Top Five Urban Legends About Grover Cleveland in Buffalo

Top Five Urban Legends
About Grover Cleveland
in Buffalo
Cynthia Van Ness, MLS
Director of Library & Archives
library@buffalohistory.org
©Buffalo History Museum, 2015

Whatever you do,
tell the truth

Top Five Urban Legends About
Grover Cleveland in Buffalo
www.buffalohistory.org
1. Cleveland was a guest at 619 Lafayette Avenue
2. Cleveland lived at Linwood & Summer
3. Cleveland lived at 51 Johnson Park
4. Cleveland used to drink at Ulrich’s
5. Cleveland’s hunting lodge is now Grover’s Bar & Grill

Grover Cleveland Chronology
• 1837: Born in Caldwell, NJ
• 1855: Moved to Buffalo
• 1859: Admitted to the Bar
• 1862: Elected Buffalo Ward Supervisor
• 1863: Appointed Assistant District Attorney of Erie County
• 1871: Elected Sheriff of Erie County
• 1881: Elected Mayor of Buffalo
• 1882: Elected Governor of New York, leaves Buffalo
• 1884: Elected 22nd President of the US
• 1892: Elected 24th President of the US
• 1898: Retires to New Jersey
• 1908: Dies in New Jersey

Did Cleveland Stay at 619
Lafayette Avenue?
“Hewitt, who owned a horse that won the Kentucky Derby,
died 93 years ago. He could not foresee that the home
whose A-list guests included Buffalo-born President Grover
Cleveland would again open its doors to the world. Call it
serendipity; call it fate. Just don’t call it folly. Not anymore.
Not in this city.”
--Donn Esmonde, Buffalo News, Feb. 8, 2015

Lafayette Avenue?
Photo by Chuck LaChiusa, at BuffaloAH.com
www.buffaloah.com/a/archs/lb/lansing.html
• Built ca. 1898 for H.H. Hewitt (1855-1922)
of Hewitt Rubber Co.
• Herbert H. Hewitt was born in Detroit and
later lived in Chicago
• He moved to Buffalo in 1893
• By 1893, Cleveland had lived away from
Buffalo for a decade and had started his 2nd
term as President
• Cleveland biographies do not mention Hewitt
• Biographical details on H.H. Hewitt are from:
www.buffaloah.com/a/forestL/hewitt/hew.html

Lafayette Avenue?
• Cleveland did not correspond with H.H.
Hewitt
• Abram Hewitt was an iron manufacturer
& mayor of New York City
• Abram was unrelated to Herbert
Source:
Index to the Grover Cleveland Papers, p. 157
Downloadable as a PDF from:
www.loc.gov/item/64060012/

Lafayette Avenue?
• Cleveland visited Buffalo only once after this house was built (1898) and
before his death (1908).
• That visit was on October 9, 1903: Funeral of his good friend Wilson S.
Bissell.
• During this visit, Cleveland arrived in by train in the morning, visited John
Milburn, Mrs. Bissell, the Castle Inn, attended the funeral at Trinity
Episcopal, and left by train in the evening
• No mention of a Mr. Hewitt in his itinerary
• Source: “Mr. Cleveland’s Tribute.” Buffalo Morning Express, October 10,
1903, p. 7

No evidence that Cleveland
ever visited 619 Lafayette

Did Cleveland Live at Linwood
& Summer?
“…one gentleman wrote in about a ‘nondescript building’
on Linwood and Summer. He said someone from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers said it was its job to maintain the
place, because Cleveland had lived there.”
--Mary Kunz Goldman, Buffalo News, Feb. 24, 2014

& Summer?
www.buffalohistory.orgGoogle Maps

& Summer?
Double Oversize F129 .B8 H7 1872
Hopkins, Griffith M.
Atlas of the City of Buffalo, Erie Co.,
New York
Philadelphia : G.M. Hopkins, ©1872.
Digitized by HistoricMapWorks.com

& Summer?
• Location was an inconvenient 1.7 mile walk to work for a 300 lb.
man
• Cleveland does not appear as an owner on the 1872 map
• Three of the four corners were vacant in 1872

Where Cleveland Did Live
Cleveland rented rooms near his office, typical for bachelors back then.
All have since been demolished. Few were photographed.
• 1855: Lewis Allen’s house, 1192 Niagara St.
• 1856-1861: Ruth Hulbert’s house, 11 Oak St.
• 1862-1863: Mary Lyon’s boarding house, 29 Swan St.
• 1864-1867: Cleveland’s address not listed in directories
• 1868: U.S. Hotel, Terrace & Pearl
• 1869: Pearl, corner of Swan (Mary Lyon again?)
• 1870: 22 Seneca St.
• 1871-1872: Mrs. Ganson’s boarding house, 51 Niagara St.
• 1873-1882: Weed Block, Room F

& Summer?
• 81 Linwood, the oldest surviving house at
this intersection, was built ca. 1878 for
Charles Lautz and is not “nondescript.”
• Not present for that 1865-1867 gap
• Lautz is not mentioned in any Cleveland
biographies
• Photograph by Chuck LaChiusa at Buffaloah.com

lived at Linwood & Summer

Did Cleveland Live at 51
Johnson Park?
Google Street View
First known appearance of the
claim was on June 28, 2008 at
Waymarking.com, posted by
“Rayman”
Source:
www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM42NR_Grover
_Cleveland_House_Buffalo_NY

Johnson Park?
Google Street View
• Cleveland supposedly lived there during law
school
• Claim is not found in any Cleveland biographies
• Claim is not found in the National Register
nomination for the West Village Historic
District, 1980

Johnson Park?
• Built in 1860s or earlier
• Cleveland’s name is not on title
• Location was a 1 mile walk to work for a 300 lb. man
• He was admitted to the bar in 1859; U.B. law school founded in 1887
• Dr. Horace Briggs bought it in 1868
• Briggs founded the Buffalo Classical School, had a wife & two young
girls
• Cleveland biographies do not mention Briggs

Johnson Park?
1. Would a proper Victorian schoolmaster would rent a room
to a drinking, brawling bachelor when he had daughters in
the house?
2. Would a drinking, brawling bachelor submit to the strict
proprieties of a middle-class Victorian household?

•Cleveland is in 1865 NY State Census
Source:
New York, State Census, 1865, index and images,
FamilySearch
(https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-
12331-61429-92?cc=1491284 : accessed 8 January
2015), Erie > Buffalo, Ward 02, E.D. 01 > image 30
of 30; State Library, Albany.

• Cleveland is in 1865 NY State Census
Source: New York, State Census, 1865, index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-
12331-61429-92?cc=1491284 : accessed 8 January 2015), Erie > Buffalo, Ward 02, E.D. 01 > image 30 of 30; State Library,
Albany.

• Cleveland is in 1865 NY State Census
Cleveland lived in Ward 2
Johnson Park is in Ward 10

• Personal theory:
• 51 Johnson Park claim is appealing and seems plausible
because it resembles the White House
• It cinematically foreshadows Cleveland’s rise to presidency

lived at 51 Johnson Park

Did Cleveland Drink at Ulrich’s?
674 Ellicott Street at Virginia
Image from Wikimedia Commons
“How can you not like a guy
who drank beer at Ulrich's?”
–Joe Golombek, Common
Council Member, Buffalo
News, Feb. 9, 2014

--Jonathan Epstein, Buffalo News, Oct. 8, 2013

Ulrich’s website does
not mention Cleveland.
www.ulrichstavern.com
/history.html

• The Niagara Hotel was on Porter, east of
what is now LaSalle Park
• 1893 was during President Cleveland’s 2nd
term
• Found 8 Buffalo visits by Cleveland
between 1883-1891, then none until 1903
• Found no mention of Cleveland staying at
the Niagara Hotel
Illustration of Niagara Hotel from New
England Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly,
Vol. 8, 1893, online at Google Books

• In 1872 Hopkins atlas, this property is
#614, not #674, and the owner is J.
Miller.
• In the 1873 Buffalo directory, Jacob
Miller, a grocer, is at 614 Ellicott St.
• Grocers often served alcohol, which
might be why saloons are not listed
separately in directories until later
• Whoever wrote the Ulrich’s website
probably did not know about this
address discrepancy

• In the 1880 Buffalo directory, Jacob
Miller is shown operating a grocery
store and saloon

• Buffalo Address Book and Family
Directory, 1896-1897, p. 87
• The house-numbering discrepancy
continues
• Now occupied by Mr. & Mrs. Henry Krapp
• Now 617, not 614 or 674.
• But 1896 is well after Cleveland left
Buffalo

Where Cleveland Did Eat or Drink,
According to Biographers
• Billy Dranger’s, Pearl & Eagle
• Louis Goetz’s Restaurant, Pearl & Eagle
• Schenkelberger’s, 833 Main St.
• Charles Diebold's, 336-338 Ohio Street
• Terrapin Lunch, Main & Terrace
• German beer gardens
• And others. All have been demolished.

Where Cleveland Did Eat or Drink,
According to Biographers
• The 1880 Buffalo city directory lists over nine hundred
saloons
• How likely is it that the only one we still have was a frequent
Cleveland hang-out?

No tvidence that Cleveland
patronized Ulrich’s

Did Grover Cleveland have a hunting
lodge in Amherst?
•In business since at least
1988
•Starting around 2009,
Grover’s Bar & Grill is
described as Cleveland’s
hunting lodge
9160 Transit Road, East Amherst, NY

lodge in Amherst?
•Claimed most recently
by Mary Kunz Goldman
in the Buffalo News on
Feb. 24, 2014

lodge in Amherst?
• Not mentioned in Cleveland’s book
Images from
www.Gutenberg.org

lodge in Amherst?
• Not found in Cleveland biographies
• Not found in histories of the Town of Amherst
• No Amherst maps at the Digital Sanborns at BECPL website
• No building permits for this address in the Amherst Town Hall
older than 1977
• Possibly appears in the 1920s aerial photos online at Erie.gov

lodge in Amherst?
Google Maps

lodge in Amherst?
Google Earth

lodge in Amherst?
Oversize F127. E6 S7
New Topographical
Atlas of Erie County
Philadelphia, PA: Stone
& Stewart, 1866
Digitized
byHistoricMapWorks.com

lodge in Amherst?
In 1866, this was not a
game-filled forest. It
was a fully settled
farming area with a
post office and a station
along the New York
Central Railroad.
Stone & Stewart Atlas

lodge in Amherst?
J.M. Hoover
house
A. Waber or
Weber house
1866
Stone & Stewart Atlas

lodge in Amherst?
Next available atlas is from 1880:
Double Oversize
G1253 .E6 B43
Historical Atlas of Erie County, N.Y.
New York: F.W. Beers, 1880

lodge in Amherst?
T.A. Weber
property in 1880
• The Weber family owned this
parcel during most or all of
Cleveland’s Buffalo years.
• No Cleveland name appears on
existing property maps.
Beers Atlas, 1880

lodge in Amherst?
Next available atlas is from 1909, which
is moot because Cleveland died in 1908.
Double Oversize
G 1253 .E6 C36 1909
New Century Atlas of Erie County, N.Y.
Philadelphia: Century Map Co., 1909

Where Cleveland Did Fish
• Founded by Grover Cleveland & friends,
built ca. 1870 and demolished in 1941
• They bought the entire island from
Lewis Allen, Grover’s uncle.
• Source: Andrews, Charles B., “Sea and River Fishing:
The President as an Angler.” Forest & Stream, June
17, 1886, p. 411. Digitized at Google Books.
• Image from
http://www.isledegrande.com/preservation.htm
Beaver Island Club

Where Cleveland Did Fish
Beaver Island Club
Source: 1880 Buffalo city directory, p. 71

Locales Where Cleveland’s
Biographers Mention Fishing:
• Great Lakes
• Adirondacks
• Cape Cod
• The Potomac River
• Cleveland was more of an
angler/fisherman than a hunter Cleveland hunting
Image from
www.digitalhistoryproject.com/2012/08/
president-grover-cleveland.html

Cleveland had a fishing club,
not a hunting lodge, and it
was the Beaver Island Club.

Special Bonus Feature
• Google Map of
Buffalo sites
associated with Grover
Cleveland, as found in
city directories,
biographies,
newspapers, etc.
http://tinyurl.com/TBHM-GroverMap

Speculation on the recent eruption of
Cleveland claims
• Because something could have happened
doesn’t mean that it actually did happen.
• Both of these statements are true:
• John McCain could have been elected
president in 2008
• John McCain was not elected president in
2008
From Entertainment Weekly

Cleveland claims
• These claims gain traction because we have no tangible counter-
evidence – no surviving Cleveland residences in Buffalo
• We have an extant Fillmore home; legends about other supposed
Fillmore sites are rare.
From: http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/millard_fillmore_house.html

Cleveland claims
• We have a supply & demand problem
• Demand for presidential sites exceeds the
supply
• When demand exceeds supply, spurious
claims are inevitable
From: Zazzle.com

The end

Additional Reading
The Buffalo History Museum
Grover Cleveland Collection: A Bibliography
http://tinyurl.com/TBHM-Cleveland
Grover Cleveland Sites in Buffalo: A Google Map
http://tinyurl.com/TBHM-GroverMap
Presidential Visits to Buffalo: A List
http://tinyurl.com/BECHS005
Brown, Christopher
51 Johnson Parkway: History, 2012
/www.buffaloah.com/a/johnson/51/index.html
Lachman, Charles
A Secret Life: The Sex, Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland
New York: Skyhorse Pub, ©2011

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Top Five Urban Legends About Grover Cleveland in Buffalo

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