Larkin Administration Building, 1906

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:
Table of Contents

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.
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 20th 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 19th century 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 20th 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 20th 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 19th to 20th 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 19th 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 19th 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 20th 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.
Other Relevant Links


Further Reading

  • The Nearby History series
    American Association for State and Local History in Nashville, TN, and Altamira Press, © 1990
    The "Nearby History" series has volumes for Houses and Homes, Local Businesses, Places of Worship, Schools, and Public Places. Probably the best how-to books out there for local history research.
  • O’Donnell, Eleanor
    Researching a Historic Property (National Register Bulletin #39)
    Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1991
    Lists typical sources for architectural research and explains how to get a property listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
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