Hehe...my best friend lived here some years back.

A vintage image of the clubhouse, complete with bicycles, can be seen here. It is a digital postcard which you can send to any email address.

http://electronic-greetings.com/cgibin/c1.cgi?7660

There is a similar house to this one on Ashland Ave, just south of Lafayette as well as one on Lafayette near Gates Cirlce. I had always assumed that these third floors were later additions since they give the buildings such a top heavy look. Certainly, they are unique. Thanks for the history...would be great if biking (and pedestrian activity) was better supported in this city today.

What a great row of houses is right, but one among so many in Buffalo.

It was also good to see this post on the same day as the rails-to-trails article. You can appreciate this world and its beauties when not whizzing by at 60 mph.

Apparently no one thought a thing of having an active bicycle clubhouse situated on a residential street. Quite a different impact that that of the automobile repair shops and gas stations forced on so many old neighborhoods in our time.

Thanks to Cynthia Van Ness, too, for the link to the historical image. The current owners have a model for restoration of the porch if they are so inclined. (All things considered, the current porch could have been a lot worse-- one with those awful modern open wrought-iron supports)

This is a great post. Many time I have ridden my bicycle past this house. I almost bought a house up the street a few years back. That aside, CH indicated concern over bike/ ped support in the city today.

There is some movement on this front with several activities currently on-going: On the policy side there is the Bicycle/ Pedestrian Advisory Board which was signed into law this January and is now in the process of being put together. Myself with the City and several other partner wrote and recieved a grant from the Department of State to develop a pedestrian, bicycle and transit access plan for downtown. This project will take a look at the current infrastructure and other issues such as pedestrian related traffic accidents to develop a prioritized plan and vision for improving multi-modal movements in our core. The Blue Bicycle and Recycle-A-Bicycle initiatives work with kids and adults recycling bicycles. The bicycles will be put out to use in the city as another form of public transit.

These projects are just the few that many people are working on to make Buffalo a more walkable and bicycle friendly city. This I believe is important and has proven to be a way to improve citizen health, reduce air pollution, increase physical activity, decrease traffic congestion, reduce fuel consumption, improve safety and security and generally provide for a better quality of life.

Quality of life and the amenities which create it attract people and businesses and will ultimatley be the deciding factor of Buffalo's resurgence.