Buffalo’s Pop Culture Heritage 74 - Buffalo Stories Archives & Blog

M&T shows off its new Elmwood office

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Thirty-five years ago this week, The News began celebrating the 100th anniversary of the paper’s starting a daily edition.

In the special section called One Hundred Years of Finance and Commerce, The News recounted the history of a handful of Buffalo’s financial and commercial industries and provided ad space for many companies involved in those industries to tout their own contributions.

M&T Bank had been keeping Buffalo’s money safe for 24 years by the time The News started its daily editions, but in 1980 the bank was solidly in growth mode — including in the Elmwood Village.

The bank’s new “Elmwood Plaza” office offered state-of-the-art bank technology as well as what they called a “mini-park.”

It’s easy to laugh at the idea of a mini-park — especially since the same bench and trees on concrete slab stand there today. But in 1980, the idea that a tree might be planted in a spot “where a car could park” likely seemed pretty radical.

Remembering Buffalo’s first jeweler, Tanke’s, established 1857

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Thirty-five years ago this week, The News began celebrating the 100th anniversary of the paper’s starting a daily edition.

T.C. Tanke was one of Buffalo’s early prominent citizens and was one of the city’s first silversmiths in 1857. Thousands of finely crafted pieces of jewelry and silverware made their way into Western New York homes through the 131 years Tanke’s was in business downtown. The shop closed in 1989.

Buffalo in the 80s: ‘The Original (Jimmy Griffin) Buffalo tie’

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Kleinhans, AM&A’s, Riverside Men’s Shop and others all sold their own version of the Buffalo ties that were popular with the men of Buffalo in the ’80s (and especially with the mayor), but few had as wide a selection as the Squire Shop on Main Street in Snyder– which was the original home of the Buffalo tie.

Thirty years ago this week, the neckwear most associated with Jimmy Griffin came in 20 different colors near Main and Harlem.

Buffalo in the 70s: ManTwo men’s (disco!) fashions

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

A man looking to look his best at Club 747 or Uncle Sam’s might have shopped at one of the three locations of ManTwo in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

This ad appeared in The News in July, 1980.

It’s probably fair to say any suit purchased at this sale, held 35 years ago this week, would now only come out for once a year for the day after Thanksgiving at the Convention Center, if ever at all.

Buffalo in the 80s: Retailers are sold on Buffalo

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Thirty-five years ago this week, The News began celebrating the 100th anniversary of the paper’s starting a daily edition.

In the special section called One Hundred Years of Finance and Commerce, The News recounted the history of a handful of Buffalo’s financial and commercial industries, and provided ad space for many companies involved in those industries to tout their own contributions.

This piece traces the history of retailing in Buffalo with names like Robert Adam and his brother JN, William Hengerer, Edward Kleinhans, Mathias Hens and Patrick Kelly.

The elegant evolution of Delaware Avenue shopping

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Thirty-five years ago this week, The News began celebrating the 100th anniversary of the paper’s starting a daily edition.

While much of Buffalo bought most of what they needed from the large department stores on Main Street — and then later their branch stores in shopping malls and plazas, and then, ultimately, at discount department stores — a certain segment of the city’s population shopped in elegance at the chic, more continental-feeling shops of Delaware Avenue.

Mabel Dahany, the Jenny Shop, Tegler’s and Pitt Petri offered a more sophisticated atmosphere to more sophisticated shoppers.

Buffalo in the ’40s: new $4,800 homes in Williamsville

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Pearce & Pearce built hundreds of homes across Western New York in the years leading up to World War II, and hundreds more in the area’s postwar housing boom.

Thirty homes were ready for completion in July, 1940, including in the North Union/Main, Harris Hill/Main, and Lamarck/Wehrle areas.

13 july 1940 williamsville homes — Buffalo Stories archives

Buffalo in the ’40s: The West Side prepares for war

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

The Connecticut Street Armory is an imposing presence on the West Side, known for decades more as a home for car shows, punk rock concerts, and proms.

But of course, it’s primary function remains as a home of the New York National Guard and the longtime home of the 174th Regiment. It was also there on Niagara Street where the 174th was activated to train for service as the country readied for World War II.

Armed men protected the gates of the armory 75 years ago today, July 13, 1940.

Buffalo in the ’40s: SharkGirl marks the spot where steamers left from Buffalo

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

The Canadiana, and its trips to Crystal Beach from the foot of Main Street are well remembered around Western New York.

Perhaps not as well remembered were the luxury steamers that would pick up passengers right around the spot where people now pose with “SharkGirl,” and take them across the Great Lakes to places like Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago.

Shark Girl currently sits on the site of Memorial Auditorium, number 4 in this 1940s photo. There’s a passenger ship docked at the current site of the Naval Park. A generation earlier, the docks extended up the Commercial Slip– which was filled in by the time this photo was taken, but was re-watered as a part of the development of Canalside. (Buffalo Stories archives)

Both of these ads were in The Buffalo Evening News in July, 1940, and both offer Buffalonians the chance to travel via the Great Lakes.

Buffalo in 1910: ‘Furnishing Buffalo with the finest milk in the world’

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Imagine just-harvested milk sitting in barrels on farms, loaded onto uncovered carts to be taken to the hot boxcars of the nearest train.

That’s how milk was served in Buffalo 110 years ago, and it’s no wonder that such milk served as a breeding ground for strep, diphtheria, scarlet fever and other maladies.

While the new procedures implemented to keep milk a bit cooler hardly seem like enough by today’s standards, they were big advances in providing the city with healthier milk.

From July 10, 1910: