All in the Family

For any architect to exist, they have to be able to get clients. the most common road an architect takes towards success is to build a network of clients that can support their career. Social placement and temprament gave Silsbee great success at having networks of socially elite clients in each of the places where he practiced. In Buffalo, this network centered on a specific club, the Falconwood Club, and more specifically, a particular family, the Hamlin family.

Sketch of the Falconwood Club from the Buffalo Express Yearbook. 

The family patriarch, Cicero, and his wife Anna, had five children, in order of birth: Frank, William, Harry, Mary, and Anne. By the early 1880's, Harry, William, and Frank were all engaged in the family business with their father. That business was the extraction of sugar, from grapes. Their main factory was in Peoria Illinois and they had a second facility in Buffalo.

Portrait of Cicero Hamlin

In 1884, Silsbee made architectural news with the publication of a large home in American Architect and Building News. No client or specifics about the location were given but its publication was a testament to Silsbee's popularity as well as the stature of the work that he was getting.

Image of Harry Hamlin's home from the American Architect & Building News (1884).

The illustrated home was completed a year earlier for Harry Hamlin. Located on a corner lot, facing Delaware Avenue, Buffalo's "millionaire's row", it featured an elaborate exterior of brick, terracotta, clapboards, carved wood paneling, and an array of outdoor porches and balconies. It was in a version of the Queen Anne style that Silsbee was instrumental in making popular in Syracuse. A novel feature of the home was an immense central stair that acted as a sort of light well so that you would not need large "unsightly" windows on one of the exterior walls.

Concurrent with the American Architect publication, Silsbee was also beginning work on a new clubhouse. In 1884, the clubhouse for the Gentleman's Driving Club was constructed. This structure was part of a racing track that was on Hamlin family property. With its broad verandahs and elaborate ballusters and porches it was, like the Falconwood, suited to an informal park-like setting. Like his homes, these structured were also embued with a graceful appearance that was open and hospitable. By this time, Silsbee had taken on James Marling as a partner and had opened a Buffalo office.

One project that seems to have escaped much notoriety was started a year later, for Cicero Hamlin. Cicero desired to move from his home from an area almost at the edge of Buffalo's downtown, on Franklin Street, to a more promanent and open location on Delaware Avenue. The site he chose was across the street from his son Harry's home and the structure was an immense Queen Anne home built with every convenience. The main floor had a space that could open to create a 60' long ballroom for entertaining. It only stood for about 24 years, being demolished to make way for St. Joseph's church.

Image of Bishop Carlin's Residence. A small part of Cicero's home can be seen to the left. 

The final project for the Hamlin started by Silsbee & Marling in early 1887 was a home that seemed to be built to out-do all of the others, for William. This would be located at the north end of the same block as brother Harry's home but would be made of brick and have a castelated appearance. In late spring, Silsbee and Marling severed their partnership and the home was completed by the successor firm, Marling & Burdette. Marling & Burdette would contonue with patronage from the Hamlin family and maintain the success that Silsbee & Marling had started. 

Image of the William Hamlin Home from the south. 

William Hamlin's lavish stables, built at a time when stables were becoming more popular as mini clubhouses for the homeowners.  

At their time of construction, they were considered the a high-point in residential design, both for their artistic content and in their technological foresight. The clustering of Silsbee-related projects like this, homes for family members and close friends, is a pattern of residential development that occurs in each American city at this time. All of the Hamlin homes on these blocks of Delaware Avenue, north of Utica Street, are now gone but they once made up an impressive part of Buffalo's landscape of mansions along this thoroughfare. 

Former location of the Hamlin family homes on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo. Note the size of each family member's stable structures.