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From the Buffalo News:
Have some two-flat porches.
Elmwood Village.
Allentown
North Buffalo
South Buffalo
Kaisertown
Delavan-Bailey income bungalows
Kensington
Kensington income bungalows
Pine Hill
Pine Hill income bungalows
Kenmore: a rare example that's mostly architecturally intact. No picture windows, no vinyl siding, no metal railings, no shutters.
My (late) Dad looking at the two-flat where he grew up, in the Hamlin Park neighborhood on the East Side.
“The prevalence of porch life,” said Chris Hawley, a local planner, “is a character-defining feature of the city.”
Kowsky agrees, based on warm experience. When he and his wife, Helene, arrived in Buffalo in the early 1970s, they rented the upper floor of a double flat on Lisbon Avenue. Every spring, a crew from Kohler Awning would arrive to set up an awning above their front porch that would always be removed in late October, a process that served as an annual gateway to the change in seasons.
The structure was among thousands of "double flats" that started going up in Buffalo in the 1880s, Kowsky said, when streetcars finally allowed everyday laborers to put some distance between themselves and the places where they worked. The idea of putting units on top of each other, as fellow historian Martin Wachadlo said, was "a way of getting more bang for the buck" within residential lots in a fast-growing city.
While Kowsky also lived in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, he agreed that the sheer prevalence of those homes with double porches is something he especially associates with Buffalo.
On Lisbon Avenue, Kowsky’s landlord lived downstairs, a common arrangement. He allowed the couple to move an old and rusting glider from the backyard onto their porch. The Kowskys spent countless hours enjoying the breeze and watching the quiet rhythm of life along the street – which, by being on the porch, made them a part of it.
A half-century later, Kowsky said:
“I still miss it.”
Have some two-flat porches.
Elmwood Village.
Allentown
North Buffalo
South Buffalo
Kaisertown
Delavan-Bailey income bungalows
Kensington
Kensington income bungalows
Pine Hill
Pine Hill income bungalows
Kenmore: a rare example that's mostly architecturally intact. No picture windows, no vinyl siding, no metal railings, no shutters.
My (late) Dad looking at the two-flat where he grew up, in the Hamlin Park neighborhood on the East Side.