Entranceways at Main Street at Lamarck Drive and Smallwood Drive
Encyclopedia
Entranceways at Main Street at Lamarck Drive and Smallwood Drive are a set of complementary residential subdivision
stone entranceways built in 1926. They are located on Main Street (New York State Route 5
) in the hamlet of within the town of Amherst
, which is located in Erie County
. These entranceways are markers representing the American suburbanization
of rural areas through land development associated with transportation on the edges of urban developments. The Smallwood entranceway is a pair of symmetric groupings of stone gatehouse
s and post
s flanking the two sides of the drive at Main Street. The Lamarck entranceway is a pair of Y-shaped and U-shaped stone half-walls flanking the two sides of the drive at Main Street. The entranceways were added to the National Register of Historic Places
on December 07, 2005.
Main Street is a four lane road running east-west connecting Williamsville
to points westward such as the neighboring hamlet of Eggertsville as it heads toward downtown Buffalo
. The entranceways are located proximately to large residential lawns of surrounding houses in the 1920s-built subdivisions. From the junction with the I-290
(Youngmann Expressway) heading west, the first intersection (after the adjacent Main Street and Kensington intersection) is a four-way light where it meets Lamarck Drive from the south and Smallwood Drive from the north. Both streets serve two way traffic. The entranceways sit on the four corners of this intersection.
column
s supported by quarry-faced
random ashlar
half-walls on cut stone chamfer
ed bases. The bases flank Smallwood Drive's concrete
parallel sidewalk
s run along through the centerline of the gatehouses. The Main Street sidewalk passes in front of the gatehouses. The columns are braced with heavy timber lintel on open sides supported by pegged heavy timber brackets that form a lancet-head arch
. The structures are topped by steeply-pitch
ed and flared standing seam copper
roofs that have weathervanes that are located nearly two stories
above the street land grading
and that depict flying birds.
The Smallwood Drive gatehouse sides have tall and slightly tapered have quarry-faced random ashlar stone posts with chamfered corners on stone bases. These posts support flat cast capital
s beneath wrought iron
balustrades with filigree
d corners. The structures still host original hexagonal metal and glass light fixture
s that hang from metal bracket
s on the Smallwood Drive post faces. The pair of groupings has Tudor Revival architectural influences.
The posts have 4 by 4 ft (1.2 by 1.2 m) bases and stand 12 feet (3.7 m) in height, while the half walls stand approximately 4 feet (1.2 m). Both structures are made of quarry-faced random ashlar limestone
on a cut and smooth finished chamfer stone base. The posts have chamfered edges. The posts include randomly located tan- and brown-colored granite
blocks. Similar blocks are at the top and mid-points of the half-walls. The half-walls are coped
with recently installed rectangular cut and finished stone slabs that have rough cut edges protruding over the half-walls. An octagonal pyramid of three sequentially smaller cast concrete courses with slightly flared edges cap the posts. The Main Street post faces have the original hexagonal metal and glass light fixtures hanging from metal hooks, while the only the hooks remain on the Lamarck faces.
Atop the posts are signs of painted metal panels with silhouette
depictions braced below by filigree metal brackets. The signs are 11 feet (3.4 m) in length and 3.5 feet (1.1 m) in height. They neither match nor mirror each other. The west sign depicts a Native American
domestic scene including trees, teepees, a camp fire with trestle
, and figures carrying a deer
from a pole. The east sign depicts Tudor Revival architecture. Christ the King Church is located at 30 Lamarck Drive at Main Street on the southeastern corner. The other three corners are residential addresses.
The entryways remain in their original location, retain original design, setting, and materials. The entranceways continue to serve their original functions of marking the vehicular and pedestrian entrance to the subdivision. The eastern Smallwood Drive entrance provides shelter for Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority
Metro Bus
riders heading west toward the Buffalo Metro Rail
and downtown Buffalo, New York
. The residential dwellings adjacent to the entrances are original and the setting has had no known changes since the widening of Main Street in the 1920s. Charles S. Burkhardt purchased the land for the Audubon Terrace (Smallwood side) and Audubon Terrace South (Lamarck side) subdivisions that these entranceways have marked since their 1926 construction. The entranceways are in fair condition despite perceptible light fixture changes and shoddy repairs.
These entranceways are significant as relatively rare structures associated with the transformation of the formerly rural Town of Amherst into a residential suburban Buffalo community known as the hamlet of Snyder
. They represent the American suburbanization of rural areas through land development associated with transportation on the edges of urban developments. They are symbolic of the marketed character of the residential developments as a desirable residential alternative to urban life.
Subdivision (land)
Subdivision is the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known in the United States as a subdivision...
stone entranceways built in 1926. They are located on Main Street (New York State Route 5
New York State Route 5
New York State Route 5 is a state highway that extends for across the state of New York in the United States. It begins at the Pennsylvania state line in the Chautauqua County town of Ripley and passes through Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, Schenectady, and several other smaller cities and...
) in the hamlet of within the town of Amherst
Amherst, New York
Amherst is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 122,366. This represents an increase of 5.0% from the 2000 census. The town is named for Jeffrey Amherst, a British Army officer of the colonial period...
, which is located in Erie County
Erie County, New York
Erie County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,040. The county seat is Buffalo. The county's name comes from Lake Erie, which in turn comes from the Erie tribe of American Indians who lived south and east of the lake before 1654.Erie...
. These entranceways are markers representing the American suburbanization
Suburbanization
Suburbanization a term used to describe the growth of areas on the fringes of major cities. It is one of the many causes of the increase in urban sprawl. Many residents of metropolitan regions work within the central urban area, choosing instead to live in satellite communities called suburbs...
of rural areas through land development associated with transportation on the edges of urban developments. The Smallwood entranceway is a pair of symmetric groupings of stone gatehouse
Gatehouse
A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance.-History:...
s and post
Post and lintel
Post and lintel, or in contemporary usage Post and beam, is a simple construction method using a lintel, header, or architrave as the horizontal member over a building void supported at its ends by two vertical columns, pillars, or posts...
s flanking the two sides of the drive at Main Street. The Lamarck entranceway is a pair of Y-shaped and U-shaped stone half-walls flanking the two sides of the drive at Main Street. The entranceways were added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on December 07, 2005.
Main Street is a four lane road running east-west connecting Williamsville
Williamsville, New York
Williamsville is a village in Erie County, New York in the United States. The population was 5,573 at the 2000 census. The village is named after Jonas Williams, an early settler...
to points westward such as the neighboring hamlet of Eggertsville as it heads toward downtown Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. The entranceways are located proximately to large residential lawns of surrounding houses in the 1920s-built subdivisions. From the junction with the I-290
Interstate 290 (New York)
Interstate 290 runs for near Buffalo, New York from I-90 to I-190. It connects Buffalo with its northern suburbs of Amherst and Tonawanda, and provides a route to Niagara Falls that bypasses the city of Buffalo. I-290 also connects to Interstate 990, and through this connection,...
(Youngmann Expressway) heading west, the first intersection (after the adjacent Main Street and Kensington intersection) is a four-way light where it meets Lamarck Drive from the south and Smallwood Drive from the north. Both streets serve two way traffic. The entranceways sit on the four corners of this intersection.
Architecture
Smallwood Drive
Both of the Smallwood Drive groupings of stones on the north side of Main Street have dominant octagonal gatehouses built upon four pairs of stained heavy timberTimber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
column
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s supported by quarry-faced
Quarry-Faced
Quarry-faced stone is stone with a rough, unpolished surface, straight from the quarry. Many residential and public buildings in Jerusalem, Israel are built from quarry-faced Jerusalem stone....
random ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
half-walls on cut stone chamfer
Chamfer
A chamfer is a beveled edge connecting two surfaces. If the surfaces are at right angles, the chamfer will typically be symmetrical at 45 degrees. A fillet is the rounding off of an interior corner. A rounding of an exterior corner is called a "round" or a "radius"."Chamfer" is a term commonly...
ed bases. The bases flank Smallwood Drive's concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
parallel sidewalk
Sidewalk
A sidewalk, or pavement, footpath, footway, and sometimes platform, is a path along the side of a road. A sidewalk may accommodate moderate changes in grade and is normally separated from the vehicular section by a curb...
s run along through the centerline of the gatehouses. The Main Street sidewalk passes in front of the gatehouses. The columns are braced with heavy timber lintel on open sides supported by pegged heavy timber brackets that form a lancet-head arch
Arch
An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...
. The structures are topped by steeply-pitch
Roof pitch
In building construction, roof pitch is a numerical measure of the steepness of a roof, and a pitched roof is a roof that is steep.The roof's pitch is the measured vertical rise divided by the measured horizontal span, the same thing as what is called "slope" in geometry. Roof pitch is typically...
ed and flared standing seam copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
roofs that have weathervanes that are located nearly two stories
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
above the street land grading
Land grading
Grading in civil engineering and construction is the work of ensuring a level base, or one with a specified slope, for a construction work such as a foundation, the base course for a road or a railway, or landscape and garden improvements, or surface drainage...
and that depict flying birds.
The Smallwood Drive gatehouse sides have tall and slightly tapered have quarry-faced random ashlar stone posts with chamfered corners on stone bases. These posts support flat cast capital
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
s beneath wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
balustrades with filigree
Filigree
Filigree is a delicate kind of jewellery metalwork made with twisted threads usually of gold and silver or stitching of the same curving motifs. It often suggests lace, and in recent centuries remains popular in Indian and other Asian metalwork, and French from 1660 to the late 19th century...
d corners. The structures still host original hexagonal metal and glass light fixture
Light fixture
A light fixture, light fitting, or luminaire is an electrical device used to create artificial light and/or illumination, by use of an electric lamp...
s that hang from metal bracket
Bracket (architecture)
A bracket is an architectural member made of wood, stone, or metal that overhangs a wall to support or carry weight. It may also support a statue, the spring of an arch, a beam, or a shelf. Brackets are often in the form of scrolls, and can be carved, cast, or molded. They can be entirely...
s on the Smallwood Drive post faces. The pair of groupings has Tudor Revival architectural influences.
Lamarck Drive
Both of the Lamarck Drive groupings of stones on the south side of Main Street are composed of a pair of symmetric stone structures flanking the drive. Each stone grouping features a tall capped, stone post topped by a large cut metal pictorial sign. The posts have flanking stone Y-shaped half-walls parallel to the drive. These half-walls have corresponding block U-shaped half-walls that along with the Y-shaped half-walls jointly form a square through which new concrete sidewalks run along Lamarck Drive. The design also has Tudor Revival influences in concert with the surrounding residences.Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
on a cut and smooth finished chamfer stone base. The posts have chamfered edges. The posts include randomly located tan- and brown-colored granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
blocks. Similar blocks are at the top and mid-points of the half-walls. The half-walls are coped
Coping (architecture)
Coping , consists of the capping or covering of a wall.A splayed or wedge coping slopes in a single direction; a saddle coping slopes to either side of a central high point....
with recently installed rectangular cut and finished stone slabs that have rough cut edges protruding over the half-walls. An octagonal pyramid of three sequentially smaller cast concrete courses with slightly flared edges cap the posts. The Main Street post faces have the original hexagonal metal and glass light fixtures hanging from metal hooks, while the only the hooks remain on the Lamarck faces.
Atop the posts are signs of painted metal panels with silhouette
Silhouette
A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Although the art form has been popular since the mid-18th century, the term “silhouette” was seldom used until the early decades...
depictions braced below by filigree metal brackets. The signs are 11 feet (3.4 m) in length and 3.5 feet (1.1 m) in height. They neither match nor mirror each other. The west sign depicts a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
domestic scene including trees, teepees, a camp fire with trestle
Trestle
A trestle is a rigid frame used as a support, especially referring to a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by such frames. In the context of trestle bridges, each supporting frame is generally referred to as a bent...
, and figures carrying a deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
from a pole. The east sign depicts Tudor Revival architecture. Christ the King Church is located at 30 Lamarck Drive at Main Street on the southeastern corner. The other three corners are residential addresses.
History
Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority
The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority is a public authority responsible for the public transportation oversight of Erie and Niagara counties in the State of New York...
Metro Bus
NFTA Metro Bus Routes
- Overview :NFTA Metro carried many of its present route numbers and names from the previous International Railway Company routes.Otherwise, much of the routing follows the following number schematic:* 1- 49 City of Buffalo and Erie County routes...
riders heading west toward the Buffalo Metro Rail
Buffalo Metro Rail
The NFTA has a fleet of 26 rigid-bodied LRVs for the Metro Rail system, numbered sequentially from 101 to 127. They were built by Tokyu Car Corporation of Japan. One car was damaged in transit and later purchased by a restaurateur, Bertrand H. Hoak, of Hamburg, as an addition to Hoak's Armor Inn...
and downtown Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. The residential dwellings adjacent to the entrances are original and the setting has had no known changes since the widening of Main Street in the 1920s. Charles S. Burkhardt purchased the land for the Audubon Terrace (Smallwood side) and Audubon Terrace South (Lamarck side) subdivisions that these entranceways have marked since their 1926 construction. The entranceways are in fair condition despite perceptible light fixture changes and shoddy repairs.
These entranceways are significant as relatively rare structures associated with the transformation of the formerly rural Town of Amherst into a residential suburban Buffalo community known as the hamlet of Snyder
Snyder, New York
Snyder is a hamlet within the town of Amherst in Erie County, New York, United States that is part of the Buffalo – Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The hamlet was established in 1837...
. They represent the American suburbanization of rural areas through land development associated with transportation on the edges of urban developments. They are symbolic of the marketed character of the residential developments as a desirable residential alternative to urban life.