Bungalow Style Houses in Buffalo, New York
by Tim Tielman
Executive Director, Preservation Coalition of Erie County
December 1999There are many bungalows within local preservation districts in Buffalo, including the Linwood and, especially, Hamlin Park districts. Hamlin Park, the cityís newest and largest historic district, contains over 1600 structures. The Preservation Coalition has documented every Hamlin Park house. I would be suprised if there werenít at least 100 bungalows among them.
Northland Ave. has a nice row of them, which perhaps can be restored to their original appearence if the city had a pro-active program (Donít hold your breath).
Also, Parkside West is a National Register District (basically an honorific, with no protective guidelines whatsoever). It contains many bungalows. It should be a local district, which is more protective, but the sentiment of neighborhood leaders at the time (about 10 years ago) was not in favor of it.
The Kensington-Bailey neighborhood has many bungalows, many unheralded gems.
The reason it seems our older houses get more attention is because they are in a constant state of endangerment. They typify the city and are being demolished by the hundreds annually. The Masiello Administration would like to demolish 20,000 of them in the next 10 years. We lost almost all of our Federal style rowhouses in the 1950s and 1960s. Our Italianate and vernacular workerís cottages are being wiped out in broad swaths of the East and West Sides. Many upper middle class houses, long become rooming houses, are being spot-demoíd because the city finds it much easier to do that rather than restore, as if a vacant lot adds more value to a street than a beautiful house. The city does not have a housing preservation program. It does not have a budget line for emergency repairs. It does have a demo program, and it does have a budget line for emergency demo.
See also:
