Nottingham Terrace

By the time I finally decided to brave the cold and get out of the house it was close to noon. The thought of the congestion at Wegman's as the afternoon goes on does have a way of forcing me out the door. Anyway, after three store stops I was going to go by Hoyt Lake in Delaware Park and try out my new camera, something that I had penciled in for 7am daybreak that never happened.

Anyway, as I was driving down Elmwood I had a brain glitch and turned left on the street in front of the History Museum instead of the Art Gallery. Even though I had been planning on dropping off the groceries before doing some genealogy research at the museum, I decided to stop there before I moved that task to the "should have" list.

Nice picture taking opportunities are in the neighborhood too, and since kid1 is finally showing an appreciation for Buffalo architecture after years of studying the basic facts in high school, I thought I'd help out a bit with her latest project. Good excuse anyway.

Rather than do the research in which hours can fly by rather quickly, I opted to take a stroll down Nottingham Terrace first. I only made it down the street about 10 houses before a chill set in and I decided to go back, taking pictures the whole way until my fingers about froze off - no gloves for me, I'm from Buffalo!

Once as I was snapping away I thought I heard someone tapping on a window, but I looked around and didn't see anyone shaking their finger at me, so I figured it was a woodpecker or something and carried on. Hoped no one thought I was casing the joint.

Anyway, those who aren't familiar with the city of Buffalo may spend too much much time listening to or reading from those ignorant souls who dismiss the city as one tumble down ghetto. Please don't - they don't have a clue what they're talking about (and don't care either, I imagine). Gorgeous homes abound in every section of the city, and the ones around here are on the top of many "must see" lists.





Trees kept getting in the shots...


...and one had foliage all around it, but I managed - autofocus is good for things like sticking the camera over ones head and hoping for the best.



Notice how the main entrance to this one is on the side...



I think a lot of them are like that, but I didn't really check it out.


This one holds a special memory for me though - or at least I think it was this one. Made the biggest visual impression at any rate:



Way back when I was in girl scouts we had taken a trip to the History Museum. The drivers had just dropped us off and were supposed to pick us up later. Don't know if they got distracted or it was assumed the building was open later than it actually was, but we ended up booted from the museum at closing time with no ride in sight. No cell phones either, of course.

It was very, very cold. After freezing solid, a small band of us decided to knock on doors and see if someone would let us in to warm up. Being kids had more to do with this school of thought than being from a rural area. Heck, in the real way out there areas people just leave their doors open. Anyway, we trudged from house to house, knocking on doors and being ignored.

Finally some residents felt sorry for us sniffling kids and let us into the entryway for a few minutes as they scurried around putting on jewelry and cuff links for a night out. As we worked on warming up we soon forgot about the cold as we looked around, vaulted ceilings and everything. Wow. Soon we were back at the museum getting yelled at, but it I never forgot it.

Nowadays I live fairly close by, but a world apart. Close enough to mosey by on a whim however! So if the people in these beautiful homes see a woman taking pictures of their houses, maybe with a teenager or 2 along side, its just me.

I won't be knocking on any doors though :)

Main Place

The original challenge, as discussed on the blog of Mary Kunz Goldman, was to take pictures inside Main Place Mall in downtown Buffalo. However that was soon replaced by an even bigger one - finding something, anything, to take a picture of, besides blank walls.

Before 8am it's pretty easy to walk through with an active camera since the security guards apparently haven't started yet. I purposely chose not to include those hustling through the building on the way to work elsewhere, but other than lunch time there isn't many more people there any other time either.

With so few stores there isn't much reason to make the Mall a destination. The site deadmalls.com gives Main Place a mention, although it's scarcely alone, even in WNY.

Main Place was built in 1968 and used to be busy, hard as that may be to believe. Of course Main Street still boasted AM&A's (which had a connecting walkway to the mall), Hengerers, Hens & Kellys, Woolworths (with a basement store too), Ulrichs Ulbrich's Stationary (with art supplies downstairs), and Bergers back then, with many more stores and restaurants in between.


I worked at Sattlers in the late 70's, which anchored one end of the mall while Erie County Savings Bank (the "Big E") was at the other. I was located right in the middle front of the Greenhouse food court. There used to be a Liberty Bank service window right next to the second floor entrance.


Sometimes as I'm passing through the mall I try to remember the names of businesses that used to be there and where they were situated. There were two main restaurants, both with outlets on each floor. The Milkie Way had the bar and full restaurant downstairs and a snack bar upstairs. JPease Pub was the opposite, although their version of casual dining downstairs still featured waitresses, I believe.

Shoe stores, including Bakers (which also had a store further up Main), Fathers and Sons, and Thom McCans, dominated the floor plan. Many trendy clothing stores were there also, like Gutmans, Casual Corner, The Limited. Rite Aid was there too, with an additional store a block up on Main that is still open, although they closed the lower portion down.

This version of "management" for Main Place Mall has seemed determined to empty it so that it can be used for telemarketing companies or other behind the scenes businesses. It has gone as far as to raise rents through the skylighted roof to drive tenants out that didn't fulfill their "vision", as empty as that is. Rumor had it that the main owners in NYC use it as a writeoff and have little incentive to attempt a return to vitality.

The "All About Buffalo" icon upstairs looks rather lonely, like "I stepped out of the nickel for this??"


The cars being removed from Main Street for the MetroRail did a lot to kill retail in downtown Buffalo, but the suburban malls were the original ones to rip the heart out. So even if cars return some day, there's still that. Then again, most of the grand old stores are gone, remaining only in memories.

Not all is dreary downtown. Many other blocks have something going on at various times. And when the weather is nice and the farmers market in progress and maybe a lunchtime concert in front of M&T, the sidewalks on Main get jammed. Where there's people there's hope.

Journal Writing and Mr. Ehrenreich

Writing a blog is a lot like writing a journal. I was introduced to the concept of journals in my sophomore year by my English teacher, Michael Ehrenreich.

Generally speaking, the wide-held belief among the class was that by having us scribble away, it freed the teacher to read a book or take care of other business. I don't recall being introduced to subjects for everyone to concentrate on for the day, although I could be wrong. It's been a few years since then.

Sue Wandyez and I sat next to each other and were "literary partners". In other words, we read each other's entries and commented. "Interesting" was about as deep as it got. We learned that from Mr. Ehrenreich too.

Many years later, Deb Moultrup dragged me to some theatrical production, or at least the cast & production crew party afterwards. Mr. Ehrenreich was there. I was finally able to get up the nerve to ask for my journal back, since he had insisted on retaining them. He looked at me like I was stupid or something and said "I threw them out".

Threw them out??? Then why did he want to keep them? Maybe he thought there was a possibility that a mere one of us would become a literary giant, and he could sell donate the journal to a museum for posterity. As far as I can tell, that would have been a waste of storage space. Apparently he later thought so too.

It's not like I really wanted to see how addled my brain could be back then. Shredding it would have been a preferable option. Here I can just hit "delete" (I know, nothing on the internet is gone forever, but retrieving my drivel isn't worth the effort). However, it was my opinion that it was my journal and I wanted it back..."And so, Becky, how does it feel to want?"

Just like in those journal days, maybe tomorrow I'll have something interesting to write about. I think I finally got the hang of it after all these years.

(photo is from the 1969 Saga, by Guy Brand)

Older Clarence, Newer Clarence - One Clarence

Most of us were born and raised in Clarence. It can go back even further if our parents, grandparents and so on were also part of the historical fabric. We could have departed the town upon turning 18 and never looked back, or stayed where it is familiar, near family and friends. Or behaved like a yo-yo, leaving and returning, for good or for a visit.

Those who made a conscious decision to move here, rather than it being an accident of birth, tend to see Clarence differently than we do. On the campaign site of Alan Bedenko, he makes this observation:

"Labor Day in Clarence Center is Authentic Americana. It is a Norman Rockwell painting come to life."

I never thought about it that way. I guess when you're busy living it, the picture is too close to be seen with an objective eye. Then again, as the painting by Rockwell shows, sometimes what we see and reality aren't on the same page.

Some of the most enthusiastic boosters of Clarence have no long time history in town. They never knew Clarence when it actually was a rural area. They don't know that the removal of the agricultural exemption for inactive farm land opened the floodgates for subdivisions.

They do know that Clarence is rich in history, and that it should be remembered and celebrated. Working with the Clarence Historical Society they have dusted off parts of ourselves that previously existed only in the archives of what "used to be". Of course, the seniors are richer depositories of life in Clarence than books or documents could ever be.

They have put together various events and associations and groups to draw people together rather than existing in a vacuum. Of course, the Garden Club and Chamber of Commerce and Firemen have been around almost forever, but now there is so much more.

For the anonymous members of "They" - both those with deep Clarence roots and those whose roots are newer - I salute you! Newer Clarence embraces Older Clarence for One Clarence.