South Division Street - 1954
288 South Division Street and Pine Street
These images, taken by Buffalo Sewer Authority workers, are from the Ellicott
District in its last years before urban renewal
demolished 29 blocks of the oldest housing stock in the city. Demographically,
the area was a mix of Jewish, Italian,
and African-American residents at the time this photo was taken.
290 South Division Street
The housing stock was largely comprised of rental properties, owned by those
who had moved to better neighborhoods or
to the growing suburbs. The migration to Buffalo in the 40's and 50's of large
numbers of African-Americans looking for
manufacturing jobs had overcrowded the available residential space of this
area and, because segregation had restricted
African-Americans to this neighborhood, there was nowhere else for new arrivals
to find housing. The overcrowding was
serious and housing inspectors "overlooked" it.
300 South Division Street
During the 1950's, when momentum was building to demolish a large area of
the Ellicott District and erect new housing
with federal mortgage insurance, a 1954 survey found that in one section of
the district 78% of the structures lacked
central heating, 78% had extreme outside deterioration, and 45% had extreme
interior deterioration.
333 South Division
Objecting to the wholesale demolition of the district were the 250 business
owners (100 of them African-American) and
the 1,017 homeowners. The African-American homeowners lost the most because
they were prevented from purchasing a home
in any other part of the city; there was almost no housing for sale in what
was left of the about-to-become completely
segregated Ellicott District.
Demolition began in December 1958 and was largely completed by 1961. Over
2,219
families were evicted from the area. Aside from the Towne Gardens apartments
dedicated in 1966, little new construction took place for years. White residents
found housing
in other areas of the city; African-Americans moved to the Ellicott Mall (top)
or the
Douglass Towers (bottom) or sought housing in the Masten District. The red
rectangle
shows the area featured in these photos.
Rebuilding vacant Ellicott District land faced obstacles imposed by mayors
or the Common Council or the federal government.
Ironically, the wasteland created within sight of Buffalo's City Hall was
its own form of urban blight.
Above is the 2005 view of the corner of South Division and Pine Street.
By 2005, the area of South Division in the photos above has become the site
of newly-built attached townhomes. Trees
have also been planted. Once again, the demographic makeup of the district
reflects the integration which was historically
the Ellicott District.