Silsbee and "Butler's" Linwood Avenue Home

The block of homes on Linwood avenue in Buffalo between Utica Street and West Ferry, most built in the mid-1880's, are some of the most picturesque and well-built in the city. Over the years, their history has gained interest in part because so many of them remain intact and lovingly cared for. A small number of them are also interesting to some architectural buffs because of their tenuous association with architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

In the middle of the block are a grouping of shingle style homes that were designed by the architecture firm, Silsbee & Marling. J. L. Silsbee was living in Chicago at the time so the construction of the Linwood Avenue homes overlaps the employment of Frank Lloyd Wright in his office there. There is no evidence that work was transferred from office to office but the homes are precisely the style, scale, and type of projects that Frank Lloyd Wright worked on while employed with Silsbee in Chicago. 

A view on Linwood Avenue. The James Fowler Home (left) and Henry Crane Home (right) were both designed by Silsbee & Marling and constructed in 1886.

One home on the block deserves additional study because its history seems to have been misrepresented on many occasions. In 1986, local historian Austin Fox published a story in the Buffalo Spree that compared and contrasted the home at 429 Linwood Avenue with Silsbee & Marling's Bemis Home, that stands on North Street. A cursory look at the article and the notion that Silsbee had a hand in the design of 429 Linwood seems obvious but has never been fully vetted. An investigation about the home's history, beyond some research by local historian Martin Wachadlo as part of his undergraduate thesis on Marling's career, seems to have ended with Mr. Fox's initial hunch and his Spree article has been erroneously adopted by some as fact. 

429 Linwood Avenue, the Lock Home (1888).

Silsbee & Marling were hired for the design of several homes on Linwood Avenue that were built for real estate developer, Edward B. Smith. Most of the Smith properties were on the West side of Linwood but there were a few on the east as well. After Silsbee & Marling dissolved their partnership, at the beginning of 1887, Marling assumed responsibility for the work by the firm. He also continued designing homes on the street with his new partner, Herbert Burdette. The homes for James Fowler and Henry Crane, with their sweeping roof lines and shingle and clapboard clad exteriors, epitomized both Silsbee's and Marling's work of the period. 

The John Bemis Home (1885) on North Street, Buffalo.

On the block opposite the Crane and Fowler Homes, developer William Lock built homes of a different character. Lock was from a contracting family. His father, John Lock, was a mason from England. He began one of the earliest contracting companies in Buffalo in 1844. His most prominent work in the city is the spire of St. Paul's Cathedral on Main Street. William Lock's first home on Linwood was built at 433 (now demolished) and designed by Henry F. Duck. Departing from Smith's shingle style developments, this home was a two and a half story brick residence. Lock lived there until 1888 when he sold it to carriage manufacturer John Harvey. 

In 1886, Lock commissioned architect George Metzger for four more brick homes to be built on his properties. It appears that he developed all of the properties from 429 Linwood to 455 Linwood. A likely hallmark to Lock's background and knowledge of masonry, all of these homes feature elaborate brickwork, terra cotta and stone detailing, and fit neatly in what is commonly referred to as Queen Anne style architecture. 

After Lock sold his home at 433, he moved to the home he constructed at 429, with this listed as his address in the 1889 directory. That year, Lock placed advertisements for the sale of the home in the local newspapers. A year later, this "new home" was still listed, at a bargain, along with its large carriage house (now demolished). In May of 1890, the home was sold to newspaper man, Edward Butler. Butler is the name most associated with the home because of his stature in Buffalo society at the time and because of his association with a well-known Buffalo mansion that he lived in several years later. 

The year of construction is the first clue that leads me to believe that Silsbee had nothing to do with the design of William Lock's home. Silsbee had stepped away from his Buffalo office by late 1886 and Marling was announcing a lot of work under his name alone. The final notice of work by Silsbee is in the spring of 1887 and by the middle of 1887, Silsbee is no longer listed in directories. He completed some work after that year but it was quite different from what he completed with Marling. In 1888, the same year that 429 Linwood was constructed, he was commissioned by banker George Howard for an elaborate mansion on Summer Street.

George Howard Home (1888), Buffalo, NY, now demolished.

This home, now gone, was an immense shingle and brick structure with Romanesque, Shingle Style, and Queen Anne elements. It featured elaborate terra cotta ornament, Tiffany art glass, and an open plan arranged around a large hall with an inglenook and staircase at the center. While parallels can be drawn between isolated details on the Lock Home and the Bemis Home, built several years earlier, almost no parallels can be drawn between the Lock home and its contemporary, the Howard Home.

When Austin Fox wrote his article about 429 Linwood, the knowledge about Silsbee's work in Buffalo was relatively limited. There were a couple homes illustrated in a small publication of photographs by 19th century photographer Albert Levy but no one had identified their owners or locations. There was also knowledge of the Bemis Home, and a small factory for Gies & Company, printers. Silsbee's work beyond those projects almost completely unknown.

Silsbee's work in Buffalo is now very well documented and a large body of archival information has been assembled. In particular, there are several articles in newspapers and architectural journals from the 19th century that document the construction of the Linwood homes by Silsbee & Marling. So much attention was given to these homes and the development of the street that we know when each was built, who they were first sold to, details about their decoration, and even social events held in each. While there may be a few nuggets to unearth out there, the notion that a home in this location, for this client, could be designed by Silsbee "under the radar" is very unlikely. 

I first visited the Lock Home in 1992. I had the opportunity to tour the inside and to take some measurements of it. It is a beautiful home but I recall thinking at the time that it had none of the features that I would consider "Silsbee-like". No elaborate woodwork, no built-ins, no elaborate fireplace surrounds, no monumental stair, and art glass that seemed out of place from anything else I had seen in Silsbee homes. Conversely, when you compare the home with features on those on the home at 443 Linwood, one of Lock's other projects, you actually see more similarities in interior woodwork, detail, and specifically, almost identical art glass.  

Since that first visit, I have had the opportunity to see the interiors of many Silsbee-designed homes. I've also documented, on my own and with the help of many others, hundreds of buildings by Silsbee. A couple of them are worth mentioning as they stylistically relate to Lock home but along with the Bemis home, point to significant design deviations. 

George Hale Home (1885), Chicago, IL, demolished.

At the same time that Silsbee was overseeing work on the Bemis home, he was working on a home in Chicago for his friend George Hale. With it's prominent front bay and wildcat crowned front gable, it is almost a Bemis Home "twin". The ornament within the gable of both of these homes contrasts with the Lock Home in a number of ways. First, the coping runs, almost like a crisp fold, from the sculptural apex, down to the top of the second floor. The face of the entire gable is also completely filled in a composed manner. In the Hale home, the central double windows are flanked by single windows and have a wide head across the entire composition. This head is then accented with richly carved terra cotta in an arch form with a large cartouche at the center framed in strapwork. The entire composition is reminiscent of a Palladian window and it connects to the column supporting the sculpture above. 

Gable detail at the Bemis Home

The Bemis gable is designed in a similar manner, with an uninterrupted coping and a circular window at the center. The keystone of that window extends into a pier in a smaller triangle at the top of the gable above. This triangle is heavily carved with strapwork and classical motifs and creates a base for the sculpture at the pinnacle. 

The front gable at the Lock Home.

The gable of the Lock Home is very different from either of these. The coping along the top of the gable is broken in several places. It has small steps about halfway up, to make way for square ornament in the gable. Then at the top, it breaks and steps up to a large round gable. A dog sculpture once crowned this home. The face of the gable has a single arched window with a single ornamental rosette above, at the center of  the rounded gable. There is no banding, piers, or ornament to link these elements as a whole. Instead, they are left to stand on their own. This gives the gable more variety than the Silsbee ones but it also breaks it down in a way that is quite different from how Silsbee typically designed.

The home by Silsbee that has the most striking physical resemblance to the Lock Home is a home he designed in Chicago for Louis Rueckheim. According to newspaper accounts, Silsbee designed homes for candy company owners, Frederick and Louis Rueckheim in 1886 and 1887 respectively. I've written about Frederick's home, that still stands, here. These sorts of homes are difficult to write about because they were incredibly modest, usually constructed for a well under $10,000. Also, there is also no evidence indicating what they looked like when they were first constructed. Louis Rueckheim's home was first brought to my attention a few months ago by local historian, Andrew Elders. There is a photo of it in a local photo archive just before it was demolished.   

Louis Rueckheim Home (1887), Chicago, IL, demolished. Photo from: Chicago - Photographic Images of Change, University of Illinois at Chicago. Library. Special Collections Department . 

Even in its compromised state, the photo gives clues about how Silsbee designed. While the front gable features a prominent rounded top like the Lock House, the differences are hard to miss. The windows below the rounded gable, along with the unique balcony, banding, and windows below are organized as composition. The second floor and attic windows are aligned to read as a single shape. The banding and balcony physically serves to link them to the rest of the home. Like the ornamental components of the Bemis and Hale homes, there is a thoughtfulness about the composition and how these elements are literally drawn together. These sorts of geometric compositional elements can be found throughout Silsbee's work regardless of style but they are completely missing on the Lock Home. 

It is also important to note that It is common for Silsbee to treat the heads of the windows at the second floor in a specific manner, extending the heads to align with banding above. I believe that this gives his buildings a horizontal look, even when the home has a soaring gable. It also serves to give them a visual weight that grounds them. The sills then sit within the wall and are almost always separate. This organizing feature can be seen on the Bemis and Hale homes as well. On the Lock Home, the sills are all connected and the heads are separate. Like the disparate design elements of the gable, this adds variety and interest to the facade of the Lock home but it is executed in a more random manner than any of the Silsbee designs.

We still don't know everything there is to know about Lock's homes on Linwood. Hopefully someone will pick up the cause and do additional research because they form a unique grouping on that street. For now, I am keeping 429 off of my list of works by J. L. Silsbee and will continue to cringe when I see folks post about "Edward Butler's home in Buffalo designed by J. L. Silsbee".