How could this one not be on everyone’s favorite list? This charming little cottage at 73 Johnson Park was built, by various accounts, in either 1855 or 1866. It was the home of custom book maker Christopher Chamot.
Johnson Park is located in what is now known as the West Village, commonly thought of as Buffalo’s oldest residential neighborhood. The house is packed with extremely high quality English Carpenter Gothic details layered onto a French Mansard roof. The exaggeratedly steep pitch of the highly decorated front pediment gives this tiny house great presence on the street; it is a real eye catcher in a row of very special houses.
When you think of the many lives that have passed through this house and the changes that have occurred in our society (from slavery to space flight and beyond) over the span of its existence, this little treasure becomes even more special. As long as I can remember it has had the same color scheme and has always been in relatively good condition. I do dream, however, that some day its owner will come to his/her senses and remove the aluminum siding and restore the original open porch. This one must be seen in person to be fully appreciated. The rest of the street isn’t too shabby in the architecture department either.
David Steele
Architect ( a real one, not just the armchair type), author of "Buffalo, Architecture in the American Forgotten Land" ( www.blurb.com ), lover of great spaces, hater of sprawl and waste, advocate for a better way of doing things.