Preservation: From Ruin to Revival

A building’s journey from ruin to revival is one of struggle and patience, and one that ultimately can either renew a community or fail it completely. With harsh winters, high rates of building abandonment and lack of funds-- Buffalo may seem like a horrible place to look for preservation success stories, and yet there are many advocates for preservation willing to jump through all the hoops to save historic buildings. 

Finding Funding

Where many in Buffalo see abandoned buildings and impossible construction cost, Tom Yots, executive director of Preservation Buffalo Niagara, sees opportunities. 

“We have phenomenal building stock here in Buffalo,” he explained in his office at the historic Market Arcade building, “I say it often, but Buffalo was rich at the right time when all of these phenomenal buildings were being built.”

“But then we were poor at the right time,” he said, “during the 1970s and 80s when other cities were demolishing all of that and building shinning new skyscrapers we didn’t have any money to do that.” 

 “We have one of the oldest building stocks in the country with the city of Buffalo,” said Jason Wilson, Director of Operations at Preservation Buffalo Niagara.  

“It’s something like 62% of our buildings were built before 1940 in our downtown core – I mean that’s older than Boston, older than providence,” he said. 

Preservation Buffalo Niagara works to help owners of historic buildings to acquire tax credits and recommend a plan for preservation.

“In our work we’re not responsible for going out and actually purchasing properties and renovating them,” said Wilson, “We provide technical services to individuals that do. ”

“We make communities eligible to be able to receive some type of tax incentive,” he said. According to Wilson and Yots renovation is not possible without some type of incentive to the property owner.

“With the rents being as low as they are, it doesn’t justify it [a preservation project] economically without some type of incentive for a large investment,” said Wilson. This is done often times through a tax credit. 

“Basically, almost everything qualifies,” he said, “You have to spend at least $5000 and you can get 20% back on almost anything you do related to the building.”

President of Preservation Studios, Jason Yots takes a similar approach to find funding for historic preservation. 

“When someone comes to us with a building we help them determine whether it’s eligible for tax credits,” said Jason Yots, “meaning whether it’s eligible for listing in the national registry of historic places and if it is we help them with that nomination.”

“We don’t reject too many,” he said, “We probably get I’d say anywhere from 3 to 10 inquiries in a month, and of those 40- 80 opportunities, maybe 20 or 10 opportunities.” Preservation Studios has worked to help plan the preservation of the Williamsville Water Mill and nominate the Lord Amherst Motel to the National Registry of Historic Sites. 

“The only meaningful way that I have found to be able to consistently return buildings to investment status is the historic tax credit,” said Yots. Preservation Studios looks for buildings that are at least 50 years old and have some historical significance. Potential clients call Preservation Studios and a project manager investigates the buildings history using a simple internet search. 

“So someone who is thinking about getting into this: they’re first inquiry would be is my building old enough?,” Jason Yots said, “If it is old enough, is it significant enough? And if so, do I have a project here, or just an idea?”

“If it seems like something we want to encourage the person to do,” he said, “meaning it’s not a goose-chase, we’ll kind of let them know what it would take.” According to Jason Yots, typically, the buildings Preservation Studios cannot help fall into three categories:

1. The building qualifies but owner is too restricted by historic building restrictions.

2. The buildings that don’t quality because of deterioration or lack of significance. 

3. The real estate deals that simply fall apart because the developer lets the project go. 

Historical Architects: Preservation, Rehabilitation, Restoration and Reconstruction  

After a building has acquired the proper funding a historical architect is usually contracted to create a plan for the construction and preservation of the building. The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village museum’s Curator, Jessica Johnson knows all about building preservation. The museum is home to over ten historically preserved buildings housed in an outdoor village. 

“One important part of preserving historic structures is making a document called an HSR-- Historic Structures Report,” said Johnson, “An Architectural historian is usually the best person to do that.” 

Andrea Rebeck is a preservation architect who has made a career out of restoring historic buildings. 

“Once folks are aware that a building must be saved and have raised the money to do it, the architect is brought in to work on it,” Rebeck explained of her work. 

“Those of us in the profession of historic preservation accept the four definitions of treatments for historic properties established by the National Park Service:  Preservation, Rehabilitation, Restoration and Reconstruction,” she said. 

According to Rebeck there are ten steps she follows when restoring a building:

1. Establishing Goals with the property’s owner. 

2. Review and research building’s history. 

3. Document and photograph the historical site. Begin the earliest stages of a draft.

4. The architect and owner decide what historic tax credits to accept. While tax credits can seem wonderful on paper Rebeck warned, “These funding sources have stringent requirements that impact the program and the design.” In order to receive credit often the property owner is limited on can be modified within the building. 

5. After establishing what can and cannot be modified Rebeck begins drafting schematic design plans. She explained she does this to, “help the client visualize the design.”

6. The client will choose one plan that Rebeck will further elaborate on. 

7. With the approval of the client Rebeck finalizes her design plans by creating a more detailed construction plan. During this set Rebeck also drafts contracts for construction companies. 

8. During this step the property owner settles upon a contract with a construction company. Just like an ordinary construction project, bidding and negotiations are used to keep the price at its lowest possible point. 

9. During this next step the either the property owner or the architect will administer the construction contract. This is usually a difficult time for the project and a step that the architect might not even be involved in. 

“Not all building owners hire the architect to do this, though they should,” said Rebeck. 

 “This is the most critical stage of the process,” she said, “and the architect is the one with the expertise and the most familiarity with the historic building to manage this part of the process.” During this step contractors will begin the actual construction on the historic building and will work with the property owners and if possible the architect to achieve the desired goal.

10. At the end of this process the architect will check over the construction company’s work. Rebeck said, “When the construction work is finished, [I] certify to the building owner that it is complete and OK to pay the contractor in full.” 

When a Building Can not be Saved

Despite all the good intentions in the world sometimes a historic preservation project just doesn’t pan out. A particular project close to Williamsville is the Reist Mill. 

Images Copyright and Courtesy of the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village 

“It was a really significant structure in Amherst,” explained Jessica Johnson, “the earliest part was dating to the 1860s.” A committee was started to oversee the preservation of the historic mill just a few blocks away from the Williamsville Water Mill. All seemed well until tragedy struck. 

“The historic preservation commission was working on the Reist Mill,” said Johnson, “to get it preserved and figure out different possibilities for it – and then it burned.”

The building was completely burned to the ground on July 23, 2008. Although a complete investigation was never completed it has been speculated that the fire was likely a case of arson as the building did not have electricity. David F. Sherman, managing editor of the Amherst Bee reported that, “The last remaining building of a prosperous 19th century Williamsville milling company was destroyed by a suspicious fire early Monday morning.”

Images Copyright and Courtesy of the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village

Images Copyright and Courtesy of the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village

Other historic sites in the Western New York era have suffered similar fates. 

“We had a similar situation here in Buffalo with the old Wollenberg Grain elevator –which was I think the last remaining wooden grain elevator,” explained Jason Yots, “I believe it was owned by the city and fell into disrepair and eventually it was burned down I believe they determined it was arson or vandalism.”

Securing Buildings from Vandals and Bulldozers 

While the tragedies at the Reist mill and Wollenberg Grain elevator were a great loss to the community there are many precautions property owners can to protect their buildings. 

“In real estate it’s called mothballing,” said Jason Wilson, “Mothballing is to just fix the immediate concerns and make sure that [the building] it’s water and weather tight and then it can just sit there and wait for a use.” This process is especially hard for government agencies to comply with. 

“I mean securing the property is always the biggest piece and that’s what we’re trying to really advocate for with the city,” Wilson said, “I mean the city owns all these properties and ideally they’d like to sell them. But in the meantime they’re not securing them and what happens is people get in there and they hurt themselves or they set fires.” In addition to vandals our harsh Buffalo weather can wreak havoc on a building.

“Or really, what happens,” he said, “the majority of the time is that the weather and the elements get to the properties.”

Jason Wilson recommends that building owners shut off utilities, especially water, and sequre the roof as best as possible.  

Andrea Rebeck, who visited the Reist Mill, felt that the Village should have took more precautions against vandals even if it meant keeping electricity on. 

“For starters,” she said, “keeping the building secure so that no unauthorized people could enter it would have helped.  Keeping power to it would have helped, too, so it could be lit at night, or have motion-activated lights that would have alerted neighbors that someone was prowling around.”

But what can a historic property owner do when a powerful organization such as a development company or a growing hospital is threatening their building?

“its preferred if you can to keep the buildings in their original location, but if they’re under imminent threat or will possibly be demolished if it’s a significant building or important to the community in some way buildings are often moved,” said Jessica Johnson. 

“That’s the case of our buildings,” she added. The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Museum houses several historically preserved buildings moved from all over Amherst. 

“Our Hoover house came from Dodge road,” she said. Some of the suburban development companies whose land development threatened the buildings actually funded moving the buildings to the museum.  

Buildings were jacked up and placed on high beams which were attached to wheels and driven to a new location.

 “One of the major costs of moving is the electric lines,” said Johnson, “You have to pay the electric company to hoist the lines up or actually drop them over the height of a building.” 

Public Education

For Tom Yots and Jason Wilson another important but often overlooked aspect of historic preservation is the opportunity to educate the community. Yots, who spent many years as high school teacher before becoming an architect finds this aspect extremely important. 

“We are out there to advocate for historic preservation,” said Tom Yots, “the development advising that we do is because of the advocacy and the education.” According to Yots a community that is uneducated about the historic sites in their area will do little to aid in their protection. This is a problem Preservation Buffalo Niagara is working to correct. 

“We also do a lot of advocacy and education,” said Jason Wilson, “A lot of our education is through our Buffalo Tours program.” The program includes 16 different tours around Buffalo’s historic districts and sites. The tours are created using 150 volunteers and average around 1000 attendees a month. According to Tom Yots community education helps the community to appreciate the historic sites in their own neighborhoods. 

Communities are not always as open to preservation as Buffalo. As a town historian in Niagara Falls, Yots learned this the hard way when he tried to protect the home of a 92 year-old woman. 

“This 92 year-old woman put her house on to the registry to protect it because it was next  door to memorial medical center,” said Tom Yots, “and she knew they wanted it and wanted to tear it down – and it was historic it was designed by a famous architect.” The home was designed by architect Will Cannon who would later found the internationally recognized Cannon Design company. Yots was able to get the home on the Registry of Historic Sites.  

“Eventually she went into a nursing home and the hospital bought it,” said Yots, “We were fighting with them because they were planning on demolishing it. We even involved the Federal Government in it. We thought we were going great and then one day I got a phone call: ‘The house is being demolished, they just went in and tore it down.’”

Yots is very frank about the project’s failure. He said sadly,: “I’m not even sure that we benefited at all from that one because nobody is upset except us and a handful of preservation people.” 

“So, we lost and it was heart breaking,” he added, “But you don’t always win them.”

Body Beautiful

Visitors to the BNHV Can Explore the Evolution of Beauty at New Exhibit

    By: Katherine Guenther

 

        Visitors to the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village are in for a surprising new exhibit: Body Beautiful, an eccentric collection documenting the evolution of female beauty. The exhibit has everything from 1960’s breast implants and a 70’s jumpsuit to a collection fancy hats that would put Jackie O. to shame.
“We just had the opening 2 nights ago and there was about 85 people here, so, that was a really big turnout for us,” said Kayla Shypski, the BNHV’s Assistant Curator, and one of the leaders of this project.

1930s Perm Machine

 “The exhibit idea was already an existing idea”, she said, “but when I came on board we decided that we really wanted to do it.” While the project itself was started last fall the creation of the exhibit was started only two months ago.
“We really pushed to get it ready,” Shypski said, “We started in the space two months ago but I’ve been researching it, and finding artifacts for it for many more months.”
A crowd favorite at the exhibit’s opening is a strange metal contraption with silver tentacles that hangs like a weeping willow.
 “It’s funny that people hooked themselves up to electricity with that – with wet hair,” said Museum Events Coordinator, Jaime Brawdy. As the placard on the wall beside the strange machine will explain the device is actually a Frederic’s hair perm machine from the 1930s. The piece is one of Brawdy’s favorite artifacts in the exhibit.

Dress from 1884

“I used to be a hairdresser,” said Brawdy, “I definitely like all the hair items.” One of the oldest artifacts in the museum is a fancy purple dress complete with bustle from 1884. The dress is part of a series that documents women’s dress clothes from the 1880s to the 1970s. The exhibit also makes use of the museum’s vast textile and clothing collection.
“A lot of the textiles in there are from our collection. We have one of the biggest textile collections, I think, in New York State,” she said.

Collection of Hats

To gather the 170 artifacts needed for the exhibit the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village reached out to other museums such as the Buffalo History Museum, but also reached out to the Buffalo-Niagara community.
“We put out an ad out and we say, ‘looking for hair curlers or girdles or we’re looking for this from this time period. If you have them please contact the museum’, and a lot of people, you’d be surprised, come forward with it,” said. The museum, which has a strict budget, relies on these donations and its vast network of fellow museums to create exhibits.
“We don’t really pay for a lot of things. We don’t have that in the budget. If we take a new item in it’s usually because they want to give it to the museum,” said Brawdy. Much of the exhibit was created by the museum’s small staff.
“It’s very difficult especially when you’re trying to stay within budget,” she said.

The BNHV offers many interactive games for children.

“We do everything in house,” said Shypski, “We make all of our own cases. We made the manikin mounts. We do send out for the plexi [Plexiglas] and everything but most of it is done in here by myself or the head curator and our maintenance men.”
The exhibit is a refreshing look at history that looks at the evolution of beauty with a sense humor and perspective.
 Kayla Shypski said with a laugh: “Where else can you go in Amherst to just, look at some breast
                                                                                                          implants on the wall.”

The exhibit runs from May until 2015 at the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village at 3755 Tonawanda Creek Road in Amherst. The museum’s hours are:

Tuesday - Friday, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Saturday, 10:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Sunday, 12 p.m. - 4 p.m.

The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village

By Katherine Guenther

              History is full of individuals who were dealt a bad hand in life but found a way to persevere. Now Buffalo history buffs have a new example to look to: the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village. The museum that originally began as the Amherst Museum in 1972 faced a difficult set back in 2010.
“In 2010 we were no longer a department of the town of Amherst,” said Jessica Johnson, Curator of Exhibit Collections, “We took it as an opportunity to not only expand our audience but our regional focus for funding and also for exhibitions and programming ideas as well.” The Amherst museum changed its focus from the small Amherst community to the entire Buffalo-Niagara region—a bold move that changed everything for the museum, even its name.
“With the town of Amherst we were only reaching 120,000 people,” Johnson said, “with the Buffalo Niagara Regional name we’re getting 1.2 million.” Thankfully, the decision was met with success and the museum re-opened under the name: The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village.
While the museum still receives a much smaller stipend from the Town of Amherst most of its funding comes from its own earned revenue through large events such as German Fest.
 “Most of our funding is through special events and earned revenue from special events,” explained Johnson. Events such as the Scottish heritage festival, Rock Camp and Americana Days all help to fund the museum.
“Our biggest event every year is our Scottish festival,” said Events Coordinator, Jaime Brawdy, “And this year it will be our 29th year having our Scottish festival.” According to Brawdy the event draws in a crowd of over 5,000 annually.

The Museum 

The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village is unique in that it not only offers visitors a traditional museum but it also offers visitors a small community of 10 historic buildings to tour just outside.
“Outside in our historic buildings section we have 35 acres and 10 historic buildings,” said Jessica Johnson. The historical village offers visitors a rare glimpse into 19th century Niagara Frontier life and its architecture. The buildings include two school houses, a blacksmith shop, a barber shop, a log cabin and a church.
“We’re really unique for Western New York that we have both of those components- both a museum exhibition area as well as a hand-on interactive and immersive experience on our grounds and in our historic buildings,” said Johnson. The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village is even looking to expand its holdings.
“We are also reconstructing a barn later this fall from the 1820s,” said Johnson, “It was a barn that was dismantled and we’re reconstructing it on the grounds.” The barn predates the establishment of the Erie Canal and according to Johnson this makes the addition a real gem.
“It’s right in an earlier period in Western New York where you didn’t see a lot of settlement,” said Johnson, “So having a barn this early is a nice feature for us.” Johnson’s favorite building is a small log cabin known as the Smith house.
“We have our Smith log house which is a hand-hewn log construction house which was typical of the German construction style in the 1840s,” she said.

“That’s really unique in the sense that you can see the logs when you go inside the house and how there’s spaces in between them and how they had to fill them so there’s plaster over the top. It’s much more rustic than some of the other buildings,” she added.

Traditional Exhibits

It’s easy to forget while getting lost the historic buildings that the BNHV also holds a more traditional indoor museum.
“We have nine galleries inside,” said Johnson, “and they feature things related to regional history, like the Eire canal.” Inside the museum has preserved some of the features of the old Amherst museum with a gallery dedicated specifically to the history of Amherst.

Replica 1980's child's bedroom

“We have a history of our township, Amherst, but it relates really to many regions in Western New York and it’s called From Forest to Front Lawn,” said Johnson, “It explains how our community like many others in Western New York have changed from forested land, to farm land and now eventually suburbs.”
Johnson’s favorite exhibit, Modern Childhood, deals with the invention and evolution of childhood. The exhibit showcases the toys and games of children from the 1800s to the present and opened last February. Board games, dolls and even an old school Atari system were donated to the museum.

1796 boy's outfit

“We had a lot of great donations and objects that were lent to us by people in the community,” said Johnson.
“People’s favorite toys they lent and donated to us for exhibition,” she added. The exhibit includes a replica of a 1980’s child’s bedroom, a pre-1938 Mickey Mouse puppet and many teddy bears from various time periods.
The exhibit also deals with the evolution of children’s clothing and how it developed into a personal style. One of Johnson’s favorite pieces is a 1797 boys’ outfit.
“It was donated to us and it’s a handmade- hand sown outfit for a 3 year-old boy. It’s really elaborate and it really is an early piece for us,” explained Johnson.

How We Moved Here Exhibit

              Another exhibit sure to interest visitors is the How We Moved Here exhibit that explains to visitors how the museum’s historical buildings were moved to the Tonawanda Creek location. The relocation of historic buildings has posed a major expense for the BNHV as the buildings can only be moved using a grueling construction project.
“Basically they jack them up and use high beams underneath the structure and put wheels on them and attach them to a trailer or some sort of towing vehicle,” said Johnson. According to her one of the buildings was even cut in half during the process and later reassembled. The process is both laborious and expensive. However, one of the major expenses is in an unlikely place.
“One of the big expenses is having money for the line drops or pulling the electrical lines up over the buildings,” Johnson said. Ironically, some the historic buildings at the museum have been moved more than once.
“In 1972 when the museum started its original location was on Cayuga road, and then in ’74 they moved to Smith road and they started moving the historic buildings there,” she said, “Then when we moved to our current site and they moved the buildings a second time to the facilities here on Tonawanda Creek Road.” While moving an entire building sounds like a struggle, even in our modern era, Johnson explained that during the 19th century many buildings were moved.
“In the 19th century it wasn’t that unusual to move buildings,” she said, “It’s kind of an interesting counter-point that we did that in the 20th century.”

The German Festival 

A favorite event for BNHV’s Event Coordinator, Jamie Brawdy is the German Festival on June 18th. While not the biggest festival at the BNHV, the German Festival offers many unique and authentic experiences for visitors.
“The people that come to all these heritage festivals that we have, are very laser focused on if it’s correct in their eyes and if it’s authentic,” explained Brawdy, “So it’s important for us especially as an organization that educates to make sure that all of those aspects are correct.” Brawdy makes sure that visitors are treated to an authentic German experience. The event hosts three authentic German bands that preform in authentic costumes. In addition to music the event hosts venders for everything from German Cuckoo clocks to German chocolate.
 “Usually most festivals take place outside, weather permitting. We will leave open some of the homes and we will stock them with interpreters,” she said.
The interpreters are costumed actors that preform everything tin punching to baking pastries. Actors also demonstrate crafts such as, scherenschnitte, a traditional German art form where elaborate scenes and designs are created from cutting paper. The event hosts a strongman competition as well.
 “They’re professional athletes and they come out and they do some of the old fashioned, show-off, bar guy, strong guy competition,” Brawdy said. The German Festival is an all-encompassing event that not only entertains, it educates.
 “You’re not going to come here and get a slice of pizza and a bud-light and watch a blues concert,” said Brawdy, “At the German Fest you’re going to come here and be amerced  in that German culture.”

Kitchen inside the Bigelow House

Front gate of the Hoover House

The Smith Log House

Bigelow House

Front doors of the Transit Road Church

The Eagle House

By: Katherine Guenther

              Before Oziel Smith, the original owner of Williamsville’s Eagle House, could open his doors in 1827 he had one major problem:
“Actually the day before the restaurant was supposed to open it burned to the ground. Basically, he had to start from scratch,” said one of the restaurant’s current owners, Tricia L. Browne. The Eagle House began as a simple inn and tavern in a small community.

“We were a stage coach stop between the big city of Buffalo being built and Batavia,” she said.
A small fire set by workers got out of control and consumed the entire building before it could even open. A devastating setback but one that Smith, a frontiersmen, was able to get through quickly.

 “He owned a lot of things in the area. He had holding in the limestone quarry, and the sawmills. He was definitely like a pioneer – a founding father of Williamsville,” Browne said of Smith.

“The basement is stacked limestone- which is from the quarries around here,” said Browne.

“A lot of this stuff is all old original foundation from when the building was actually a stage coach stop.”

A series of underground tunnels connects several
buildings on Main Street.
Unfortunately many of the tunnels
are now permanently sealed. 

                  The basement is suspected of being part of the Underground Railroad, although this is a fact Browne is still unable to prove. However, Browne showed a reporter the remnants of underground tunnels that she explained connected to multiple buildings on Main Street. The tunnels are currently sealed.
Smith was able to create an established business on the property, one that would switch owners many times throughout its lifetime.

“There’s been a lot of ownership. It’s changed hands a lot,” said Browne. Currently, the restaurant is owned by the Hanny family.

“My family has owned it for a little over 30 years,” said Browne. The early Eagle House was quite different from the current restaurant that now sits on one of Buffalo’s busiest streets.

“There was a lot more woods around us. More like a wild frontier if you will,” said Browne, “I like to think of it as stagecoaches going up and down the street. And we have a horse tie out front so – I envision horses and stagecoaches and wagons being tied up in the front around Main Street.”

A Taste of the Past 

                  This old world charm is something that the Eagle house prides itself in preserving. The restaurant is adorned in dark woods that cover parts of the walls and the bar area. In the dining section, an old brick fireplace ads a different texture to the scenery. By the bar area, there are still reminders of the modern day, including big screen TVs and electronic cash registers, but they are hidden from the view of the diners.

                The restaurant is decorated in memorabilia from Buffalo’s history. Some of the artifacts hanging on the walls were given to Browne from customers and some are family heirlooms. One wall displays a series of old menus from different Buffalo restaurants dating back to the 1930s. These items, Browne explained, were part of her grandmother’s collection. On a wall in the other dining room a 1940s newspaper declaring Germany’s surrender hangs on the wall. This item Browne explained was a gift from a patron. On the wall across from this, actor Fatty Arbuckle can be seen in a photo with two young women that Browne explains are her great aunts.

Many of the Eagle House’s decorations are Hanny family heirlooms.
This large wood carving, however, was donated by a friend
who found it in his garage. 

“I am a fourth generation in the hospitality industry in Buffalo,” said Browne, “So a lot of things have been handed down to me from my grandparents, and my uncle and my father.” This not only includes family heirlooms but also recipes.

“Something my grandparents always served in their restaurants is something called welsh rarebit,” she said.
“It’s made with Canadian very sharp black diamond cheddar cheese. Which you get around the northern parts of the United States more so, and it’s made with stale beer- which is left to sit out and get flat. It’s kind of like a fondue if you will.”

Giving Back

Upstairs in the Eagle House
there is a room dedicated to
St. John Neumann
who rented the room many years ago
when it was still a tavern. 

                 In addition to family recipes, the Eagle House still proudly serves more traditional Buffalo items like Buffalo chicken wings and beef on weck. The restaurant also tries to keep a local Western New York connection.

“We always have New York State wines.” Browne said, “We’ll do some wine specials with things from the Niagara- some ice wines stuff during different times in the season.” One of the Eagle House’s local best sellers is Dr. Franks’ Salmon Run Riesling. In addition to local wine the Eagle House also tries to help out local farmers.

“There’s a farmers’ market out back every Saturday. That starts in May,” she said.

“This summer, we’re going to start a thing called “Farmers’ Market Saturday” and we’re either going to create an entrees or an appetizer, with things that we solely go over to the Farmers’ market and create,” she said.
             The Eagle House has participated in several local events over the years, including the Taste of Williamsville and Wines in the Wild at the Buffalo Zoo. However, Browne is especially proud of her restaurant’s involvement with Hospice Buffalo.

 “There’s about 10 restaurants in Buffalo and every month we take a turn doing ‘A Dinner to Remember’” she explained, “and we bring dinner to hospice – and we do dinner for all the families and all their patients.”
“We bring it all in and then we clean it all up,” she added, “so it’s a nice treat for everybody.”

Q&A: Preserving Historic Mills

By Katherine Guenther
In our troubled time of budget cuts and sequesters, residents of the Village of Williamsville may wonder just how practical a multimillion-dollar restoration project on an old water mill is for the community.
The Society for the Preservation of Old Mills or SPOOM, is a non-profit group founded in 1972 that promotes the historical and societal values of preserving historic mills. The organization’s president, David G. Haines, and Northeastern Chapter President Don Woods explained why historic mills can benefit the community.

Q: Why should communities preserve old mills?

“Old mills are a special category of historical buildings,” said Woods in a joint statement with SPOOM’s Northeastern board of directors. Woods explained that a functioning mill made frontier life possible for many early settlers.
“Usually some of the first buildings built were sawmills to produce the building materials needed to start and grow the new settlements and grist mills to produce food products for themselves and their livestock,” he said. Haines explained that mills were also a technological advancement for the time that has helped shape modern life.
“The modern equipment in our homes and industries are built on adaptations, transformations and combinations of earlier ideas and technology,” Haines said.
“The ‘watermill’ is the single piece of complex technology that enjoys the longest running history the world has ever seen - at least 2,000 years - and has sired more offspring than any other. The mill family ranges from clocks to automatic transmissions, early calculators and the printing press. . .,” he said. According to Haines, many historically preserved mills were owned by some of history’s greatest leaders.
“We have a penchant to honor and remember our great heroes, even our famous millers,” Haines said,   “George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln,  Davy Crocket, [and] Sgt. Alvin York of World War I fame, all have their mills protected as national shrines.” Haines said that even common mills deserve the same treatment.

Q: Will restoring a historic mill benefit the community financially?

                 According to Haines, the community will benefit economically from restoring a historic mill. “A refurbished old grande dame can continue to add value to its home or region,” Haines said, “attracting people to share and enjoy an authentic model of life in an earlier time.  In the long run, historic treasures are far superior to parking lots and pizza shops.”
According to Woods, the loss of mills has created a shortage of industrial jobs.
“In addition, this country started losing our industrial jobs along with our industries to other countries. We are losing our ability to actually produce the physical things that we need.” Woods explained that revitalizing old mills can be a helpful step in establishing more jobs in the community.
“If we save our industrial workforce, industrial heritage, and industrial infrastructure, then there will be something for returning industries to come home to and for emerging industries to tap into and utilize.”
Another financial benefit to the community is the use of a building that would have otherwise gone to waste. “A practical benefit of saving an old and/or historical building is the reuse of existing infrastructure in a community,” Woods said, “If an old building is saved and reused, then resources, neighborhoods, and livelihoods can be saved. This is especially true if the building can be reused for its original general use.”

Q: How common are old mills?

“The number of active mills has dwindled in the latter half of the 20 century,” said Woods, “As an example, there were approximately 11,500 flour mills in the United States in 1920, and currently there are less than 250.”

Q: What challenges do historical buildings face?

According to Haines, the challenge of finding dedicated and “stubborn” volunteers to work towards a building’s preservation is the greatest challenge a historical building can face.
“Interested and willing people are the key to historic preservation,” he said, “Their examples, including, being willing to contribute and to ask others for money, are needed  to start and maintain a project that will often be several years long.”
Don Woods argued that the challenge of, “Overcoming the general perception that new is always better and less expensive than fixing the old,” is the greatest problem facing historical buildings.

Q: What is your opinion of the Williamsville Water Mill?

“I’ve visited over 600 mills and mill sites in the last 20 years, including the Williamsville Mill,” said Haines, “The mill complex, over its lifetime, is a historic gem . . . a sawmill for 102 years, lime works, cement company, a grist mill and cider mill, in an area with a War of 1812 history, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.” According to Haines, the Williamsville Water Mill is an extremely interesting piece of history that the community should hold on to.

Glen Park: Scenery, History and Tap Dance

By Katherine Guenther

Glen Falls after a long rainy week. 

As the Village of Williamsville and the Iskalo Development Corp. work to remodel the Williamsville Water Mill another historic site sits just behind the building: Glen Park.
Williamsville resident, Mike Valentic has a strong attachment to Glen Park.  He built his home directly beside Glen Falls in 1985 and has watched the park change throughout the years.

Locals watch the falls from the observation path.

Glen Park rests on the historic remains of the Williamsville Water Mill which was established and has run continuously since 1811. The park boasts a small but picturesque waterfall that flows through Ellicott Creek and two large duck ponds connected by stone pathways. The park is a common destination for weddings and photography.

Under the Iskalo Corporation’s re-development plan the remodeled Williamsville Mill will connect directly to the park through the back of the building.
“The park as it is today was created in 1976 after a long battle with local government who wished to sell it for development,” said Williamsville Historical Society President and Glen Park Joint Board Trustee Mary Lowther in a written statement.

The park also offers a scenic walking path.

An Integral Part of Frontier Era

The park sits on the rear of the Williamsville Water Mill and the remains of the Dodge Mill which was destroyed in a devastating fire in 1894. Mills were an integral part of frontier life in the 1800’s.

Harry Altman's picture hangs in the
Buffalo Niagara  Heritage Village's Amherst exhibit.

“During the Westward Movement, a working mill-- especially a grist mill-- was often a social and economic magnet for new inhabitants,” said David G. Haines, President of the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills in a written statement.
“It was the mall of the Early Republic,” he said. While the milling industry in Williamsville died down at the turn of the century it was just the beginning for Glen Park.
The area has had a long and eventful history leading up to its establishment as a natural park. In the 1930’s the area was purchased by Harry Altman who built an amusement park and casino on the property. Mike Valentic, who is a professional tap dancer and singer, has many fond memories of the casino and amusement park.

Evidence that rides really were that cheap. Taken at the BNHV.

“You could ride the merry-go-round and play the different games there – just for a nickel,” Valentic said, “They had free entertainment, in fact, as an entertainer I performed in the Glen a couple of times.”
According to Mary Lowther the park is currently maintained through a partnership between the Village of Williamsville and the Town of Amherst.
“Once it was determined that it would be a park,” Lowther wrote, “the Village of Williamsville joined forces with the Town of Amherst to help make it into a beautiful passive natural park that is now enjoyed by thousands of people every year.”

A Place for Photos, Scenery and Art

In addition to a small walking trail and charming scenery Glen Park also offers the community an annual art festival in July. The Glen Park Art Festival is scheduled run July 27th through the 28th according to the Williamsville Business Association’s website.
Mike Valentic, who is on the Williamsville Arts Committee is looking forward to the festival. According to the festival’s Facebook page the festival showcases ten local restaurants and over thirty local artists in addition to displays for High school and Middle school artists. The festival will also showcase twenty musical acts which will be spread out through the two day festival.
Local artists are invited to apply for a spot in the festival on the Village of Williamsville’s website.

The History and Future of the Williamsville Water Mill

The water mill once owned by the namesake of Williamsville will be remodeled into a hotel and boutique retail store that will connect to Glen Park. The renovation project will be a joint effort between the Village of Williamsville and Iskalo Development Corp.
A year after the Iskalo Corp. introduced its initial re-development plan to the village and the registered historic site is still unoccupied and waiting for major rehabilitation.
Iskalo Development Corp. President, David Chiazza explained that the corporation does not own the property but is planning on taking over the property in 2014.
“The village owns the property,” said Chiazza, “and the village is a village- and not a private enterprise is able to get some historic preservation funds to help stabilize the property. We’re working with them on that and once they complete that then the plan is that we would then take ownership of the property and then complete the redevelopment of it.”
According to Chiazza the village has one final grant to secure before Iskalo can take over ownership.
“They are in the process of applying for the last of their grants from the state. That would complete the balance of the stabilization work,” he said.
 “Then we would acquire the property in 2014 and do our piece of the work.” After the village acquires its final grant, according to Chiazza, the village will remodel Spring St.
“They also have an engineering and landscape-architecture team,” Chiazza said, “to completely re-construct Spring St.”
Iskalo’s plan for the building originally incorporated a restaurant but parking concerns caused the corporation to change its goals.
“We submitted a presentation this past December that talked about, maybe eliminating the restaurant concept,” he said. Chiazza explained that the corporation has a perspective tenant that will use the space for food made and consumed on site; however, the name of this illusive tenant has not yet been released.
“We have a perspective user for the mill. We have not identified who that is yet,” Chiazza said.
The new plan calls for 12 to 15 “hospitality units” that would be located in the mill but operated by another Iskalo hotel.

A History Worth Saving
In 2006, Bero Architecture, a Rochester firm, prepared a historic analysis of the building’s history. The firm’s owner, Virginia Searl said: “We wrote a Historic Structure Report on the mill in 2006.” According to the report, the Williamsville Water Mill was once owned by Jonas Williams – who the Village of Williamsville is named after.
According to the Historic Structure Report, Williams built the current mill in 1811 as an improvement to an older mill he operated on the eastern end of the river. According to the report, “he built an improved mill on the west side with a 12 ft. overshot water wheel fed by a raceway from a stone dam built on the south side of Main Street.” This raceway can still be seen today on the rear of the building from Glen Park.
The saw mill was eventually converted into a cement mill around 1818 which ushered in a strong natural cement industry into the area. Throughout the mill’s troubled history the building has switched from owner to owner.
In 1947 the building was bought by Daniel and Grace Niederlander who started the early restoration of the building as well as marketed the mill as a historic site.  “[the] Property continued in use as a “historic mill”, with some milling activity, seasonal cider making, and a gift shop, through 2003,” explained the report.
It was Iskalo’s plan for a remodel that won over the Village Board of Trustees. “We were not selected to continue with redevelopment of the mill,” said Virginia Searl.
Preservation Studios, a Buffalo run consulting firm, which describes itself on its website as a “full-service historic preservation consulting firm”, was placed in charge of negotiating a development deal between the Village of Williamsville and Iskalo Development Corp. in spring of 2011. While Preservation Studios is no longer involved with the project, Jason Yots was willing to explain the firm’s involvement with the project. “Preservation Studios was previously engaged as the consultant to help find an additive reuse,” he wrote in a typed statement.




The Price of a Restoration

According to Iskalo’s 2011 presentation the Williamsville Water Mill renovation will cost $7.940 million dollars to complete.
The village is not alone in funding the project. A multitude of grants and funds are available to the village. According to Jason Yots the Preserve New York program, NYS Environmental Protection Fund and private funds are all available to historic buildings.
 Jason Yots cautioned that remodeling an historical building in a small town can be difficult. He wrote: “Economic challenges... Declining and sprawling populations often make re-use infeasible without incentives.”