Works Progress Administration Wow!

STEEL 8 2

I was sent an email last week by David Torke of Fix Buffalo containing these images of wonderful WPA style sculptures. See more of them here. He noted that the sculptures are decorative elements of buildings in the A.D. Price public housing complex (formerly Willert Park Courts).

He noted that a portion of the housing complex had recently been torn down and that the remainder of the project would come down in about 2 years. From what I could find out, there is no plan to save these sculptures, and none from the previously demolished buildings have been salvaged. If these are destroyed, it will be a great artistic loss for Buffalo.

Torke had heard that the buildings were designed by E.B. Green. I was a bit leery of this, so I did some digging. Cynthia Van Ness found a book reference stating that the buildings were deigned by Frederick Backus. They were built in 1939 by the U.S. Housing Authroity. Western New York Heritage Press notes that Willert Park was constructed Specifically for African Americans. Applications by whites were rejected by the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority, despite the fact that the surrounding neighborhood was a mix of Jews, Italians, and Blacks.

Since Blacks were refused at other public housing projects at the time, there was soon a long waiting list for residency at Willert. The Western New York heritage story includes this remarkable 1946 picture (top), showing a group of children on the stoop of one of the apartments. The image was taken by the parents of two of the children in the picture who soon moved to their own home where they lived for 42 years. These sculptures are a great piece of Buffalo that I would most likely have never found on my own. Seeing the sculptures in this picture makes them so much more powerful as a part of Buffalo's history. I hope I am not the only one who sees it that way.

Image credits:

Color images David Torke

Black and white image by John and Claudia Laughlin via WNY Heritage

Vintage arial Image is from the Library of Congress via WNY Heritage

View image

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A.D. Price Sculptures a Collaboration of Major New Deal Talent from Buffalo Rising on February 26, 2009 5:15 PM

Well, the good news, as we heard from Susan Eck of Western New York Heritage Magazine, is that so far only the newer portions of the A.D. Price Courts (formerly Willert Park Courts) housing complex have been demolished. That is, only the portions wit... Read More

First Ward House III--A Former Storefront Building? from Buffalo Rising on March 4, 2009 6:17 PM

Separated at Birth?Hopefully BR readers will grant an indulgence for http://www.buffalorising.com/2009/02/dont-pick-on-the-little-guy-ii--can-you-save-the-first-wards-most-unique-cottage.html about the First Ward house on South Park Avenue, the former ... Read More

Comments

8 Comments Leave a comment

Nate Neuman

February 23, 2009 9:26 AM

What an incredible look into our history. Hopefully these artistic monuments can be preserved in a renovated Willert Park or somewhere else.

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onestarmartin

February 23, 2009 9:34 AM

Very Ann Rynd-Fountainhead looking. One would think/hope these will end up somewhere in the city at a later date. In a city that try's so hard to save it's heritage, how did these slip by? Also, how many pieces were lost during the first faze of demolition?

RaChaCha

February 23, 2009 10:52 AM

Steel, great work by you and Torke bringing this to light. I'd be interested in hearing from someone on the Buffalo Preservation Board, who have to review demolitions, about what has been done to-date to preserve this artwork -- or what may be in the works for the future.

Is there an address/general area for this complex, for folks who may want to get a look on Google/MSN maps (or in person)--?

I love the little guy in the pic with the tiny suspenders and the spotted tie -- perhaps he grew up to be an attorney...

Harvey

February 23, 2009 11:24 AM

I'm checking on this right now. Obviously these elements need to be saved.

PaulBuffalo

February 23, 2009 11:53 AM

Are all of these elements cast concrete or are some limestone? Do you have any information on the sculptor?

February 23, 2009 2:14 PM

Just popped down to my friendly neighborhood university, which has a great collection of architecture books in the art library -- including "Buffalo Architecture, a Guide" by Reyner Banham (1981). The entry on these buildings is on p.246:

Willert Park Housing (now Alfred D. Price Housing), 1939
Architect: Frederick Backus

"At the time of its completion Willert Park was hailed as one of the finest public housing projects in the country, for both its planning concept and architectural design [note the publication date, and that this was written by a modernist architect who also praised Paul Rudolph's Shoreline Apartments!]. Sculptural panels by Robert Cronbach and Herbert[sic] Ambellan embellish the low-rise brick row houses and apartment buildings, which are organized around a central courtyard."

Well, Frederick Backus seems to have had a long career in architecture. He designed the mission-style Evans House at 100 Meadow Rd. in West Parkside in the late 1920's (ref: http://tinyurl.com/bfpdo4 ). And in the 1950's, he co-founded the local chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute, according to this article: http://www.csibuffalo.org/history.html on the chapter website by Alvin J. Oberst.

As for the artists, Robert Cronbach became well-known, with his later commissions including fountains and sculptures at the United Nations General Assembly Building and the Fashion Institute of Technology in NY. Another sample of his art, very similar in style to some of what's shown above, is here:

http://www.rogallery.com/cronbach_robert/cronbach-sculpture.htm

and his NYT obit is here: http://tinyurl.com/ahgmtu

For Ambellan, whose first name was actually Harald, the info is a bit more sketchy, according to his Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=17205524. He worked on government projects during the depression, but after the war relocated to France and lived reclusively outside Paris.

Just goes to show, the more you delve into Buffalo architecture, the more cool stuff you come across!