The Baldwin Building at 109 Genesee Street may be one of the smallest buildings on the Genesee Block, but it's no less important. It was designed by the prominent firm of Esenwein and Johnson who created many of Buffalo's most recognizable landmarks. Unfortunately, many modestly sized buildings with ornate classical detailing have been altered or modified as tastes changed, and the ornate flourishes became unfashionable. Genesee Gateway LLC, made up of CityView Properties and the Wendt Foundation, have brought new life to this architectural gem.
Jennifer Walkowski, an Architectural Historian with Clinton Brown Company Architecture, prepared the application necessary for the designation of the Genesee Gateway Historic District. Below is an excerpt from her findings on the Baldwin Building.
Like other buildings in the Genesee Gateway block of commercial buildings, the Baldwin Building replaced an earlier commercial structure. Maps indicate that a ca. 1850s building once occupied the parcel at 109 Genesee Street. This irregularly massed building appears to have contained a two-story frame block at the street and a brick addition to the rear. It may have been the house and shop of shoemaker Frederick Braunlich, who was listed at the address in 1861-64.
The 1872 city atlas indicates that the property was then owned by Maria Erb and her husband Henry, a Bavaria native; a rather unusual occurrence in the 1800s for a married woman to be the primary owner of land and a building. In another rather progressive move for the mid-nineteenth-century, it appears that Maria began a millinery business in the building, and Henry joined her business later. The Erb millinery shop operated from the small building at 109 Genesee Street from around 1860 into the 1870s, and Henry Erb also was noted as selling their wares at the Washington Market, providing an easy link between the mass consumerism at the large marketplace with her small shop just down the street.
By 1880, the Erb family was no longer living in the building, but it continued to house Maria and Henry's millinery shop as well as son Peter's physician office. Peter Erb's homeopathic medicine office remained at 109 Genesee Street until at least 1890.
By 1897, the American Wringer Company, a company based out of New York City, was located at 109 Genesee Street, and managed by Joseph R. Baldwin, a native of Maryland. In the 1900 census, A. William Baldwin (who appears to be a brother of Joseph) and his family resided in the building at 109 Genesee Street which they rented, where William Baldwin also ran a clock repair shop.
In 1903, the previous building at 109 Genesee Street was demolished for the construction of the present Baldwin Building. Given that the footprint of the existing building was nearly identical to the new construction, it is possible that the Baldwin Building was constructed utilizing portions of the smaller two-story building, especially the existing stone foundation. Oliver J. Beyer, secretary for the Baldwin Specialty Company, enlisted the prominent architectural firm of Esenwein and Johnson to design the new commercial building. Interestingly, Beyer was recorded in the 1880 census as residing at the previous 109 Genesee Street building, as a son-in-law of the Erbs, having married their daughter Rosa, and this may account for how he became connected to the property.
Established in 1895 by Joseph R. Baldwin, the former manager of the American Wringer Company, the Baldwin Specialty Company started off selling laundry wringers and quickly expanded to sell a diversity of products including furniture, household equipment and products and clothing. The retailer appears to have not only constructed the elegant new Commercial Neoclassical building on Genesee Street in 1903, from which the current name of the building is derived, but also opened another branch in Rochester at the same time as the Baldwin Furnishing Company. The Baldwin Specialty Company specialized in a wide variety of consumer products including furniture and for a brief time clothing, and later carried lines of radios, washing machines, and air-conditioners.
The company changed its name to the Joseph R. Baldwin & Co. around 1915, and continued business from 109 Genesee Street until 1920 when they relocated the company to 120 Genesee Street across the street. In 1940 the company again relocated to a new custom-built building located at 52-54 Genesee Street. The Joseph R. Baldwin & Co. furniture and household products business was inherited by his son and continued on into the 1940s.
The occupant of the Baldwin Building in 1929 was the Queen City Rubber Company which had been previously located on Court Street since the early 1900s. The company continued in business in 109 Genesee Street until the late 1930s when the firm had a large steel billboard installed on the roof by the advertising company of Whitmier & Ferris. The nature of the business done at the Queen City Rubber Company (whether it was limited strictly to tire sales or whether they operated an on-premises repair shop) is currently unknown; if they needed to bring automobiles into the building for repairs, they may have possibly altered the storefront to allow for vehicles to enter.
While it appears that the building remained in use as a tire dealer for several decades, the H. Seeberg company utilized the building as a warehouse in the 1970s. In the 1980s the building was owned by Willard A. Genrich who attempted to rehabilitate several building along Genesee Street. Genrich, who owned many of the neighboring Genesee Gateway buildings, had high hopes for the rehabilitation of such a prominent row of rare commercial buildings. In 1986 he started a rehabilitation project which removed the interiors of all the buildings down to the studs and brick and removed the second floor structural system in 1988.
Genrich's misguided attempts were to secure the structure of the building and to modernize its fire resistance. After several years of legal issues between Genrich and the City of Buffalo who took Genrich to housing court seeking a demolition of the buildings, the future of the Baldwin Building appeared bleak. In 2007 the Baldwin Building was purchased by Genesee Gateway LLC, with support from the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation. Today, Genesee Gateway provides 60,000 sq.ft. of retail and office space at one of downtown's most prominent corners.
Esenwein and Johnson
The firm of Esenwein and Johnson, formed in 1897, was one of Buffalo's most successful and prolific architectural partnerships in the city around the turn of the twentieth-century. Headquartered in Burnham's Ellicott Square Building, the office of August Esenwein and James A. Johnson was a skilled practitioner in many popular architectural styles of the time including Classical, Georgian Revival and Art Nouveau styles.
While Esenwein specialized in construction and engineering, it appears Johnson focused on the ornamental aspects of the firm's designs. Together, the firm designed a wide-variety of buildings including the infamous Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901 where President McKinley was assassinated. Other buildings include the Art Nouveau-styled Ansonia Building (1905, contributing to the certified Theater Historic District) and Calumet Building (1906) in Buffalo, Lafayette High School (1901, National Register 1980), the elegant General Electric Tower (1912, NR 2008), the Niagara Hotel in Niagara Falls, NY (1923, NR 2008), and the daylight factory the M. Wile and Company Building (1924, NR 2000). In addition, the firm designed numerous residences for prominent local clients and other buildings throughout Western New York.
In 1903 according to the building permit, Oliver J. Beyer hired the firm, fresh from their success at the Pan-American Exposition, to design the new Baldwin Building at 109 Genesee Street. Perhaps also, given the strong German ethnic background of the local community, the German native August Esenwein was commissioned. Having one of Buffalo's most prominent architectural firms design a relatively small building on Genesee Street reflects the neighborhood's prominence in the early 1900s. This was a building which was highly visible to the throngs of market shoppers, and only an elegant and stylish building no matter the size- would suit the high-profile commercial location, it would appear.
Source: Local Historic District Application, May 17, 2010. Clinton Brown Company Architecture.
See Also:
Part One- Genesee Gateway Historic District
Part Two- The H. Seeberg Building
Amazing material! Great research, Jeniffer Walkowski!