Archive - WNY Heritage

The Heart of a Neighborhood: St. Ann’s Church and Shrine

As the community rallies around the preservation of St. Ann’s Church and Shrine, the author recalls its history, its significance and its unmatched interior beauty.

What to do with the Dead? Niagara’s Oakwood Cemetery

Oakwood Cemetery, opened in 1852, was typical of the Rural Cemetery Movement — but far from ordinary. Designed by railroad engineer Theodore Judah, it’s the only cemetery with a section dedicated to Niagara’s daredevils.

Landscape Into Cityscape: Buffalo’s Pioneering Park System

Thanks to the ground-breaking ideas of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the beautiful Buffalo park and parkway system was the first of its kind in the world.

Old Photo Album: The Buffalo I Knew

Marc Koch chronicles many now-gone Buffalo buildings in this series of photos from 1978 to 1981.

Another Look: The Webster Block

As work on the HARBORCenter gets underway in Buffalo, we look back on the colorful history of the Webster Block.

Eden Electrified: Industrial Utopian Dreams and the Promise of Niagara Falls

As Niagara Falls became increasingly industrialized in the late 1800s, the region represented promise and opportunity — a perfect place for dreamers to imagine a utopia, or an ideal society.

Vaudeville, Vacancy and Restoration: A History of the Hollywood Theatre in Gowanda

In the 1920s, a fire ravaged Gowanda and left only a pile of rubble where its grand Opera House once stood. The community was devastated, but a local businessman was waiting in the wings to construct its next great movie playhouse.

Old Photo Album: The Public Works Administration in Buffalo

Springtime brings streets repairs, but rarely has Buffalo seen an upheaval of pavement on this scale. Our photos of the sewer replacement during the New Deal document the activity, while providing views of streetscapes now lost.

Western New York Heritage

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