NPS Form 10-900a OMB No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet ELMWOOD HISTORIC DISTRICT (EAST) Name of Property Section 8 Page 1 Erie County, New York County and State ELMWOOD HISTORIC DISTRICT: ELMWOOD HISTORIC DISTRICT (EAST)6 “Every city has its favorite residence district. The people of Buffalo have decided, and not without good reasons, that their favorite district is that called the Elmwood.” -- "The New Elmwood District," Greater Buffalo . (1902) “Nature and man seem to have worked harmoniously in the creation of what is known as Buffalo’s ‘Elmwood District.” -- “The New Elmwood District,” Commerce. (August, 1903) OVERVIEW The Elmwood Historic District is significant under Criterion A in the area of Community Planning and Development and C in the area of Architecture as an exceptional, highly intact residential neighborhood located in the City of Buffalo . Much of the district’s architecture and planning represents the first era of street-car suburbanization in Buffalo, which occurred during the golden age of industrial, economic and population growth following the Civil War. The district contains nearly 5,000 resources. For the purposes of managing the National Register listing process, the district has been divided along the commercial spine of Elmwood Avenue into the Elmwood Historic District (West) and the Elmwood Historic District (East). This nomination documents the Elmwood Historic District (East) portion of the district on the National Register, while providing a historic context for both. The Elmwood Historic District (West) was listed on the NY State and National Registers in 2012. The nominated district contains more than 1,800 properties and nearly 3,500 resources in total, reflective of the city at the height of its prominence as the eighth most populous city in America. 7 The district evolved over time, transforming from a forested, pastoral area filled with nurseries and farmhouses into a wealthy residential area populated with large estates in the nineteenth century, and from a bustling streetcar suburb into a modern community that experienced several stages of automobile-oriented design in the twentieth century. Due to the presence of large estates, which occupied especially large plots of land at the turn of the twentieth century, much of the streetcar suburb style of development east of Elmwood Avenue occurred a few decades later than in the Elmwood Historic District (West). The portions of the district that formerly held these estates prevented new development until a later date than occurred west of Elmwood Avenue, creating a patchwork pattern that gradually filled in new buildings as the estates were later subdivided beginning in the 6 Section 8 combines the narrative previously prepared by Jennifer Walkowski for the Elmwood Historic District (West) with additional research and discussion specifically related to the Elmwood East area provided by Annie Schentag. For ease in reading, the two portions are not differentiated. 7 United States Bureau of the Census, “Table 1: Rank by Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places, Listed Alphabetically by State: 1790-1990 ,” Released June 15, 1998, Accessed June 22, 2015, http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab01.txt. NPS Form 10-900a OMB No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet ELMWOOD HISTORIC DISTRICT (EAST) Name of Property Section 8 Page 2 Erie County, New York County and State 1920s. The period of significance for the Elmwood Historic District (East) thus features a later end date than that established for the Elmwood Historic District (West). Beginning in 1867 with the development of Frederick Law Olmsted’s park and parkways system, which first gave shape to the district as an attractive community for development, the period of significance ends in 1965 with the construction of the Scajaquada Expressway, marking the district’s complete transition into the age of the automobile . Through much of Buffalo’s ea rly history, the area that would become the Elmwood Historic District was largely forested, undeveloped land. 8 In the 1804 plan, this area was marked off as “farm lots” and a number of nurseries later prospered in the area. Forest Lawn Cemetery, founded in 1849 on the Scajaquada Creek, was one of the first large-scale improvements in this region, noted as being distant from the city center. After the city’s boundary expansion in 1853 encompassed the Town of Black Rock, in which this area originally laid, this swath of land became attractive for new development. At the invitation of Buffalo businessmen seeking to enhance the quality of their city, Frederick Law Olmsted overlaid his masterpiece Buffalo parks and parkways system over the area between 1868 and the 1870s, transforming the raw land into a carefully crafted and manicured naturalistic landscape. His parks were immediately popular, encouraging the development and growth of Buffalo’s streetcar system in the 1870s and 1880s to create better access. When a horse-drawn streetcar line opened on Elmwood Avenue in 1889, the era of rapid growth of the area began. At nearly the same time, H.H. Richardson and Olmsted developed the massive Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. The Buffalo State Asylum, The Park (now Delaware Park) and Forest Lawn Cemetery, all immediately north of the Elmwood neighborhood, physically helped to form the northern extents of the city and established the standard for high- quality architecture in what is now the Elmwood Historic District. The “Elmwood district,” as it was called during its primary development phase beginning in the 1890s, developed rapidly within a relatively short amount of time due to several simultaneous, converging forces. Olmsted’s new parks and parkways made thi s area of the city very attractive for development, and land values immediately began to rise. The streetcar systems allowed for better access to the portion of Buffalo, linking to the jobs and businesses in downtown. At the same time, in the post-Civil Wa r era, Buffalo’s economy was booming, which fueled an incredible growth in the city’s population. In 1850 the city’s total population was 42,261; by 1870, only two decades later, it had swelled dramatically to 117,714, nearly tripling in size. The economic and commercial growth in Buffalo during this era also created a large middle and upper-middle class of business owners and managers and others., all looking to build or purchase stylish, modern houses on 8 The term “Elmwood Historic District” will be used throughout this nomination as a title applied retroactively to the region , even before it was labeled as thus in the 1890s. The term applies to the entirety of the district, with the exception of when distinguished along the eastern or western portion of the total district, as in Elmwood Historic District (East). When distinguished as Elmwood Historic District (East), the discussion applies solely and/or most prominently to the eastern portion of the district. Henceforth, the term “Elmwood Historic District” and “ Elmwood d istrict” will be used interchangeably throughout this document. In contemporary Buffalo, this area is also colloquially referred to as the “Elmwood Village.” NPS Form 10-900a OMB No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet ELMWOOD HISTORIC DISTRICT (EAST) Name of Property Section 8 Page 3 Erie County, New York County and State comfortable suburban lots. As these forces converged, the Elmwood Historic District was the natural area for this growth and became one of the prime real estate areas of the city beginning in the 1880s, and especially between the 1890s and 1910s, resulting in the construction of numerous individual single-family houses, some multiple-family houses, apartment buildings, some churches and eventually leading to the establishment of a commercial strip along the Elmwood Avenue streetcar line. Prior to the 1890s, this section of Buffalo had no name and no identity. First only identifiable as part of the city’s large 11 th Ward, t he name “Elmwood district” or “Elmwood Avenue district” first appear ed around 1890, immediately following the opening of the first streetcar line. Developers used this new name as a way to brand and market the area as a new, desirable residential neighborhood. Encouraged by the garden-liked environment of the Olmsted parks and parkways system that laced through the area on both sides of Elmwood Avenue, development here primarily consisted of free-standing single family houses. In some cases, houses were built for specific owners, but mostly houses were speculatively built by developers, builders and investors. In the popular styles of the era, most of the houses were designed in the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival and Craftsman styles. Also, a s the city’s population shifted from downtown Buffalo and into neighborhoods like the “Elmwood district” in the late 1800s, many existing and newly formed congregations built new churches in the neighborhood, primarily along Richmond Avenue, within walking distance of their members and parishioners. Finally, enterprising businesses located here to serve the growing residential neighborhood with basic needs. By the turn of the twentieth-century, the Elmwood Historic District had emerged as Buffalo’s most desirable residential neighborhood. By the 1920s, changes began to subtly shape the Elmwood Historic District. Though the neighborhood had been built thanks to the streetcar, by the 1920s automobiles were emerging as the most popular means of transportation. The individual ownership of automobiles in the Elmwood Historic District meant a change in the physical design of the neighborhood, as barns and carriage houses were transformed into automobile garages, new garages were constructed, and Elmwood Avenue was widened to accommodate this new means of travel.