Central Park is a residential neighborhood in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
, United States. Its boundaries are Main Street to the west, Parkside Avenue to the east, Hertel Avenue to the north, and Amherst Street to the south, with its southwestern limit running along the railroad lining Linden Avenue.
Amherst Street Station sits at Central Park's southeastern corner.
The neighborhood originated from a development conceived by cement magnate
Lewis Jackson Bennett (1833–1925) on his Buffalo Cement Company property.
[http://buffalostreets.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/central-park/ Buffalo's Central Park: A Street, a Plaza and a Neighborhood November 20, 2012 by Angela Keppel][Lewis J. Bennett]
History of Buffalo reprint from Genealogical and Family History of Western New York, ed. by William Richard Cutter
William Richard Cutter (August 17, 1847 – June 6, 1918) was an American historian, genealogist, and writer.
Life
Born in Woburn, Massachusetts on August 17, 1847, he was the son of Dr. Benjamin Cutter and Mary Whittemore Cutter. He attended ...
, 1912, Vol. II His Central Park home was designed by Buffalo architect
Milton Earl Beebe
Milton Earle Beebe (November 27, 1840 – February 3, 1923) was an American architect who designed numerous buildings in Buffalo, New York, in Fargo, North Dakota, and elsewhere.[limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...]
source needed to establish a cement factory. Starting in 1875 he also acquired land on the east and west sides of Main Street where there were cement deposits. In 1877 he established the Buffalo Cement Company, operating a quarry and manufacturing stone and cement. Ten years later he planned a residential subdivision on the company's lands with his son, Leslie Jay Bennett, and William Pierce, a co-owner of Buffalo Cement. They decided to call the area Central Park because of its geographic location near
Delaware Park.
[
]
Later developments
Central Park was in close proximity to the Beltline Railroad and a station was built in Central Park (at Starin and Amherst). Known as the Central Park Station, it was owned by Buffalo Cement and leased by New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...
and Hudson River Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...
.[
The Otowega Club's clubhouse was located in the area at the corner of Linden and Starin. It was later used by the Art Institute of Buffalo before being demolished after ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Burke's Green initially was an unnamed parcel of park land deeded to the city by Bennett, with a beehive-style pile of rocks and a water pipe up that drizzled water over the rocks. Eventually this fountain was dismantled and an evergreen was placed in the center. Then, in the 1960s, the park was dedicated to the memory of F. Brendan Burke, and renamed Burke's Green. Bennett's house at 354 Depew Avenue was constructed in the area. It included 24 rooms and sat on 3 acres of land. It was demolished in 1935 and 12 building lots created.[
Bennett donated the land on Main Street to the City for Bennett High School and All-High Stadium. Bennett led a fight that helped bring about a change from the "rate bill system" to a free public school system paid for by taxes, considered to be the first district to adopt that system. He was a life member of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences and Buffalo Historical Society, a member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and a member of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce. He named streets after his family and friends, including Morris Avenue for the family of Lewis Bennett's brother-in-law, John Vedder Morris, and the man's father, Abram Vrooman Morris. John Morris married Mr. Bennett's younger sister Maria Lydia Bennett in 1875. Depew Avenue was named in honor of Chauncey M. Depew, a US Senator, New York State Secretary of State, and President of the New York Central Railroad.][
]
See also
*Neighborhoods of Buffalo, New York
The city of Buffalo, New York consists of five sectors of thirty-five different neighborhoods, over an area of fifty-two square miles.
Background
The boundaries of Buffalo's neighborhoods have changed over time. The city is officially divided ...
References
Additional sources
* James Arnone Central Park, Buffalo, New York: A Neighborhood of History and Tradition. 2010.
* William Richard Cutter Genealogical and Family History of New York, Vol. 11, 1912
* ''The Village of Depew is Unique to the Area in that it Straddles Two Townships'' Depew Bee, July 14, 1994.
* Carol Wagner ''Bassett House: A History'' The Junior League of Buffalo, 1985.
External links
*Central Park is covered in the .
Bassett House brochure
{{Buffalo Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods in Buffalo, New York