Templeton Park, University Heights

Gingko Tree, Templeton park -photo by patrick Willett

University Park Historic District- One of the finest neighborhoods in all of the city of Buffalo.

PBN newsletter article on this nomination (.pdf) portions of Larchmont Road, Niagara Falls Blvd, Radcliffe Road, University Ave, Allenhursst Road, & Pellhan Drive in Buffalo.
The University Park Historic District is a remarkable, intact example of an early 20^th century planned residential subdivision in the city of Buffalo. In the broad context of the city’s turn of the century development, the location and development of University Park reflects the importance of the streetcar and the rise of automobile use which determined much of the city’s expansion. The themes of suburbanization in the city of Buffalo are covered extensively in the National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF), Multiple Resources Associated with the Suburban Development of Buffalo, New York. For Residential Subdivisions to be added to the MPDF, the registration requirements state: The property type must represent the range of residential subdivision structures associated with the growth of the city into a new form during the period between the Civil War and World War II (1860-1945).

http://www.preservationbuffaloniagara.org/buildings-and-sites/preservation-resources/national-register-listings/

Housing Issues Addressed

The City of Buffalo and UB are collaborating on an effort to address issues relating to the housing stock in the neighborhood. "Operation Student Safety" has brought City and University officials into the neighborhood on Saturdays to ask students and other renters to allow licensed building inspectors into their apartments.

WIVB reported on the effort here, and the Buffalo News ran a story here.

The project will be discussed in greater detail at an upcoming UHC meeting.

South Campus, a neglected jewel

Photo © Patrick Willett

UB's South Campus, also known as the Main Street campus, located on 154 acres in northeastern Buffalo, is the former grounds of the Erie County Almshouse and Insane Asylum, of which four buildings still remain (Hayes Hall, the former insane asylum; Wende Hall, a former maternity hospital; Hayes D; and Townsend Hall, a former nurses' quarters).The college was designed by architect E.B. Green in 1910, and was intended to resemble Trinity College, Dublin.

Adjacent to the UB South Campus is the UB Anderson Art Gallery, a converted elementary school with an all-glass atrium exhibit space.

Stay classy UB!

This piece from UB's "operation Doorhanger" really helps to class up UB's image in the University Heights neighborhood.
My first reaction was -"are you serious"?

Promise Neighborhood Community Meeting

A community meeting to learn about the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood and give your input will be held Saturday, April 30, 2011 from 10:00am – 12:30pm at the Westminster Community Charter School 24 Westminster Avenue, Buffalo, NY.

A continental breakfast will be served at 9:30am.

Featured Speakers are Honorable Byron W. Brown, Mayor, City of Buffalo; Mark Czarnecki, President, M&T Bank and Dr. Yvonne Minor-Ragan, Principal, Westminster Community Charter School.

RSVP: Buffalo Urban League 716-250-2400

Buffalo was only one of 21 communities around the country to receive a competitive neighborhood development planning grant last October from the U.S. Department of Education’s $10 million “Promise Neighborhoods” program. The local partnership, called Buffalo Promise, will receive a total of $750,000 from the federal government and local funders, including M&T Bank and the John R. Oishei Foundation.

Source

University Park District Lecture

Information about the University Park district, now added to the National Register of Historic Places, will be shared on March 29.

Who: Lecture by Kerry Traynor
President, KTA Preservation Specialists

What: UB at Noon with Kerry Traynor luncheon program
Learn about University Park, the National Register of Historic Places, the planned suburban neighborhood, NYS Historic Residential Properties Tax Credit Program & the future of the University Park neighborhood

When: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at noon

Where: Allen Hall, Room 100
UB South (Main Street) Campus
University at Buffalo

Registration required by Tuesday, March 22nd
Cost: UB Alumni Association Member, $10
Non-Member, $12
Hosted by the University at Buffalo Alumni Association
Online registration see:
https://secure.www.ubconnect.org/olc/pub/BUF/event/showEventForm.jsp?form_id=69639

University Park could earn place on National Register

Buffalo News story:
Buffalo neighborhood nominated for historic designation

By Jay Rey

News Staff Reporter

National recognition is being sought for a triangular-shaped neighborhood that sprouted in the northeast corner of Buffalo as an urban subdivision in the early 20th century.

University Park, a slice of the city's University Heights neighborhood, was nominated for the National Register Historic District in November as part of a University at Buffalo class project.

Supporters are hopeful the national status will be granted in the spring, after the application is reviewed by the National Park Service.

"To be listed on the National Register is an honor," said Kerry Traynor, a clinical associate professor of architecture and urban and regional planning at UB.

University Park is made up of 252 homes and a park on portions of Larchmont Avenue, Niagara Falls Boulevard, Radcliffe Road, University Avenue, Allenhurst Road, Pelham Drive and Capen Boulevard between Main Street and Kenmore Avenue.

The neighborhood is ripe for the National Register, Traynor said, not necessarily for its Craftsman, Bungalow and Prairie Box homes, but for its planned design, which provided a gated, suburban flavor next to Main Street.

"It really was a good example of early suburban planning," said Traynor, an architect and architectural historian, who owns the consulting firm, KTA Preservation Specialists. "It makes it an interesting component in the history of Buffalo."

There are only 11 historic districts in Erie County recognized by the National Register, including Allentown, Delaware Avenue between North and Bryant streets, the Roycroft Campus in East Aurora and the Parkside neighborhood, which was designated in 1986.

The idea of a University Park Historic District was first raised last spring as a possible class project in Traynor's historic preservation course at UB. Her students did the preliminary research and work assessing the properties. UB graduate student Annie Schentag further developed the project as an independent study, using the information to complete the lengthy, detailed National Register application.

The University Park property was developed in 1913 by Anthony J. Huck, who wanted to capitalize on the purchase of land across the street for the university, Schentag said.

University Park boasted wider streets, manicured medians, larger-than-normal setbacks and garages to account for the rising popularity of the automobile. The neighborhood's development continued throughout the 1920s and '30s.

"It was sort of seen as this respite for this middle-class person who wanted to leave the crowded, crazy industrial City of Buffalo at the time," Schentag said. "What's really special is you can go there today and feel the sense of that pastoral environment."

The process for seeking the national designation has the support of the City of Buffalo and the New York State Historic Preservation Office, which listed University Park on the New York State Register of Historic Places in early December.

University Park homeowners seem receptive to the recognition, too, Traynor said.

It opens up property owners to tax credits for rehabilitating their houses, Traynor said, but homeowners aren't necessarily required to restore residences to their original historic condition to be eligible.

"We'll definitely do a project like this again," Traynor said.

jrey@buffnews.com