Built in Buffalo

How to Research Local Architecture
Cynthia Van Ness

While Buffalo's major architectural treasures are increasingly pictured online, the resources needed to research ordinary houses, factories, commercial buildings, and churches are not online and many may never be digitized.

Relevant links have been added wherever possible, but out of necessity, this website focuses on the wealth of offline sources. This site is best utilized by those who can do in-person research at:

Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society,
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library,
Arts & Sciences Libraries of the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB)
And a few other locations.

Table of Contents

How to Get Started
Essential Research Sources
Other Relevant Links
Further Reading

Things to Know Before You Get Started

If you are a Buffalo property owner, dig out your title search. The title search or "abstract of title" shows the chain of ownership of your parcel of land going back to the Holland Land Company. Having the names of owners gives you a way to utilize city directories, Common Council Proceedings, and other sources described below.

A title abstract dating back to 1805 doesn't mean that your house was built in 1805. It means that the ownership of your plot of ground has been traced back to 1805. Title abstracts do NOT indicate when structures were erected or demolished on your land.

A famous name on your title abstract does not necessarily mean that a VIP lived in your house. Then as now, many prominent Buffalonians were real estate investors and owned land in addition to and apart from their residences.

Real estate agents routinely date old Buffalo houses as built in 1900 or another year ending in zero. The City of Buffalo Property database (see below) is equally inaccurate. Don't be wedded to this date. It is just an educated or, more often, an uneducated guess.

Chances are good that your Buffalo building was built between 1860 and 1960. Very little survives from before the Civil War, and Buffalo was essentially built out by 1960. To roughly date your building, study the history of American architectural styles and architecture in Buffalo. Here is some recommended reading.

If you are unable to travel to Buffalo to do in-person research, here is a list of researchers for hire.

Essential Research Sources
KEY to OWNERSHIP BECHS = Library of the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society BECPL = Grosvenor Room of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library BSC = Butler Library at Buffalo State College UB = One of several libraries at the State University of New York at Buffalo
Item	Years Available	What Will It Tell Me?	Where Is It?
Architectural Plans & Blueprints	Mainly 20^th Century	Unfortunately, there are no large or comprehensive collections of local architectural plans and blueprints. A lucky homeowner might find original house plans stuffed in the attic. The City of Buffalo did not require owners to submit building plans or drawings until the early 20th century. Nineteenth century house plans and blueprints are scarce. Many average-income buyers could not afford a private architect and bought house plans from catalogs. Aladdin is one such company and their catalogs are online.	Aladdin Company Sales Catalogs, 1908-1954 Architectural Records at BECHS Building Permits Office E.B. Green Digital Library Find the Plans for Your Old House
Atlases	1854 Quackenboss & Kennedy 1868 Sanborn 1872 Hopkins 1884 Hopkins 1891 Hopkins 1894 American 1915 New Century, vol.1 1915 New Century, vol.2 1915 New Century, vol.3	Atlases published in these years show every building in Buffalo. Some are digitized, as per the links to the left. See also Sanborn maps.	BECHS has all of them Atlases at BECPL
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals	Late 19^thcentury to the present	The Avery Index is the premier source for locating articles from architectural periodicals. There are dozens of citations for Buffalo alone. BECPL has the print volumes and UB has the database.	Full list of owning libraries
Buffalo Address Books, Dau’s Society Blue Books	1885-1940, with some gaps	These social directories concentrated on Buffalo’s wealthy west side and mostly disregarded North, South, and East Buffalo. Like Buffalo City Directories (see below), they contain a geographic section, which lists families by street address. The Buffalo Address Books are gradually coming online at WNYlegacy.org.	BECHS BECPL Buffalo Address Books Online
Buffalo City Directories	1828 to present, with some gaps	City directories list Buffalo residents in order by last name, usually including occupations. From 1930 to the present, city directories have a street section, listing occupants by address. For those with deep pockets, EDR (link at right) will compile city directory reports on a given property.	Buffalo Online City Directories EDR Historical Reports Using City Directories
Buffalo Common Council Proceedings	1832 to 1996	The City of Buffalo began issuing building permits as soon as it was incorporated in 1832. Permits required Common Council approval. If you have a wood frame house, the permit will date your building and, in some cases, identify the architect. It appears that permits were not required for masonry or brick buildings. Up to 1887, search the index in each volume by the owner’s last name. From 1887-1906, permits are grouped in the index under Permits and arranged by owner’s name. From 1907-1950, the Permits are arranged by address. Original permits from 1895 to present are on file at City Hall, Room 301.	BECHS has 1832 to 1854 on film and 1854 to 1996 in hard copy BECPL has 1854 to 1996 in hard copy Full list of owning libraries Buffalo Common Council Proceedings, 1991 to present
Buffalo Scrapbook Collection	Mainly 20^th century	The library has over 400 scrapbooks of newspaper articles about homes, houses of worship, hotels & taverns, schools, businesses, charities, major buildings, theaters, transportation, and prominent Buffalonians. The scrapbooks are indexed in the Local History File (see below).	BECPL
*Buffalo Theatres Prior To 1930*	Up to 1930	This comprehensive 400 page manuscript is by theater historian Ranjit Sandhu. It documents every known place with a stage or screen built in Buffalo prior to 1930, with indexes by name and address.	BECPL
Building Structure Inventory Forms AKA "Blue Forms"	1970s to present	About 3,000 buildings in Buffalo have been documented since the 1970s on what are informally known as Blue Forms. The best documented neighborhoods are Allentown, Hamlin Park, Broadway-Fillmore, Grant-Ferry-Forest, and Triangle. They may be seen by appointment by contacting the City of Buffalo Preservation Board	Buffalo Preservation Board
Business Records	Varies	Studying business records is often the only way to conclusively identify clients, dates, and everything a firm designed. Many Buffalo architects have come and gone and their business records were not always saved. Try searching WorldCat with the architect's name in the Author field.	WorldCat E.B. Green Digital Library
Deeds & Ownership Records	Approx. 1804 to present	If you are researching a building that you do not own and/or you don't have a title search for one that you do own, all property transactions in Erie County are recorded by the Erie County Clerk. Use the property links at the right to look up the present owner of a Buffalo or Erie County address.	Buffalo Property Ownership Erie County Real Property Dept. USPDR Property Reports and Information Western NY Land Transactions
Dissertations & Theses	Mainly 20th century	Many graduate students at UB and elsewhere have devoted their academic years to studying architects, buildings, styles & periods, neighborhoods, city planning, and urban history in Buffalo. UB has the largest collection of theses relevant to Buffalo.	BECHS BECPL Syracuse U. UB Architecture & Planning Library
Federal & State Census Records	1810-1930	In years ending in zero (and some years ending in 5), federal and state census enumerators went door to door collecting demographic data on the members of every household in Erie County. Fortunately for architectural researchers, census records are arranged geographically (by address), so you do not need to know the name of an owner or occupant to find a specific address. Census research will narrow down when a house was built and identify who lived in it. All surviving census records are on microfilm and the federal ones are online at Ancestry.com.	Guide to Censuses for Erie County BECHS BECPL BSC UB
Frank Lloyd Wright and Darwin Martin Collection	Early 20^th century	The correspondence, photographs, plans, and other documentation of Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House are preserved in the UB Archives. About 600 photos from this collection are online at WNYlegacy.org.	BECHS Wright Holdings BECPL Wright Holdings UB WNYlegacy.org
Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS)	Varies	About 50 local buildings have been carefully documented for HABS, many prior to demolition. The original reports are in the Library of Congress and are gradually being digitized.	Historic American Buildings Survey, Buffalo, NY
Historic Resources Intensive Level Survey	2003	Three neighborhoods have been carefully surveyed to the level of individual buildings: Broadway-Fillmore, Triangle (South Park/Abbot Rd.), and Grant-Ferry-Forest, which stretches east almost to Emwood. Includes photos. Multiple PDFs are online at the link to the right.	Buffalo Preservation Board
Landmarks	NA	Is your house or building a designated landmark? Is it in a preservation district or on the National Register? The table at the right shows which properties and neighborhoods in Buffalo have which designations. The National Register Information Service is searchable by city/town or name of building.	Districts & Landmarks in the City of Buffalo National Register Information Service
Libraries & Archives	Updated regularly	WNYLibraries is the combined online catalogs of multiple libraries in Western New York. WorldCat is the combined catalog of thousands of libraries around the world. Try a keyword search on Buffalo and architecture. Or search on the names of local architects.	WNYLibraries.org WorldCat
Maps	19^th to 20^th century	Street maps of Buffalo are useful for tracing how the city expanded and developed over time. By comparing older and newer maps, you can see when your neighborhood came into existence. See also Sanborn Maps.	BECHS BECPL Vintage Buffalo Maps UB
Newspaper Articles, Microfilms, and Indexes	Late 19^th century to the present	Newspaper indexes, whether in the form of pre-computer card files or online databases, are essential for finding articles about people, places, and things in Buffalo. The Grosvenor Room in BECPL calls their newspaper index the Local History File. Buffalo newspapers from 1811 to the present are on microfilm. For a comprehensive list of newspapers from Erie County and who owns them, see the New York State Newspaper Project. FultonHistory has scattered, vintage upstate NY newspapers, including some from Buffalo.	BECHS BECPL Buffalo News, 1989 to present FultonHistory.org NY State Newspaper Project UB
Obituaries	Early 19^th century to the present	When one exists, an obituary will provide a wealth of biographical information about the architect or former occupant of your building, including employer, interests, memberships, next of kin, and maybe a photograph.	Biographies of American Architects Who Died Between 1897-1947 Obituaries and Death Notices in Buffalo, NY Newspapers
Olmsted Parks	1869 to ca. 1925	Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons designed about 35 projects for Buffalo & Erie County, including public parks and private residences. To see them all, search the Olmsted Research Guide to the right by city/community.	BECHS Olmsted Holdings Olmsted Research Guide
Periodical & Journal Articles	Various years	Search on Buffalo at the National Trust Index to get citations for 100 articles about Buffalo buildings, neighborhoods, and preservation efforts. Most are from the Buffalo Preservation Report, the prize-winning newspaper of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County. It is available in hard copy at the Central Library of BECPL. Selected articles are online in full text at the Coalition website. Poole's lists articles from a variety of late 19th c. periodicals.	Buffalo Preservation Report Manufacturer & Builder, 1869-1894 National Trust Library Index Poole's Index, 1882-1887 Poole's Index, 1887-1892
Photographs	Varies	Period photographs are invaluable for understanding a building's evolution over time. Unfortunately, there aren't surviving pictures of every single building in Buffalo. Interior pictures are especially rare. BECHS has the largest collection of Buffalo house pictures.	BECHS BSC Vintage Buffalo Image Links
Sanborn Atlases	1880-1990s	Generally published every 10 years, these large atlases were produced for fire insurance purposes. They diagram every city building and structure in great detail and are superb for studying the physical characteristics of existing and demolished buildings and structures. Local libraries have Sanborns only for the City of Buffalo, not the towns or villages. The exception is the University of Buffalo and the Central Library, which subscribe to the Digital Sanborn Maps, with access to all of New York state. For those with deep pockets, EDR will compile Sanborn maps on a given property.	BECHS BECPL BSC UB EDR Historical Reports Using Fire Insurance Maps
State Preservation Historical Information Network Exchange	Varies	SPHINX is the (New York) State Preservation Historical Information Network Exchange. This newly revamped system tracks survey data on more than 250,000 properties in the state. Users can seek out information regarding historic resources within specific municipalities.	SPHINX
Vertical Files (VF)	Mainly 20^th century	Few Buffalo architects or buildings have had books written about them. That's where Vertical Files come in. They are collections of newspaper clippings, journal articles, brochures, and pamphlets about city planning, urban design, local architects, and major local buildings and residences.	BECHS BECPL UB
Wills & Estate Papers	1800 to present	This group of records falls into the Long Shot category. There are cases in which property owners leave properties to their heirs, leaving a paper trial that helps document the existence and ownership of houses.	Erie County Surrogates Court
Disclaimer: This table of sources and the institutions that own them should not be considered exhaustive. It reflects only what the webmaster has been able to verify at this time.

Built in Buffalo

How to Research Local Architecture Cynthia Van Ness

How to Research Local Architecture
Cynthia Van Ness