Slides for a lecture on urban barns in the city of Buffalo

1. Urban Barns
 Vincent Kuntz

2. About Me
 Building Trades since 1977
 Former municipal Building Inspector
 Preservation & restoration specialist
since1990
 Lift large buildings with my thumbs.

3. Norwood Avenue
A turntable
for the
carriage
A perch
for the
pigeons

4. Norwood Avenue
 Modified for cars
 Small window at right locates a horse stall

5. 464 Norwood Ave
 A return to glory

6. 18 Abbotsford Place
A simple plank building at a tradesman’s cottage

7. 414 Richmond Ave
 A work in progress, lifted
and new foundation in 1998

8. 32 Essex Street
 Stable within City Ice Plant
#5. Note the hay loading
door and stall windows

9. 38 Essex

10. 51 Essex Street
 Drive door changed to triple window.
 Now a 2 unit house.

11. White Brothers Livery
Jersey Street
 Horses downstairs, carriages upstairs

12. Jefferson Avenue at Northhampton
 House is gone but the barn lives on.

13. Wilson Street

 Barns for Fillmore Ave. homes on the east side
 Houses on the west side

14. Paderewski Street at Fillmore Avenue
 Wood frame barn
for the
shopkeeper’s
horse & delivery
wagon

15. North Parade Street

16. 144 Archie Street
 Transition from horses to autos. Door heights raised,
an old masonry soldier course shows at left door.

17. 144 Archie Street
 East & West elevations

18. 301 Cedar St
 Port cochere in front.
 Barn in rear, brick arch at drive door.

19. 64 Nash St. at Broadway
 7 stall windows, 24”w x 36”h
 East wall repaired with salvaged brick

20. 379 Ellicott St
 Upper story removed
 Stall windows at south side

21. Hersee Alley @ Blossom St.
 Italianate
details
 Semicircle and
segmented
arch windows
 Basement at
east end
 mid 19th
century
complex

22. Blossom Street
 Corbelled window hoods

24. 75 W. Huron
Miller’s Livery
Stable

26. 75 W. Huron details
 Door on left was cut through the sandstone, it lacks wheel
curbs and battered (inclined) as at the other doors.

27. 75 W. Huron
 Ghost of the metal cornice on the chimney.

28. 117 W. Tupper
 Flat arch over inset
masonry surrounding
the fanlight door &
window
 A possible
conversion. 1894
atlas does not show
this as a stable but
the building has a
characteristic façade.

29. 119 W. Tupper
 1894 atlas shows
rear half as stable
 What was earlier
use of front half?
 Fire house?

30. 121 W. Tupper
 Founded in 1867, the second society in the nation.
 Formed to protect working horses. Life expectancy
of a streetcar horse was 4 years.

31. 120 W. Tupper

32. 198 Hamburg Street at Miami Street
 Vernacular apartment over the shop and rear barn.
 Retaining wall of the elevated DL&W railroad is
alongside the barn.

33. 539 South Park
 Formerly part of a three lot parcel. There is a door at the west
end, now the property line. It likely led to a paddock for the
horses.
 Roof frame is timber trusses with steel rod tension ties rather
than simple rafters.

34. Why should you save yours?
 It is irreplaceable
 Barns aren’t just for car storage anymore
 Great for gardeners, kid playhouses,
workshops, home offices

35. Who can help you?
 Barn Again
www.barnagain.org
 NY State Barn Coalition
www.barncoalition.com
 NYS Barn Tax Credit
investment tax credit, depreciable property