Balcom House

Northeast view. Abandoned.

Facade Style: Italianate and Second Empire

Italianate paired brackets and rounded windows

Wrought iron featuring C and S scrolls
It is highly likely that the ironwork on the Balcom House was made by Levi Larkin (father of John D. Larkin).

The Balcom House at 89 Niagara Square was built in about 1852 by Philo Adams Balcom (1807-1879) and his wife Mary Ann (Larkin) Balcom (1806-1889).

Mary Larkin was the sister of Levi Larkin and aunt of John D. Larkin (founder of the Larkin Company).  In 1829, Mary came to Buffalo from England with her first husband Edmund Ralph whose family owned a brickyard business in England.  Edmund Ralph opened what was said to be the first brickyard in Buffalo.  Edmund died during the cholera epidemic of 1832, and Mary continued running the brickyard alone.

She married Philo in 1837, and he went into the brick business with her, operating it under the firm name P.A. Balcom.

In 1855, the Balcoms sold the Niagara Square house and moved to a house they built on the northeast corner of Main and Ferry, razed prior to 1909 (see article below for details on that house).

A note about the ornamental iron work on the Balcom House. Mary’s brother Levi Larkin, age 16, came to America in 1834 to live with her.  Levi, an ornamental ironworker, later owned the Clinton Ironworks.  It is highly likely that the ironwork on the Balcom House was made by Levi Larkin (father of John D. Larkin).

Research by Alexandra Esty Stocker (Larkin descendant)
2025

SEEING BUFFALO OF THE OLDEN TIME

THE BALCOM HOMESTEAD

By Grace Carew Sheldon

In 1828 [sic, actual ship departure date was 27 Jun 1829] there sailed from England a Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Ralph, who left a comfortable home in Rye, Sussex, to enlarge their opportunities in the new land of America. After a six-weeks' voyage, and a journey up the Hudson River and through the Erie Canal, they arrived in Buffalo intending to go by the lake to Cleveland and from there by stage to Pittsburg, to which town their tickets were bought.

As Providence would have it an adverse wind delayed them here and manlike Mr. Ralph went out to see the village of Buffalo, during which tour he met Deacon Goodell, who learned that Mr. Ralph knew the art of brick-making, then unknown in Buffalo. Offering Mr. Ralph a fine inducement to make enough bricks with which he desired to build a house, Mr. Ralph returned to the packet and persuaded his wife to give up Pittsburg and remain in Buffalo temporarily. They accepted Deacon Goodell’s offer of a log house on the southeast corner of Main and Goodell streets, the site of the now razed E.G. Spaulding mansion.

Mr. Ralph rented a parcel of land lying between Virginia Street and Burton Alley and extending east from Elm Street for several acres. Here he opened the first brick yard in this part of the United States, and some of the first bricks made here are said to be in the Scheu homestead, still standing on Goodell Street.

To make a long story short, the Ralphs never went to Pittsburgh, as Mr. Ralph ultimately bought this tract of land and built a house at No. 313 Elm Street. Their children were Mary, deceased: Jane, who married John Chamberlain, dying in December 1906; Reuben L. and Edmund S. who was three months old when they came to Buffalo. In 1832, when well established in business, Mr. Ralph became a victim to the cholera epidemic which swept over Buffalo. This was a time that tried men’s souls and women’s too, but Mrs. Ralph was capable of bearing up under the affliction. Alone she carried on the work her husband had so well established, brought up her little family, and was ever a consistent member of the Washington Street Baptist Church.

After five years, Mrs. Ralph married Philo A. Balcom, who had come from Hamburg, N.Y., to Buffalo, and became associated with Mrs. Ralph in business. Mr. Balcom proved himself a good husband and a fine businessman. In 1852 he moved the brick yard up town into the Cold Spring district, procuring the land from Masten Street to the driving park and from Ferry Street to old-time Puffer Street, now Northland Avenue.

Their children were Mary, Mrs. Hovey J. French, now Mrs. John B. Sackett; Philo A., Jr., who died in January 1885; Matilda, Mrs. John E. Robinson of No. 41 East Utica Street, and Cynthia M., who died in February, 1885. Philo Jr. married Miss Clara M. Smith, their two sons being Harrison Clifford, deceased, who married Mary Lee Perkins, they having one daughter, Marion, and Frederick H., who lives at Jamestown, N.Y. Mrs. P.A. Balcom and Mrs. H.C. Balcom live at No. 214 Highland Avenue.

Edmund S. Ralph married Malvina B. Clark of Norwich, Conn., who is still living at No. 47 Harvard Place. Their children are Ida M. Clark, who married Emily Rogers and lives at No. 103 Lancaster Avenue; Gussie, Mrs. T. Swain of Des Moines, Iowa; Ben C., who married Jean McMillan, living at No. 310 Woodward Avenue; Edna J., Everett S., of Albany, N.Y., Frank B., of Minneapolis, Minn., Reuben L. of New York City, Molly, Mrs. A.M. Flynn, and Howard L. of Boston, Mass.

Reuben L. Ralph had one daughter, Clara, who married Earl Morton, their daughter being Miss Daisy Morton. Mr. and Mrs. John Chamberlain (Jane Ralph) had two daughters, Hattie and Grace.

Madam Ralph-Balcom, who was Mary Larkin, was an aunt of John D. Larkin, whose father, Levi Larkin, with a sister came to Buffalo from England in the early days.

The home which Mr. Philo Balcom built at the northeast corner of Main and Ferry streets was one of the most spacious of its kind. It was of brick and extended about 40 feet square on Main Street with an ell running back on to Ferry Street which portion of this fine house we show today being all that is left of the old home, which was razed by John C. Graves, whose family inherited it from A.C. Moore into whose possession it passed after Mr. Balcom’s death in May, 1879, at which time Mrs. Balcom moved to a house she owned at No. 300 Linwood Avenue. Madam Balcom died September 2, 1889.

This homestead, which was divided by a broad hall in the center with rooms to the right and left, has been the scene of many family gatherings, for so adroitly did Madam Balcom manage that the children of her two husbands loved each other as one family. Mr. Balcom also erected a large frame building to the north of his house in which he established a general store for the convenience of his many employees. His establishment as well as those of all Cold Spring families were abundantly supplied with quantities of pure spring water, which today is still tapped from a depth of 35 feet in this vicinity.

On the opposite corner of Main and Ferry streets stood John Robinson’s celebrated carriage factory, whose son, John E., married Matilda Balcom March 23, 1881. On the southeast corner of Main and Ferry streets stood a famous old tavern from which courtyard the Miller coaches went to the foot of Main Street and returned for the reasonable sum of 20 cents the round trip. This region is replete with early history which THE TIMES will give ultimately to its readers.

Niagara Falls Gazette, 7 May 1879, p.3, col. 6.

Obituary for Philo A. Balcom

Buffalo papers of Monday contain notices of the death of Mr. Philo A. Balcom, a resident of Buffalo since 1827. Mr. Balcom had many relations in the county some years ago, some of whom yet remain. Dr. Balcom, of Lockport, is a nephew. Two brothers were residents of Dickersonville, in this county, many years ago. Some of our readers will therefore have an interest in the following, which is a portion only of the notice in the Buffalo Express of Monday.

Another old, widely known and much valued citizen who had been a resident of Buffalo from its village days, Philo A. Balcom, closed a busy life shortly after seven o’clock yesterday morning at his residence, corner of Main and Ferry streets, after a few days’ illness. The deceased gentleman was a son of John and Abigail Balcom, and was born in Eden, Madison County, this state, July 18th, 1807. The family did not long reside there, but were at various points in the state until 1813, when they located in Hamburg, this county. They resided there and Philo was about six years of age at the time of the burning of Buffalo.

In the year 1827 young Balcom came to this city, which was ever afterward his home. In 1837 he was married to Mrs. Mary Ralph. Her family had been engaged in the manufacture of brick, and this business Mr. Balcom continued, increasing it to a very large extent. All the yellow brick used in this city for building under the grade of Milwaukee brick, have, we understand, been made by Mr. Balcom. He was also the originator of the business of manufacturing drain tile in this city. A shrewd, clear headed man in all business affairs, he was very successful. When he retired to Cold Spring he started a grocery store for the accommodation of his friends and neighbors, and continued to conduct it until the time of his death.

Mr. Balcom served three terms as Supervisor from the Eleventh Ward, but otherwise sought no public place. He had been a director of the National Savings Bank from the time of its organization. He was for a great many years identified with the Baptist Church, being first a member of the Cottage Baptist church, at the corner of Washington and Clinton streets, now the French Evangelical church. Of this church he was one of the organizers, and one of its trustees until that building was disposed of, the congregation organizing anew and locating on Niagara Square. For the church on the Square he donated all the brick, and also that used in the construction of the parsonage. He continued in membership there until the close communion Baptists were succeeded in possession of the church by the Free Will Baptists.

He leaves four children, Mary—now Mrs. Hovey French—Philo A. Jr., Matilda A., and Cynthia M.; seventeen grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Mr. Edward S. Ralph and Mrs. J. E. Chamberlin were his step-children. The entire family, with the exception of one of the grandchildren, gathered about his dying bed.