What It Looked Like Wednesday: Main Street, Williamsville, 1960s

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

A series of postcards showing off different portions of Main Street give a fantastic look back at the Village of Williamsville and how it’s changed since the 1960s.

Government buildings on the east side of Main are a mix of old and new.

(Buffalo Stories archives)

The building that once housed the Amherst Police is now the Williamsville Village Hall and Hutchinson Hose Company. While the Williamsville Library doesn’t look all that different, the lot just to the north does for sure. The stone building on the postcard above is the old Williamsville Village Hall, built in 1908 as offices for both the town and village.

The stone building was torn down in 1965 to make way for the current Amherst Town Hall.

The names on the buildings have changed, but the buildings themselves haven’t changed much over the last 60 years at Main Street and Cayuga Road. Among those gone are Mister Donut, Glen Pharmacy, Fred Roneker’s and Marine Trust.

(Buffalo Stories archives)

Another block south, and the view is still mostly familiar.

(Buffalo Stories archives)

A house has given way to a parking lot next door to Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church on Main Street.

Torn-Down Tuesday: South Park and Louisiana, 1890

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Standing in this spot today, you get a good view of a gas station and a Family Dollar in front of you and the Commodore Perry Housing Complex at your left. Today, it’s the corner of South Park Avenue and Louisiana Street.

Buffalo Stories archives

Buffalo Stories archives

In 1890, South Park had not yet been built. Parts of the street now called “South Park Avenue” were then known as Triangle, Abbott and Elk, among others.

This Elk and Louisiana streets intersection was the crossroads of the Old First Ward. A block or two in either direction were canals and the homes of scoopers teeming with the Irish immigrants who were the foundation of Buffalo’s milling and grain industry.

the St. Patrick’s Day parade at the same Elk and Louisiana intersection, in 1925. Buffalo Stories archives
the St. Patrick’s Day parade at the same Elk and Louisiana intersection, in 1925. (Buffalo Stories archives)

While nothing but the streetscape remains today, some of the stories remain.

While half the storefront was replaced by the Marine Trust Company by 1925, the name Charles Lamy is clearly visible in the 1890 photo.

Lamy was a grocer, saloon keeper and state senator. Born in Eden, he opened a small shop at 305 Elk as a teenager in 1873 and stayed in business until his death in 1929.

He was instrumental in helping the people of the First Ward find a unified political voice. Among his accomplishments was to help shatter the “saloon boss” control of the livelihoods of Buffalo’s grain scoopers. Into the first decade of the 1900s,  owners of lake shipping concerns would turn over the wages of scoopers to saloon owners who would make sure the men’s bar bills were paid before there’d be any money left for their families to eat.

Lamy was one of eight trusted men elected by scoopers to speak on their behalf to the shipping companies in Detroit. He’s buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.