Whats crazy to me is looking at the hand-drawn 1894 atlas and seeing how much of Buffalo from the Psych Center northward was all countyside, but with the current existing roads already built, and Delaware Park already completed to its current form. Even in my current neighborhood by Elmwood and W. Ferry most of the lots were empty. It was like a massive, current day development that was only partially built on. Huge, iron tanks in the middle of downtown for the Buffalo Gaslight Company. It really would have been something to be alive back then. If you had a good job, of course.
Bonus trivia item for the super history nerd: Lafayette Ave. was originally named Bouck St (as seen on the atlas), but was renamed when the church at the corner of it and Elmwood was built.
“Sqauw Island” for all those Grand Islander’s on here. I’m trying to see if my old house is there, it was built in 1864 (in Eden). My History Degree from Canisius College is actually getting some use!!
Many of the older streets in the suburbs would have evolved from dirt paths forming the most direct route between landmarks or population centers, or borders between large tracts of farmland, rather than from the hand of skilled urban planners such as the majority of the streets of downtown Buffalo and most other cities. As such, a lot of the very old streets in the suburbs (that weren’t part of a planned village or development) run at crazy angles to each other, have odd intersections, etc.
Ellicott’s original radial street plan is still mostly intact downtown, with the exception of the awful convention center, and where city hall is. City hall was actually the first building to cover over part of the original street plan, the west end of Court St.