Spaulding Family - LINKS

Sidway Building
775-783 Main Street, SE corner of Main and Goodell, Buffalo, NY

Erected

1907

2-story addition

1913

Architects

McCreary, Wood & Bradney (original and/or addition?)

Style

Beaux Arts Classical Revival

Original owner

Charlotte Spaulding Sidway, daughter of E. G. Spaulding; wife of Franklin Sidway

Location

Buffalo Landmark Theatre District
TEXT below illustrations


Click on illustrations for larger size -- and additional information

Mayor E.G. Spaulding and his family lived on the present site of the Sidway Building

The Spaulding House. Spaulding indicated in his will that at his death the house was to be demolished. It was and this and the Spaulding Building were built on the property

The Spaulding House

The Spaulding House

Spaulding's daughter, Charlotte, - wife of Franklin Sidway - demolished the house and built the 4-story Sidway Building and the Spaulding Building next door (photo)

Additional stories were added in 1913

Unglazed terra-cotta brick facade. First floor store fronts.

Brick with terra-cotta ornamentation

Modillions supporting cornice

   

Franklin Sidway Monument in Forest Lawn Cemetery

Charlotte Spaulding Sidway Monument in Forest Lawn Cemetery

 

 

Franklin Sidway

Franklin & Charlotte Spaulding Sidway
Charlotte was the only daughter and eldest of three children of E. G. and Nancy Selden Strong Spaulding. Photo courtesy of their great grandson, Davied Carson

 

 

E. G. Spaulding's first marriage was to Jane Antoinette Rich. She died in 1841.

His second marriage, in 1842, was to Nancy Selden Strong. She died in 1852. Their children:

Almost two years to the day after Nancy died, he married her oldest sister Delia, whose husband Clark Robinson had just died. There were no children of this marriage, which lasted over 40 years, until her death in 1895.

About 1850 or 1851, Spaulding bought the Hollister mansion at 775 Main Street, the house in which Delia and E. G. Spaulding lived for their entire married lives.

It was the scene of many festive social occasions, including the marriage of the only Spaulding daughter, Charlotte, to Franklin Sidway in 1866, and the reception following the dedication of the Spaulding Bunker Hill cenotaph in Forest Lawn in 1875.

E. G. Spaulding indicated in his will that at his death the house was to be demolished. After Spaulding died in 1897 it was and this and the Spaulding Building were built on the property.

- Source: Elbridge Gerry Spaulding: A research paper on his Life and Accomplishments

See photo of Elbridge Gerry Spaulding's Victorian era Stick Style home of about 1870 as his summer retreat on Grand Island. "River Lawn," as the estate was called, had a half mile of river front and encompassed 350 acres of broad woodlands and cultivated fields. It was in this setting that E. G. Spaulding indulged his hobby of raising some of the finest cattle in the nation. During the 1930s, the estate became part of Beaver Island State Park.

See circa 1903 photo of the Spaulding-Sidway Boathouse in its original setting on the river front of "River Lawn." Built circa 1870 by Elbridge Gerry Spaulding in the late Victorian Stick Style, the boathouse is architecturally and historically significant as a rare and outstanding example of a late 19th century recreational structure. In 1935, when "River Lawn" became part of Beaver Island State Park, the boathouse was floated up river to its present site by Franklin St. John Sidway, E. G. Spaulding's grandson. The boathouse is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

See also: Photo of "River Lawn," a magnificent Georgian home built by Franklin and Charlotte Spaulding Sidway. Overlooking the Niagara River, the house became the center piece of "River Lawn," once the estate of Elbridge Gerry Spaulding. Upon the death of E. G. Spaulding in May of 1897, the three hundred and fifty acre estate passed to his daughter, Charlotte. The house and most of the out buildings, which dotted the estate, were destroyed when "River Lawn" became part of Beaver Island State Park.

See also:


Table information source: 1979 NY State Division for Historic Preservation Building-Structure Inventory
Special thanks to the Buffalo Preservation Board for their assistance

Color photos and their arrangement © 2003 Chuck LaChiusa
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