George A. Austin House - Table of Contents

Exterior - George A. Austin House
204 Bidwell Parkway, Buffalo, NY

TEXT  beneath the 2016 photos

Western New York  Heritage  repro  of the 1915 Mark H. Hubbell, Beautiful Homes of Buffalo  (online September 2016) Dr. V. Mott Pierce

2016 Photos (White) house to left/west: Colonial Revival style House to right: Queen Anne style George A. Austin House   Note chimney brace and anchor Two hipped roofs                         Dormer  ribbon windows                         Rafter tails supporting overhanging eaves                          Wooden shingle shapes: diamond, standard, sawtooth Rafter tails supporting overhanging eaves Wooden shingle shapes: diamond, standard, sawtooth Rafter tails supporting overhanging eaves Bay window                            Battered wall at right

Note west elevation at left West elevation                         Note basement window (close-up below:)   Brick voussoirs above window                          Medina sandstone sill  and footer East elevation Onondaga limestone purple martin(?) bird house and wall Purple martin(?) bird house atop Onondaga limestone pillar laid in broken rangework pattern

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)

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. This building is not included in the survey, but valuable information about the neighborhood can be found in the survey. 3. State and Federal Elmwood Historic District (East) Bidwell Parkway east of Elmwood Avenue is included in the historic district. 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. 4. State and Federal Elmwood Historic District (East): Overview, Section 7 Page 1