Silver Creek is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the town of

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

in Chautauqua County,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census, the village had a population of 2,637. Silver Creek is named after a small creek which runs through the village. It is on the shore of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

History

The community was first settled circa 1803, and the first school house was erected in approximately 1823. In 1822 a well-known

black walnut ''Juglans nigra'', the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to central and eastern North America, growing mostly in riparian zones. Black walnut is susceptible to thousand can ...

tree, measuring about in diameter, was blown over in a storm. The village of Silver Creek was incorporated in 1848, and was an important port on Lake Erie until railroads reduced shipping. The village is home to a

skew arch A skew arch (also known as an oblique arch) is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and it ...

railroad bridge, one of the few bridges in the country built on an angle. In September 1886, two trains collided near this location, killing approximately 15 and injuring roughly the same number.

Geography

Silver Creek is located at 42°32'39" north, 79°10'2" west (42.544083, -79.167088). According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the village has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3.0 km²); all land. Silver Creek is part of the Lake Erie Basin. The two creeks in the village, Silver Creek and Walnut Creek, drain into the lake. Silver Creek is at the junction of

New York State Route 5 New York State Route 5 (NY 5) is a state highway that extends for across the state of New York in the United States. It begins at the Pennsylvania state line in the Chautauqua County town of Ripley and passes through Buffalo, Sy ...

(Central Avenue) and

US Route 20 U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major coast-to-coast route. ...

(Main Street), north of

New York State Thruway The New York State Thruway (officially the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway and colloquially "the Thruway") is a system of controlled-access toll roads spanning within the U.S. state of New York. It is operated by the New York State Thruway ...

(

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

) Exit 58. Silver Creek is on the New York-to-Chicago main line of

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

and the New York-Buffalo-Chicago main line of the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

. The CSXT line through Silver Creek was formerly operated by the Consolidated Rail Corporation (

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

), which succeeded the

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

(which succeeded the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

, which succeeded the

Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833, and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinoi ...

, which succeeded the Lake Shore Railroad, which succeeded the Buffalo & Erie Railway, the original line). The Norfolk Southern line through Silver Creek was formerly operated by the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

, successor to the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate Road KP, the original line. The Penn Central's (formerly the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

, or PRR) Buffalo-Corry (PA)-Pittsburgh line formerly operated through Silver Creek. The single-track lines of the NKP and PRR were jointly operated to form a double-track line which was used by the trains of both railroads. The former PRR line was abandoned around 1976 by order of the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later Trucking industry in the United States, truc ...

in favor of highway transportation. From approximately 1907 to 1933 Silver Creek was on the Buffalo-to-Erie main line of the Buffalo & Erie Railway (successor to the Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Company), a high-speed electric interurban railway. It was abandoned by order of the

New York Public Service Commission The New York Public Service Commission is the public utilities commission of the New York state government that regulates and oversees the electric, gas, water, and telecommunication industries in New York as part of the Department of Public Ser ...

to promote highway transportation.

Climate

Demographics

As of the 2010

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, there were 2,656 people, 1,048 households and 718 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 1,174 housing units, with an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 94.2 percent

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.9 percent

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.8 percent Native American, 0.5 percent Asian, 0.7 percent from other races, and 1.8 percent from two or more races. 2.8 percent of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. 31.8 percent of households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.8 percent were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 15 percent had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.5 percent were non-families. 26.4 percent of all households were made up of individuals, and 11 percent had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 2.98. In the village, the population was spread out, with 28 percent under the age of 20, 7 percent from 20 to 24, 25.5 percent from 25 to 44, 26.7 percent from 45 to 64, and 12.9 percent who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.6 males. The median 2000 income for a household in the village was $32,446, and the median income for a family was $38,617. Males had a median income of $33,889 versus $19,464 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the village was $15,904. 12.9% of the population and 9.8% of families were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

. Out of the total population, 22.8% of those under the age of 18 and 1.9% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Health care and law enforcement

Silver Creek is served by Brooks Memorial Hospital in Dunkirk, NY. Trauma cases are treated at the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo and

UPMC Hamot UPMC Hamot, formerly known as Hamot Medical Center, is a 446-bed hospital and a tertiary-care medical facility located in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is one of the largest employers in the Erie region. The complex features several large buildings, incl ...

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous in Northwestern Pen ...

. In August 2009 a flash flood affected Silver Creek, Sunset Bay and Gowanda. As a result of the flood, the

New York State Department of Health The New York State Department of Health is the department of the Government of New York (state), New York state government responsible for public health. Its regulations are compiled in title 10 of the ''New York Codes, Rules and Regulations''. ...

closed Tri-County Memorial Hospital. The Village of Silver Creek dissolved the Police Department and contracted with the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office for patrols along with assistance from the

New York State Police The New York State Police (NYSP) is the state police of the U.S. state of New York; it is part of the New York State Executive Department and employs over 5,000 sworn state troopers and 711 non-sworn members. The New York State Police are re ...

when needed. The village has a volunteer fire department with 50–60 active volunteers and junior firefighters, operating in tandem with the Silver Creek Emergency Squad. They are trained by the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control and the New York State Department of Health's Bureau of Emergency Medical Services. On August 9, 2009, the emergency-squad building, the village fire hall and its vehicles sustained extensive damage in a flash flood; the public works department on North Main Street was destroyed (it has since moved to a new building in the former Bentges distributing plant on Routes 5 and 20 in the Town of Hanover. Several homes along Walnut Creek were badly damaged or destroyed, and the Silver Village Trailer Park was leveled by flooding from Silver Creek. Some village streets were badly damaged or washed away by the flood waters. A

funeral home A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary is a business that provides burial, entombment and cremation services for the dead and their families. These services may include a prepared visitation and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for t ...

, church and school were also badly damaged. Both Mercy Flight, a nonprofit medivac service based in Buffalo and LifeStar, a medivac service affiliated with UPMC Hamot in Erie, serve the Silver Creek area.

Grape Festival

Every third weekend in September Silver Creek hosts a Festival of Grapes to honor

Concord grapes The Concord grape is a cultivar derived from the grape species ''Vitis labrusca'' (also known as fox grape) that are used as table grapes, wine grapes and juice grapes. They are often used to make grape jelly, grape juice, grape pies, grape-f ...

, an important agricultural product. The festival began in 1968 and features a

parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

, live music, a midway, a wine tent, children's and adults' activities and a

grape stomping A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,00 ...

. In 2008, the Silver Creek Grape Festival was featured on the nationally televised ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

''. Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Sam Champion and Chris Cuomo visited a farm to stomp grapes on their trip across America; taken during the 2008 election, they visited 50 states in 50 days learning about the country. Diane Sawyer called it "the first and maybe last annual GMA grape stomping contest in honor of

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...

, who was born in the region". The four participated in a grape-stomping competition. The festival concludes every year with the grand parade which features the festival of grapes royalty, political figures, high school marching bands from regional high schools, fire apparatus from Silver Creek, Sunset Bay, Forestville, Hanover Center, Irving, Sheridan, Lake Erie Beach, Angola, and Fredonia. Some years the local Shriners club from Gowanda and the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office mounted unit also participate. Several youth organizations march in the parade alongside the local fire departments and veterans.

School

In Silver Creek all three schools (

elementary Elementary may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Elementary'' (Cindy Morgan album), 2001 * ''Elementary'' (The End album), 2007 * ''Elementary'', a Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin album, 1977 Other uses in arts, entertainment, an ...

middle Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...

and

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

) are physically interconnected, to facilitate the transition to the next stage of learning. The elementary school is attached to the middle school which in turn is attached to the high school. Silver Creek maintains its own transportation department, rather than contracting for school-bus service. Its bus drivers have come from all walks of life; many are retirees. The transportation director is responsible for the district's 30 buses. There are separate runs for

pre-kindergarten Pre-kindergarten (also called pre-K or PK) is a voluntary classroom-based preschool program for children below the age of five in the United States, Canada, Turkey and Greece (when kindergarten starts). It may be delivered through a preschool ...

to fifth-grade, and sixth- to twelfth-grade students. Four buses are used on a later run for vocational students returning from the LoGuidice Educational Center in Fredonia and students staying late for any reason. The buses are used for school-sponsored sporting events held at other schools, school-sponsored

field trip A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of associated peers, such as coworkers or school students, to a place away from their normal environment for the purpose of education or leisure, either within their country or abroad. When ar ...

s and the annual Class Night party for the graduating class. In the event of a snow day or an unanticipated need for early dismissal, all local television and radio stations are contacted. If the fire-alarm system is activated apart from state-required fire drills Silver Creek Fire and EMS, Sunset Bay Fire, Battalion 1(County Fire Coordinator), County Fire 1(Director of County Emergency Services) are dispatched as 1st Alarm. Fire Chief or Asst. Fire Chief who takes role as Incident Commander at the school determines if 2nd alarm is needed from Fredonia or Dunkirk for their Tower or Ladder truck, County Rescue 71(Fredonia), Hanover Center, Forestville, Irving, and Sheridan. There is a SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) chapter at the high school, counseling students against destructive decisions. It has sponsored movie nights for elementary-school students with movies, food and activities. Once every few years Forestville and/or Silver Creek try to hold a mock DWI Drill just before prom weekend in the spring.

Athletics

The school colors are black and

old gold Old gold is a dark yellow, which varies from light olive or olive brown to deep or strong yellow, generally on the darker side of this range. The first recorded use of ''old gold'' as a color name in English was in the early 19th century (exact ...

, and its mascot is a black knight. Sports offered are cross-country for boys and girls, football and soccer for boys and soccer, swimming and volleyball for girls. The 2008–2009 boys' varsity football team played at

New Era Field Highmark Stadium (also known colloquially as The Ralph) is a stadium in Orchard Park, New York, United States, in the Southtowns of the Buffalo metropolitan area. It is the home venue of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). ...

in Orchard Park, home of the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

Notable people

Doc Alexander Joseph A. "Doc" Alexander (April 1, 1897 – September 12, 1975) was an American football player, who played center, tackle, guard, and end, and coach in the National Football League (NFL). Alexander was born in Silver Creek, New York, the so ...

, NFL football player and coach * James V. Bennett, former director of the

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...

* Samuel S. Brannan, Wisconsin politician * George Carter; played for

St. Bonaventure University St. Bonaventure University is a private university, private Franciscan university in St. Bonaventure, New York. It has 2,760 undergraduate and graduate students. The Order of Friars Minor, Franciscans established the university in 1858. In ath ...

and later in the 1971 ABA All-Star Game.Village history
Retrieved October 3, 2011. Went to become an NBA forward * Ezra Convis, politician * Albert G. Dow, former New York State Senator *

Howard Ehmke Howard John Ehmke (April 24, 1894 – March 17, 1959) was an American baseball pitcher. He played professional baseball for 16 years from 1914 to 1930, including 15 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Buffalo Blues (1915), Detroit Tigers (19 ...

, former MLB pitcher * Clinton T. Horton, former New York State Senator * Alice Lee Jemison, journalist and political activist *

Cindy Miller Cynthia Susan (Kessler) Miller (born February 11, 1956) is an American professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour from 1979 to 1981. Miller was born in Dunkirk, New York. She is married to former PGA Tour golfer Allen Miller, and mother to ...

, golfer *

George Mohart George Benjamin Mohart (March 6, 1892 – October 2, 1970) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He pitched in fifteen games for the Brooklyn Robins The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Gr ...

, baseball player * Robert F. Young, science-fiction writer * Elisha Ward, lawyer and politician

References

External links

Village of Silver Creek
{{authority control Villages in New York (state) Villages in Chautauqua County, New York Populated places established in 1803 1803 establishments in New York (state)