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