Bristol Home

The Bristol Home, currently an assisted living facility, was part of the Historic Linwood Tour. Located at 1500 Main Street, it was built in the 1840's as a private residence in an Italianate style with various outbuildings.

It was to go through various changes of use until it was bought in 1886 and transformed into the Home for the Friendless. From the booklet that was handed out on the tour:

"It was organized in 1868 with the backing of 21 Protestant churches by Edward Bristol, a concerned Buffalo businessman...However, throughout its history until 1980, the Home was operated and managed by women and overseen by a board comprised only of women. To this day it is run as a not-for-profit facility..."

"The early residents were destitute and friendless women who were helped to find work, then to working and professional women, alone for a time or for life, and now to the aging-well."

Life was especially hard for a women on their own back then. Even if married they were considered "property" and were not able to vote.  If alone, they were unable to be hired for most jobs. Many took to the streets doing whatever it took, and many also fell into the bottle.  Bristol Home was a second chance place, offering training and a safe haven.  Some had a hard time adjusting to polite society, thus the rules and regulations (click to enlarge, not that it helps much):

Many of the early social reformers were women, such as Maria Love, who was born in Clarence NY in 1840. There were also a lot of church run facilities. They saw a need and stepped up.

And to this day Bristol Home is still helping low-income and elderly women. They will be holding a fundraiser September 24, 2010 "An Affair to Remember".  Call Jennifer at 716-884-4371 for details on how you or your business can help, or email jblackchief (at) bristolhome (dot) org.

Historic Linwood Avenue Homes Tour

The historic Linwood Avenue tour of homes was last Sunday, and I was able to catch a lot of the places on the list.  The tour guide book alone was worth the price of admission! It was a day of intermittent rain and drizzle, so the pictures didn't turn out well, and I wasn't able to go back on a sunny day, so it is what it is.

Speaking of the weather, it had the effect of putting a few homeowners on edge, while others were more laid back.  This was also reflected in their inner sanctums. Some were set for maximum show with possible professional assistance, and others were more lived in, while still others were a combination of the two.

There was so much to see that I'll break this down into 3 separate posts. First of all. the district is very old and is still very beautiful, even though slumlords tried their best to drag it down.  This house here was my first stop.  It was built in 1893 for the Schaefer family.  The style is known as Queen Anne. Many of the homes featured turrets.

Across the street at134 is a beauty built in 1894 for the Muenschauers. The 3rd floor ballroom (!) has been converted to a separate living space.  The servants quarters were directly across the hallway.

Further down Linwood at 549 was another in like fashion, however the 3rd floor was a master bedroom - absolutely gorgeous (no pictures allowed).  The first floor was magnificently decorated, while the second was more homey and featured the original iceboxes in the 2nd floor kitchen.  This house also had a memorable whole room devoted to shoes :)

Then there was the duplex at 531-533, built in 1920.  The furnishings consisted mainly of an antique collection left largely in the "found" state, warts and all.  Only one side was open, but it had a lot of living space.

Another home at 293 Linwood, built in 1894, shingle style, was originally owned by Wilhem Willink, a name familiar to Clarence history buffs. Later on it became a tuberculosis treatment center. The current owners have converted part of the downstairs to an area for performance arts.

A few more houses (not on the tour this year) caught my eye, especially the top one - that one looks haunted to me.  One note on that - many of the owners said that there ghosts were friendly, while one flat out denied having any extra residents.  Maybe they just haven't shown themselves yet...

All seem to be in various stages of restoration, and all are proudly presented by their current owners, and rightfully so.

Darwin Martin House & Greatbatch Pavilion

For the number of years that I've lived in Buffalo, I have never consciously sought out Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin house. Apparently when I first moved here it was in a state of decay, and any time after I just didn't make the side trip down Jewett Parkway, off of Parkside by the Buffalo Zoo. As a woman at work once informed me in a perfectly cultured voice, "That's Parkway, not Avenue", which is in a totally different part of the city.

Yesterday I meandered over that way in between various errands and shot a few pix when the hoards of people wandering around left an opening for a minute. An inside tour will wait for another day.




The glass enclosed visitor center is the Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion, which was built via their generous donation.


Beautiful buildings!

Harbison Brothers - A Correction of Sorts

Back on November 27th I wrote a post called "Harbison Brothers and Buffalo's First Gas Station". I was using a small article published in Business First in 1997, the facts of which were probably gleened from family members. The contentious part of a paragraph is this one:

"Harbison Brothers Inc. was originally founded as a maker and re-builder of wooden barrels in 1893 by Adam and Andrew. John, a younger brother, joined them at a later point in time."

Knowing that Adam and Andy were older than John I just assumed that they must have been a lot older, without consulting any family trees. They were not. In 1893 all three were still wee lads on the old sod.

This is were it gets a bit speculative, knowing some facts and not others, since it was a long time ago. However, three uncles had arrived in America first, the original Harbison Brothers. Arthur Ross Harbison and 2 brothers, William and Andrew most likely formed the original business in 1893.

The younger Harbison brothers, Adam, Andrew, and John began arriving in the 1902, as they each became old enough to pull up roots and settle anew.

The most likely scenario is that the younger family members eventually took over the family business. A letter from the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society dated 1990 adds some additional info:

"We searched the city directories and found that the Harbison Brothers were first listed at 179 Ellicott St. in 1917. The business was described as "barrels." In 1918 the description reads "gasoline and oils," still at 179 Ellicott. In 1919 the listing is "Harbison Brothers, 2nd hand barrels, 32-42 Appenheimer St. So it would seem that the photograph must be from either 1917 or 1918."

Meanwhile, I have heard from a previously unknown 3rd cousin in England, Pauline Erwin. It seems many family members and their friends have fond memories of Arthur Ross meeting them at Ellis Island and welcoming them to America. He eventually settled in East Aurora with his wife Sara Victoria, where his namesakes and other descendants still reside. His brothers, William and Andrew, remained single and are buried at Forest Lawn.

**UPDATE**  There was another uncle (verified with death certificates) , brother to Arthur, William, and Andrew, who came to the United States with his family and worked at the garage.  His name was Adam, and he is buried in Forest Lawn, along with his second wife, Annie Morton, and 5 of his/their children (4 of whom remained single, and a daughter who is next to her husband).

I have temporary possession of my mother's meticulously kept genealogy files on the Harbison side. They were put together with input from other relatives, some of whom have their own extensive files. I will be scanning these into the computer to share with Pauline and others as we explore family ties. My thanks to her for getting me interested in this side of the family again.

For those of you that I have totally bored with this article, I leave you with one thought:

Do you know who's in your family tree?

Harbison Brothers and Buffalo's First Gas Station

There was a great article in Sunday's Buffalo News regarding the Vitascope. This was the first motion picture theater actually designed for this purpose. It was located in the Ellicott Square Building in downtown Buffalo, and the area still exists at the bottom of a spiral staircase.

This reminded me of a photocopy of an article I had laying around from Business First of Buffalo, week of February 24, 1997. It is of Buffalo's first gas station (according to family history), located at 179 Ellicott Street. That number on Ellicott no longer exists and is probably part of a larger parcel owned by the NFTA.

The picture was taken in 1917. The founders of the business were Irish immigrant brothers - (as pictured) Andrew, Adam, and John Harbison (my grandfather). Their names grace the walls of Ellis Island.

Harbison Brothers Inc. was originally founded as a maker and re-builder of wooden barrels in 1893 by Adam and Andrew. John, a younger brother, joined them at a later point in time. Harbison Brothers now reconditions and recycles steel drum barrels and is operated by the descendants of Adam Harbison.

In later years Andrew would be involved with a lawsuit against the City of Buffalo (Harbison vs Buffalo) . It seems he had been operating a cooperage on Cumberland Avenue since 1924, which was then an industrial area. Years later people built homes around him and wanted him out. The farmers in "rural but becoming residential" areas can probably empathize with his position.

One of the attorneys on the case was William J. Ostrowski, father of attorney and writer Jim Ostrowski, founder of Free New York. This case is still cited in various existing non-conforming land use cases throughout the country.

Eventually Adam and John would move their families from Buffalo to Clarence, while Andrew moved his to East Aurora.

No word on what the price of gas was in those days.

(**Update** I wrote a correction/addition on January 8, 2008, as some of the dates don't quite jibe)