Elmwood Historic Preservation District (West)

142 Bidwell Parkway 2 1⁄2-story side gable frame ...  Colonial Revival style house ... Stone [Onondaga limestone] foundation ...  Wood shingle ...  Asphalt roof ... Central partial width open pedimented entry porch ...  Doric columns ...  Cornice return ...  Paneled door with entablature ...  Sidelights ... Windows with flat-arched headers with keystones ... 2nd story slightly projects, simple brackets ... Paired front gable dormers contain segmental arched 8/8 double hung wood windows ... elsewhere 1/1 double hung wood windows. - Grant-Ferry-Forest, Buffalo, NY, Intensive Level Historic Resources Survey, Section 7, p. 84

2015 Photos Colonial Revival style ... 2nd story slightly projects Colonial Revival style  ...  Dormer features broken pediment and paneled keystone ...  8/8 double hung wood window   ... Painted wooden shingles   Portico:   Square Doric columns support entablature and gable roof with broken pediment Square Doric columns support entablature: Dentils ... Triglyphs ... Drops Important Prairie style feature: widely overhanging eaves (with supporting rafter tails) Paneled keystone Paneled Doric pilasters flank leaded glass side light Paneled Doric pilasters flank leaded glass side light

Additional sources of information on this house found on Buffalo Architecture & History website: 1. Olmsted Park and Parkway System - Table of Contents Bidwell Parkway is part of the Olmsted and Vaux-designed park system, the first designed park system in the US. 2. Grant-Ferry-Forest Intensive Level Historic Resources Survey Intensive level surveys are usually professionally researched and published.  A wealth of information, among other uses, they can  lead to the formation of historic districts. 3. State and Federal Elmwood Historic District (West) Bidwell Parkway west of Elmwood Avenue is included in the historic district.  There are current efforts (May 2015) to create a Elmwood Historic District (East) that would include Bidwell Parkway east of Elmwood Avenue. The main impetus for creating historic districts is for developers and  site owners to benefit from tax credits which is a way for society to express the appreciation of history.

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