Buffalo in the 1900s: The Standard Wheel Club at Gurgschat’s

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

The Standard Wheel Club was one of dozens of small athletic clubs in Buffalo around the turn of the century, sponsoring bicycle races, boxing matches and a baseball team.

Buffalo Stories archives

Members also regularly held sing-alongs and drank plenty of beer in the sample room of member William Gurgschat at 422 Genesee St.

As a professional musician, Gurgschat encouraged the musical part of the group’s existence, especially for the 10 years he owned the gin mill and clubhouse from 1893-1903.

Now a vacant lot, through the ’40s and ’50s, the spot was owned by Joseph Patano and known as the Spring Inn.

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Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.