BUFFALO, NY – It was the benchmark storm by which we measure all storms in Western New York. In killing 29 of our Western New York neighbors and cutting us off from the world (and heat, and food) for a week, this storm also gave Buffalo a greater dose of respect for the power and cruelty … Continue reading Buffalo’s Blizzard of ’77: Newspaper, radio & TV broadcasts bring the storm back to life…
By Steve Cichon | steve@buffalostories.com | @stevebuffalo I was saddened to hear of the death of Donald Palmer, forever etched in Buffalo’s memory as “The Butcher.” He will remain forever one of Buffalo’s sports and pop culture icons. Rest in Peace. -Steve Cichon 11/22/16 BUFFALO, NY – I love preservation and giving current context to … Continue reading The Butcher and Preservation
It’s nearly inconceivable to me, but it was twenty years ago today. The letter that started my career at WBEN. Update, April 20, 2018: marks the start of my 25th year in radio, and I’m so happy that it’s at WECK… what we do there feels a lot like the old full-service radio I grew … Continue reading It was 20 Years Ago Today: Two Decades in Radio Goes By in a Flash
Parkside’s Biggest Battle: The Buffalo Zoo For better or for worse, the histories of Parkside and the Buffalo Zoological Gardens have really been inseparable. From Elam Jewett’s care of the first two deer donated to the city in 1870, to the arrival of Frank the Elephant in 1905, to the Depression-era WPA improvements that built … Continue reading Delaware Park and the Buffalo Zoo: Parkside’s Biggest Pride & Biggest Battle
Ideological Shift Parkside’s long-standing reputation as a politically conservative area predated the carving out of the neighborhood by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Granger Family, the first long-term white settlers in the area, was originally sent here with political patronage jobs from Thomas Jefferson. The Granger family’s stone mansion on property that it now a part … Continue reading Shifting Ideology in Parkside and Buffalo’s oldest community association
“Urban Renewal” After the war, people wanted to leave the worn city behind, in favor of bright, clean, shiny new suburbs. And what better way to get people to the suburbs than 4 and 6 lane divided highways. The original thought was enthusiastic, but, as later admitted, misguided. Planners said when the population along the … Continue reading Urban Renewal, Social Upheaval, Integration, and the Parkside Community Association
Erastus Granger had been at Flint Hill less than a decade; the Plains Rangers less than five years when the War of 1812 broke out. The Parkside/Flint Hill area played several prominent roles in that conflict. Flint Hill was an encampment and training ground for soldiers preparing to invade Canada. It was also a sanctuary … Continue reading Parkside Goes to War, 1812
Just north of Granger’s place (now Forest Lawn cemetery) along Main Street was the area known as “The Buffalo Plains;” its inhabitants known as “The Plains Rangers.” This wily group of frontiersmen– most of them veterans of the Revolutionary War– and their families settled and built farms along Main Street. Their homes were generally close … Continue reading The First Parksiders: the rough-and-tumble Plains Rangers
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