What do a soap manufacturer, an avant-garde architect, and an early industrial neighborhood have in common? We found out this past Saturday, May 24th on the “Larkin, Wright, and a Forgotten Neighborhood” architecture and history tour (sponsored by Buffalo Tours).
The tour met at St. Clare’s Church, 193 Elk Street. From there participants learned about Buffalo’s first industrial neighborhood, the Hydraulics, and St. Stephen’s R.C. Church. If you can catch this tour in the future, you can learn all about how John D. Larkin turned a small soap manufactory into one of the country’s largest mail order companies. In 1904, a promising young Chicago architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, designed the Larkin Soap Company’s new headquarters building, which became one of the icons of modern architecture. The tour ended with a peek inside the Larkin at Exchange Building and a look at plans to revitalize the neighborhood.
After the tour, there was an optional Dutch treat lunch at McCarthy’s Pub in the Old First Ward. Once there, people enjoyed a trivia quiz and a lecture on the Old First Ward (the cost was $10 – lunch not included). If you missed the ‘Larkin, Wright, and a Forgotten Neighborhood’ tour, the only other one will be held on Saturday, 6/28 @ 9:30 AM.
Buffalo Tours is a collaborative project of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County and the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier.
For more information on future tours, call 716-852-3300, or visit www.BuffaloTours.org.
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Support for Buffalo Rising comes from: