Babcock Neighborhood, Buffalo, NY
An excerpt from
"Houses of Worship: A Guide to the Religious Architecture of Buffalo, New York" Master of Architecture Thesis. Pp. 173-174.
Found at Buffalo Central Library NA5235 B8 N37 1995
By James Napora

During the founding years of the city, the Seneca/Babcock area served as a hunting and fishing ground for the Native population in of the area. As much of the land to the south of the cityremained forested, they maintained a relatively peaceful relationship with the white man. As the population of the city increased, it encroached upon these unsettled lands to the south.

The year 1827 saw the end to indigenous occupation of the area when the Indians traded a small brick house and the land in the vicinity for a white pony. The original portion of that house stood adjacent to the building at 256 Babcock.

As the population of the city spread into the area in the late1870s and early 1880s, the area became known as Oakdale after the large number of Oak trees standing there.

The intersection of Babcock and Clinton developed approximately ten years later as a German community, with many.of the residents there working in the adjacent railroad yards.