This Was a Milk Factory, and Later an Ice Cream Factory in Buffalo NY

Buffalo Milk Company Building, Buffalo New York

Date added: January 01, 2025

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New York
Industrial

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Located at 885 Niagara Street in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, the Buffalo Milk Company, which reformed as Queen City Dairy in 1909, built and used the building for the pasteurization and distribution of milk at the turn of the twentieth-century. It was the first large-scale milk company to do so in Buffalo. The building was designed by local architect Sydney Woodruff and was constructed primarily between 1903 and 1905, with two small additions made in 1910. The Buffalo Milk Company Building represents a shift in industrial design from haphazard expansions typical of early nineteenth-century factories towards comprehensive planning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The building is an excellent example of a consolidated works, a building type that emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as larger, purpose-built industrial facilities replaced older, haphazardly expanded designs. The term, "consolidated works," refers to factory buildings designed with this type of forethought and comprehensive planning. They included specialized spaces for various operations, including those related to manufacturing, administrative, and distribution functions, often within a single building, emphasizing the interconnections between these spaces in order to maximize efficiency. An administration wing often acted as a public face to the facility and generally received more architectural embellishment than more functional areas. Consolidated works buildings were prompted by the increase of larger manufacturing machinery and facilitated by construction methods that allowed for large, cost-effective buildings.

Buffalo Milk was the first major distributor of pasteurized milk in Buffalo, and the size of its building, as well as the ornate neoclassical design of the administrative wing, reflects the company's desire to convey its strength and the superiority of its product. Prior to 1900, nearly all milk sold in Buffalo, and throughout much of the country, was unpasteurized and sold by small, independent milk dealers. At the turn of the twentieth century, unsanitary conditions in cities came under increased scrutiny, and health officials increasingly pointed to unpasteurized milk as a leading cause of child sickness and mortality. The Buffalo Milk Company not only provided pasteurized milk on a scale unheard of in the city (prompting derogatory accusations of being a "Milk Trust"), but it also offered classes for mothers on the importance of pasteurization and allowed doctors to examine their facilities. The Buffalo Milk Company operated in the building from 1903 until 1909, when it reformed as Queen City Dairy, and continued operations in the building until 1914.

The Buffalo Milk Company Building is located on Buffalo's Lower West Side in the heart of the former village of Upper Black Rock, a historic settlement established just northwest of the original Buffalo settlement. Although early development was located primarily along the shores of Lake Erie and Niagara River, the creation of the Erie Canal led to rapid industrial growth along its banks. The surrounding neighborhood also grew quickly as a result and continued to flourish with Buffalo's industrial and rail expansion through the end of the nineteenth century.

By the turn of the twentieth century, the Lower West Side was one of the most densely populated areas in the city of Buffalo, and it was also one of the most rapidly developed sections of the city. In 1872, many of the plots in the Old 23^rd Ward (where the Buffalo Milk Company Building is located) were undeveloped or sparsely developed. However, by 1884, nearly every lot had at least some sort of dwelling or structure, and by 1890, nearly the whole ward was built up as a residential neighborhood.

As the neighborhood grew, the industries that served it changed to accommodate the growing population. Milk distribution was one of the industries forced to adapt to growth on the Lower West Side. During the mid-nineteenth century, most dairy production in Buffalo (as well as in most cities across the country) was local, with farmers manufacturing their own milk, cheese, butter, and cream and then selling the remainder to their neighbors. In 1872, farms existed just blocks from growing communities in the Lower West Side, allowing residents in these communities daily access to fresh milk. As urban density increased in Buffalo and cities around the country, urban barnyards were outlawed by city governments in an effort to reduce disease, pushing farms out into the country. Since the demand for dairy products continued, a niche market was created allowing middle-men, known as milk distributors or dairymen, to purchase milk from country farmers and redistribute it to customers throughout Buffalo's urban districts.

Often, in order to more efficiently serve their customers, milk dealers established small "depots" that served as warehouses and distribution centers in Buffalo's neighborhoods. Milk dealers tended to locate their depots on street corners in highly populated neighborhoods. Not only were they highly visible to passersby, but they also provided convenient drop off locations for milk wagons. Since milk depots relied on milk from the increasingly distant countryside, they were often located near major roads or rail lines as well.

In these regards, the corner of Niagara Street and Massachusetts Avenue was perfectly suited location for a depot. According to city directories, Charles May operated a milk depot facility, then numbered at 895 Niagara Street, by 1889 (see below), although it is unknown if the facility was related to the Buffalo Milk Company, which later occupied the site. Nothing of this early facility remains extant.

The depot was built behind an existing two-story residence and consisted of a two-story stable as well as a few rooms for milk tanks. The milk was likely unpasteurized, as pasteurization required equipment too large for the space depicted on the Sanborn map. The location was well situated among various transportation networks as well: Niagara Street was the main route to the northwestern part of the city and beyond to North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls. The depot site was also just blocks away from the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad's Belt Line. The Belt Line, a series of rail lines completed in 1883 that circled Buffalo, was particularly crucial to the Buffalo Milk Company, as it connected the company to farmland to the north, south, and east, as well as farms across the Niagara River in Canada. Because of the advantages that the Belt Line provided to milk collection, the Buffalo Milk Company decided to construct its headquarters and processing facility at the intersection of Niagara and Massachusetts in the burgeoning Lower West Side.

Pasteurization and Milk Distribution

The German agricultural chemist Franz von Soxhlet first suggested pasteurizing milk in the 1880s as a way to lower infant mortality rates. Pasteurization is the process of heating a beverage in order to kill microbes and extend its shelf life. Pasteurization was first utilized for preserving alcoholic beverages, specifically wine, but in 1886 the process was expanded into milk. Historically, pasteurized milk was heated below the boiling point to prevent curdling but at high enough temperatures to kill the majority of pathogens. Because pasteurization was a relatively new process at the start of the twentieth century, different agencies heated milk for varying lengths of time and at varying temperatures as different authorities put forth varying opinions of the correct temperature to kill pathogens and purify milk. Prior to the widespread implementation of pasteurization, infant mortality rates of 15 to 25 percent were not uncommon in Europe and America, as children drank milk filled with microbes of scarlet fever, typhoid, tuberculosis, and diphtheria. Milk during this era little resembled modern milk. Often it, "contained clods of dirt and had a barny flavor … Some bacteria gave milk a slimy consistency, increasing its viscosity so dramatically that it could be pulled into strings. Other bacteria colored it blue, green, or red." Prior to pasteurization, milk could be one of the most dangerous substances in the country because of its ability to grow a massive culture of bacteria. Its potential dangers were magnified by the growth of major urban spaces, which prolonged the time milk was in transit to consumers. The bacterial threat from milk came not so much from the substance itself, but from the time it took getting from farmer to consumer.

In the early nineteenth century, when cities were smaller, milk was often consumed within hours of its production, limiting the proliferation of bacteria. The rapid growth of cities at the turn of the twentieth century created new challenges of connecting consumers with milk. The product needed to be hauled over long distances and as a result, milk sometimes sat in unrefrigerated storage for up to two days before being consumed. This led to an outburst of microbial growth, particularly in the hot summer months, and a corresponding increase in death, especially among children. Academics lauded cow's milk as a modern alternative to breastfeeding, which was considered a primitive act, too taxing on the nerves of the modern woman. Many believed that women were incapable of providing sufficient or healthy milk for their offspring because the modern world moved so rapidly and life at the turn of the twentieth century was so complex. Purveyors of cow's milk purported that it contained more nutritional value for infants and it became a dietary staple for babies. The increased demand for cow's milk came before rapid transit and effective refrigeration were available. The growth of cities and the demand for milk were primary contributors to the high infant mortality rate of the times. Growing demand for milk also contributed to the rise of the milk depot and the milk distributer in American society.

As a result of these factors, growing cities needed a new system of milk distribution, and milk depots emerged to serve as intermediaries between farms and consumers. Depots collected milk from regional dairies and resold it, often delivering bottled milk onto doorsteps in the early hours of the morning. In the case of Buffalo, this milk came from as far away as places such as Elma and Mt. Morris. Milk was delivered to the city through a number of different modes including rail, wagon, and trolley. For transportation, milk was placed in cans, tall metal jugs that held several gallons of milk. Within the first decade of the twentieth century, milk distribution and consumption in Buffalo was an intricate system:

According to the statistics compiled by the bureau of food and drugs from 20,000 to 22,000 gallons of milk are brought into the city every day, or about 2,500 cans daily. About 1,800 dairies in the county within a radius of 100 miles supply this city with the necessary quantity. Three hundred dairymen in the city secure the milk at the various depots and distribute it during the small hours of the morning … It is estimated that 4,500 men and women are employed in the industry.

The enormity of supplying the city of Buffalo with freshly bottled milk each morning cannot be understated. By the turn of the twentieth century, there was no longer a direct connection between the farmer and the consumer and milk was constantly in transit. Once taken from the cow, it was loaded onto carts and taken to railroad depots where it sat until trains bound for Buffalo arrived to collect it. Once the milk reached Buffalo it was collected in a central depot, like the Buffalo Milk Company Building, to be delivered. The distributer and the milk depot became the purveyors of milk in urbanized areas, moving block by block through the city selling their stock. By 1927, dozens of milk depots and creameries operated in Buffalo, providing the city with its daily supply of milk, cheese, and cream.

Looking to gain a competitive edge over the established depots, the Buffalo Milk Company, later rebranded as Queen City Dairy, turned to pasteurization and the growing awareness of germ theory to market their milk as a pure and wholesome product for the entire family to consume. This strategy, coming at a time when pasteurization was not a universally mandated process, allowed the Buffalo Milk Company and milk depots like it to tap into a new marketing scheme that became popular between 1900 and 1920 for depots with enough capital to perform pasteurization.

Buffalo Milk Company/Queen City Dairy

On July 1^st, 1902, the Buffalo Milk Company was incorporated with a group of investors primarily from New York City with the intention to "deal in milk and milk products in Buffalo." Like all cities at the turn of the twentieth century, Buffalo consumed massive quantities of milk. In 1904, reports suggested that than Buffalo consumed 130,000 quarts of milk and 6,000 quarts of cream daily, providing the region's milk distributors with a net profit estimated at over one million dollars. The profitable outlook of milk in Buffalo no doubt attracted the principal investors who organized the Buffalo Milk Company. The company initially faced accusations of monopolizing by local distributers who were threatened by the large New York City-backed conglomerate. Local dealers refused to option their milk delivery routes to Buffalo Milk on the assumption that the new company was attempting to control the entire milk supply of Buffalo and thus set itself up to control the prices on the region's dairy products. A mere ten days after the formation of the Buffalo Milk Company, sixty-one independent milk dealers formed the People's Milk Company to compete with Buffalo Milk.

Despite the competition, the Buffalo Milk Company prospered. It erected a large modernized milk depot on Niagara Street in phases between 1903 and 1905 at a cost of $100,000. A significant portion of that cost came from the construction of the building's pasteurization plant and stables, which cost approximately $21,000. The depot was filled with cutting edge machinery such as a three-story refrigeration unit at the center of the plant in addition to steam cleaners for milk bottles and clarifiers.

In 1908, the Buffalo Milk Company suffered a scandal when it was found guilty of mixing skim milk with raw milk just before pasteurization. This practice compromised the quality of its milk (as well as Buffalo Milk's claim of pure, safe milk) and as a result it were fined by the state. Perhaps as a way to avoid the stigma of the scandal, as well as the continual accusations of being a "Milk Trust" since its incorporation, the Buffalo Milk Company reorganized and enlarged into the Queen City Dairy Company in 1909.

This new entity sought to supply the city with "not only milk and cream, but also buttermilk, butter, and cottage cheese." Within five months, the revamped milk company grew massively and became "the largest retail milk company in Buffalo," following takeovers of the Buffalo Hygienic Dairy Company and Dodds Brothers Company. By 1911, after upgrading the technology in the Milk Tank Wing, the company claimed itself to be one of the few milk companies in America to house "laboratories for testing and modifying milk." Within three years, however, the company sold the Niagara Street depot to the Maguire Ice Cream Company, and by 1926, Queen City Dairy had sold off the remainder of its holdings. According to newspaper reports, the "League," purchased the last of Queen City Dairy's holdings and awarded management of Queen City Dairy's last Buffalo plant to Dodds Dairy (different from Dodds Brothers). The "League" may be a reference to the extremely powerful Dairymen's League Cooperative Association of New York, which operated hundreds of receiving stations and milk plants throughout the state.

The Buffalo Milk Company and Pasteurization

The Buffalo Milk Company leveraged widespread interest in hygiene during the early twentieth century, trumpeting its refrigeration units, cleanliness, and the high standards to which it held their milk dealers and farms. The company emphasized sanitation and pasteurization throughout numerous advertisements, including a campaign entitled, "Talks About Milk." The campaign extolled the values of Queen City Dairy milk and promoted milk as a food second only to bread in its importance to human life. The Buffalo Milk Company Building featured refrigerated vats, steam cleaning for bottles, and pasteurizing equipment, all of which played into the company's efforts to promote itself as a purveyor of pure milk. To emphasize the cleanliness of its plant and the importance of pasteurization, the company offered numerous tours of its facilities to the community. These tours often included free product samples and occasionally discussions by sanitation and food purity experts who would extoll the importance of feeding children properly processed milk. Fears surrounding child mortality from bad milk gave Queen City Dairy another avenue for advertisements, as it pointedly asked parents if the milk they were feeding their children was healthy and pure.

The emphasis on sanitation and pasteurization became a common marketing strategy for larger conglomerates and milk distributors. At the start of the twentieth century, pasteurization faced widespread resistance from scientists who believed it destroyed the quality of milk and distributors who believed pasteurization, "place[d] the cost of milk beyond the means of too many Americans, and would put small producers out of business … [since] [o]nly the large companies would be able to afford the process." Buffalo Milk's implementation of pasteurization points to the power of its backers. It was able to execute a marketing campaign based around the expensive process of pasteurization while smaller distributors were attempting to limit the market appeal of pasteurized milk in order to maintain a customer base.

The investment in pasteurization paid off as, despite some scientists' warnings, the benefits of reduced bacteria in milk led to national legislative changes pertaining to food safety. First, the Pure Food and Drug Law in 1906 allowed the United States Department of Agriculture to set standards on food sanitation and distribution for the first time. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt authorized a commission to examine the claims that pasteurization destroyed milk quality; the commission determined that pasteurization not only prevented sickness but also saved lives. A permanent "Commission of Milk Standards" was established in 1910, and it worked with the Department of Agriculture to create national standards. One of the commission's recommendations was the creation of milk grades, with each grade tied to a certain amount of pasteurization or remaining bacteria. For instance, "Grade A" indicated milk suitable for infant consumption, Grade B for adults, and Grade C for cooking.

The Buffalo Milk Company's decision to pasteurize milk came at an interesting crossroads in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The company, likely encouraged by the success of pasteurization in combating infant mortality, responded by promoting the safety of its milk, cheese, and cream. As germ awareness grew, the company made cleanliness a focal point of its advertisement scheme, a theme also promoted by other milk depots. Ten out of twenty-six milk advertisements in the October 26^th, 1910 edition of the Buffalo Courier Express highlight sanitation as a major selling point for their product. The Buffalo Milk Company, later Queen City Dairy, with its state-of-the-art facility and modern equipment, eagerly promoted tours of the milk distribution center and trumpeted the appearance of leading sanitation expert A.F. Stevenson at the factory in its newspaper advertisements. While pasteurization was not universally utilized due to its expense and fears that it ruined the nutritional value of milk, it became a major facet of marketing for distributors who possessed the capital to pasteurize.

The Buffalo Milk Company Building was constructed at a turning point in the manufacture and distribution of milk. Pasteurization required large spaces that older, smaller depots couldn't provide, and the building represents the increase in scale required to stay competitive and accommodate pasteurization equipment. By the time Queen City Dairy sold the building in 1914, however, the market was changing once again. The development of "chain grocers" and individual packaging of goods helped contribute to a decrease in the number of milk delivery companies. Chain grocers offered consumers the convenience of picking up their milk as well as groceries. The milk farms themselves also changed, as they became increasingly technical in their extraction and purification processes and moved even further from city limits due to sub urbanization. Combined with the changing markets, changing farms, and the introduction of national laws governing the sale and distribution of milk, by the 1950s, the urban milk depot model featured in Buffalo Milk Company's design was largely abandoned in favor of even larger, regional (if not interstate) based collection, pasteurization, and distribution models usually located outside the city entirely.

Consolidated Works Milk Depot

The Buffalo Milk Company Building is a largely intact example of an early twentieth-century milk pasteurization facility and milk depot constructed in the consolidated works typology. The terms "the works" and "plant" were used interchangeably around the turn of the twentieth century to denote a group of manufacturing buildings, and architectural historian Betsy Hunter Bradley coined the term "consolidated works" for a particular style of facility design that emerged in the late nineteenth century. In contrast to the former model of erecting separate buildings for various stages of the production process in an reactionary fashion, the consolidated works was a single, purpose-built facility that included specialized manufacturing spaces and often included an administrative wing as well. The consolidated works building type emerged at the turn of the twentieth century as a way to maximize efficiency with well-planned, interconnected facilities that included nearly all aspects of production and administration. The Buffalo Milk Company Building represents the cohesive planning typical of consolidated works with a design that incorporated all of the necessary elements for the company's operation (e.g. administration, manufacturing, and delivery).

The consolidated works design became a prominent typology in the mid-to-late nineteenth century as production facilities and factories grew more complex. The use of heavy machinery (that often moved quite fast), required large, single-story, open floorplates. Advances in construction technology, including the use of steel framing, allowed companies to have large, single-story structures with few dividing walls. This concept of "all under one roof," appealed not just to heavy manufacturing but to many industries at the turn of the twentieth century. Not only did this building type offer easier supervision, especially when administrative offices were on site as well, but one building was generally cheaper to construct and maintain.

The Buffalo Milk Company Building contains many features found in milk depots of the early twentieth century, but the scale of the building and the way it organizes those features are what differentiates the buildings from other depots. Prior to 1900, most milk depots contained a refrigerated building with large tanks and stables for delivery horses and wagons. Even purpose-built creameries and depots were usually no taller than two stories, with one room devoted to each of the storing, delivery, and administrative functions. The Buffalo Milk Company used its building not just for storing and distributing milk, but also for pasteurizing, testing, marketing, and other administrative functions. Like earlier milk depots, the building contained large refrigeration rooms where milk was stored prior to delivery. The loading dock on the southern elevation is still extant. Some milk depots had attached offices, but usually, as in the case of the former depot on the Buffalo Milk Company Building site, it was simply a former residence. As a larger and more sophisticated operation, the Buffalo Milk Company needed offices for its workers as well as rooms dedicated for customers to test their product and learn about pasteurization.

Though the Buffalo Milk Company Building contains many of the elements found in other milk depots, those features are articulated in a manner more similar to larger industrial factories. Unlike smaller milk depots, the industrial nature of pasteurization, coupled with Buffalo Milk's desire to create a flagship building, led to the building being designed with a more cohesive plan than what is even typically found in industrial buildings of its era. The production spaces are all housed under a single roof, and are large, open, and interconnected. The long open space that dominates the first floor exemplifies the consolidated works design, with milk, cream, and other dairy product processing occurring in this section. The finished products then moved through the building to the Massachusetts Avenue elevation, where they passed through large arched wooden doors and were loaded onto horse carts that distributed the goods throughout Buffalo.

One of the biggest differences between the facilities at the Buffalo Milk Company Building and smaller outfits (besides the obvious size disparities) is the inclusion of the Milk Tank Wing. The Milk Tank Wing contains two tall single-story rooms that held the enormous pasteurization tanks and were immediately adjacent to the two-story boiler room. Milk was delivered to the facility and immediately pasteurized in these large tanks, with the large boilers nearby providing the necessary heat to kill bacteria. From the Milk Tank Wing, the milk moved to the adjacent refrigeration rooms. Though the largest sections of smaller outfits were the refrigeration rooms (similar to the Buffalo Milk Company Building), the inclusion of the large pasteurization rooms added complexity unmatched at other Buffalo facilities.

Another primary difference in milk depot facilities is the Buffalo Milk Company's large administration wing at the west end of the building. As noted previously, most milk depots in Buffalo included some form of office, but usually it was in an attached or nearby former residence, or a corner room, without much architectural flourish or design. With Buffalo Milk, the three-story administration wing Neoclassical design acts as a centerpiece to the whole building, but it is also functionally integrated into the operations. The blending of administrative and commercial roles of the company with the manufacturing and distribution functions demonstrates another facet of the consolidated works typology.

Administration wings and buildings in consolidated works not only acted as places of business, but they also served as buffers between the public and manufacturing spaces. Bradley describes administration buildings in consolidated works factories as, "more likely to have architectural effect and to be designed by an architect than the other buildings in the works; [they] often had the quality of a centerpiece." Similarly, she notes that the administration "structure also screened the lower structures with engineered roofs of unusual form from the view of the general public."

The Buffalo Milk Company Building highlights both of these principles: the administration wing is not only the most architecturally detailed portion of the building, but it also hides the rest of the facility from view. The use of rusticated sandstone stone and pressed brick with varied fenestration and Neoclassical-styled pilasters differs greatly from the manufacturing spaces constructed with simple rough brick and with little to no flourish.

Ownership after Queen City Dairy

Even after the Buffalo Milk Company/Queen City Dairy vacated its building on Niagara Street, the state-of-the-art facilities continued to differentiate the operations of its successor, Maguire's Real Ice Cream. In 1914 Alfred Maguire took control of the milk depot at 885 Niagara Street and converted the space into an ice cream and dairy desserts production center. According to advertisements from 1915 and 1916, Maguire's specialized in Van Velsor Dutch Pudding, Charlotte Russe, and all other forms of frozen desserts. In their promotional material, the ice cream company highlighted the quality of their products:

Maguire's Real Ice cream is superlatively well made. Besides it has the indescribable delicacy of flavor that distinguishes any article of high grade, especially the finer and lighter forms of food … It has solid food value. Only the best and purest ingredients go into Maguire's products.

Like Queen City Dairy and Buffalo Milk, Maguire's highlighted the quality of its product and the wholesome nature of the ice cream it produced. The company prided itself on using only the most modern methods in crafting its gourmet ice cream and the fact that no human hands touched the cream for its desserts. The sterilization and sanitation rhetoric of Queen City Dairy is kept intact in the advertisements paid for by Maguire's. The company argued that because of its quality and the sterile process that produced the ice cream, every family should purchase Maguire's ice cream.

During the time the Maguire's Real Ice Cream owned the former milk depot, a monopolization scandal erupted, pitting confectioners against bulk ice cream producers like Maguire's. In 1921 local confectioneries accused the ice cream producers of Buffalo, including Maguire's, of setting ice cream prices during the busy summer months and forcing confectioneries to buy the product of certain ice cream producers. The Buffalo Courier's story on the subject highlighted the outrageous profits companies such as Maguire's and Wheat's Ice Cream Company made on bulk ice cream. The Courier further pointed out that Wheat's Ice Cream supplied Maguire's with its cream, making the tacit suggestion that Maguire's may have been little more than a shell company for Wheat's Ice Cream Company, an accusation they strengthened by noting that both companies shared a single business address.

Even though Maguire's owned the building until at least 1930, it rented out much of the facility to various other occupants. In 1915, the "General Specialty Company," operated out of the building, and in 1925, the Buffalo Bon Bon Company occupied most of the rear portion of the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing, while the Administrative Wing was carved into a printing shop and a metal shop. By 1951, a mattress company manufactured out of the first and second floors of the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing. The William Roberts Company owned the building after the Maguire Ice Cream Company until at least 1944, and by the late 1970s, the building bounced between a few owners, including receivership by Marine Midland Bank in 1981. In 1982, a fire destroyed the upper two floors of the Tank Cleaning Wing, and while some portions are suitable for storage, most of the building remains vacant.

Architect: Sidney Hawks Woodruff (1876-1961)

Sidney Hawks Woodruff was born in Michigan in 1876 but grew up in Buffalo, where he became an architect and builder starting at the age of 24. In addition to designing the milk depot at 885 Niagara Street, Woodruff was involved in the construction of the Buffalo Savings Bank, The People's Bank of Buffalo, and factories for the Hewitt Rubber Company, and E.R. Thomas Motor Company. The design of the E.R. Thomas Motor Company factory, still extant at 1200 Niagara Street, is extremely reminiscent of the Massachusetts Avenue elevation at the Buffalo Milk Company Building; the utilitarian brick and subtly arched windows of both buildings point back to Woodruff's influence on the design.

In 1901, Woodruff was the contracting architect for the massive United States Tube Company factory on Kensington Avenue. The ten-building factory complex was envisioned to employ 5,000 men in welding boiler tubes and pipes. In 1905, Woodruff designed a similar massive factory complex for the L.M. Ericsson Telephone Manufacturing Company, which built a ten building complex on Kenmore Avenue and Military Road that encompassed twelve acres of land. Like the Buffalo Milk Company Building, the primary facade of the Ericsson Plant featured a more dignified facade than the rest of the complex. Further, inside the building were white marble floors said to be comparable to those in the Iroquois Hotel, which was the newest and most lavish hotel in Buffalo at the time.

When a former employee slandered him in 1906, Woodruff's former clients defended his designs. These clients particularly appreciated Woodruff's cost efficiency and the structural strength of his designs. The majority of Woodruff's projects in Buffalo included factory and storage buildings, and his reputation for reliable factory design is evident in his selection as consulting architect for so many massive factory complexes. This trust in his business translated into over seven million dollars' worth of projects under contract in July 1905 alone.

In addition to commercial and factory spaces, Woodruff also designed the Holy Mother of the Rosary National Cathedral at 170 Sobieski Street on Buffalo's East Side (Church built 1903-1906, Rectory 1904-5). This building is still standing and currently serves as a mosque. He also built eighty-four houses on Kensington Avenue during the late 1890s.

Outside of Buffalo, Woodruff had a colorful career highlighted by a series of real estate ventures in California. There, Woodruff became one of the principal developers of the Hollywood Hills, going so far as to erect the iconic "HOLLYWOOD" billboard in order to promote his development. After his success in Hollywood, Woodruff decided to develop a stretch of the Southern California coastline called Dana Point. The Dana Point development was planned as a seaside community that residents from Los Angeles could use as a summering spot and as a getaway from the city bustle. Woodruff purchased 1,400 acres of land and brought in investors who were eager to invest in the coastal project. Unfortunately when the stock market crashed in 1929, Woodruff's investors pulled out and the project went bankrupt in 1939. The failure of Dana Point and the ten years Woodruff spent attempting to keep the project afloat long enough or the economy to revive sent Woodruff into retirement. He died in 1961 in Los Angeles at the age of 85.

It has since been converted into an affordable housing complex: Buffalo News: Regan Development opens affordable Niagara Gateway Apartments on West Side

Site Description

The Buffalo Milk Company Building is located on the southeast corner of Niagara Street and Massachusetts Avenue in the Lower West Side neighborhood of Buffalo, New York. The building is set on a double-wide lot, which runs from Niagara Street to the west through to Prospect Avenue to the east. The parcel in the northeast corner of the block at 93 Massachusetts Ave, however, has always been separate; it features a three-story brick structure built in 1887. The surrounding area is primarily residential with some light commercial and retail activities located nearby. The Buffalo Milk Company Building is one of the largest buildings in the neighborhood, with only the nearby Connecticut Street Armory, some of the D'Youville College buildings, and the Niagara-Mohawk Power buildings being larger.

The Buffalo Milk Company Building was built in stages between 1903 and 1910, although by 1905 the building was substantially complete. Historic renderings indicate that the original design called for an H-shaped plan with imposing, three-story elevations in a Renaissance Revival style fronting Prospect, Massachusetts, and Niagara Streets. Ultimately, only about half of the proposed design was completed on the site, resulting in an L-shaped building. Construction began along the southern property line in 1903 with the three-story Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing. This wing faces Prospect Avenue and runs east-west almost the full depth of the block to Niagara Street. In 1904 the three-story Administration Wing, running north-south along Niagara Street, was completed, as was the single-story Milk-Tank Wing abutting it to the east. In 1910 an addition expanded the Milk Tank Wing to the north. A small, single-story, brick garage dating to 1911 is located just northeast of the center of the building. In 1982, a serious fire damaged the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing; as a result, the second and third floors of the central portion of this wing had to be removed.

The Buffalo Milk Company adopted a formal Renaissance Revival style for the principal elevations of its building. The elevations along Prospect, Massachusetts, and Niagara Streets all feature a Roman brick and sandstone masonry structure with carved stone cornices. The secondary elevations are more utilitarian in appearance and are constructed of common brick.

The Buffalo Milk Company Building is a roughly L-shaped consolidated works building consisting of the elegant, west-facing, Administrative Wing with two, more utilitarian, wings extending east behind it. The Administration Wing is three stories in height and features formal elevations on three sides. Of the two other wings, the northern Milk Tank Wing is square in shape and single-story in height. The southern Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing is long and narrow and consists of a single-story volume in the center of the site abutting a three-story portion fronting onto Prospect Avenue. The northern elevation of the Milk Tank Wing and the eastern elevation of the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing feature formal brick and sandstone elevations similar to the Administration Wing; the remaining sides of the building are more modest and are executed in common brick. Loading docks access the center of both the north and south elevations of the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing. Near the northeast corner of the building is an attached, single-story garage.

Administration Wing (1904)

The three-story, symmetrical, masonry, Renaissance Revival style Administration Wing faces west onto Niagara Street, and is the most formal of all the wings in the Buffalo Milk Company Building. It is three bays deep and eleven bays wide, with a slightly projecting three-bay center pavilion. A ground floor and raised basement of rock-faced ashlar sandstone support upper stories constructed of brown Roman brick. A carved stone cornice wraps all but the rear elevation and is surmounted by a brick parapet with a carved stone cornice.

Almost all of the bays are identical. At the ground floor are large, segmentally arched openings above rectangular basement openings. In the second story, round-headed openings with sandstone archivolts rest on a sandstone beltcourse. In the third story, each bay contains a pair of small rectangular windows with sandstone voussoirs and sills. None of the original windows remain in the openings. The ground floor openings currently contain plywood while those in the upper floors have been filled in with vinyl panels and smaller aluminum windows.

At the ground floor of the pavilion are sandstone piers. In the wider central bay, a single-story porch formed by Tuscan sandstone columns and a classical entablature shelters the main entrance. The upper bays of the pavilion are framed by stone pilasters with Ionic capitals that stand upon the piers and visually support a classical entablature and pediment. The central bay contains a wide arched opening at the second story and a blank relief panel in the third story. The framing bays contain narrow arched and rectangular windows at the second and third stories, respectively.

The side elevations are almost identically articulated. Each elevation consists of three centered bays detailed as outlined above; however, the north elevation, fronting onto Massachusetts Avenue, is capped by a classical pediment above the cornice.

The rear elevation of the Administration Wing is very modest in appearance and, judging from the artist's renderings of the proposed building, may never have been intended to be visible from the street. The Milk Tank Wing and the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing connect to the ground floor of this elevation. The floors visible above are of simple, common red brick with window openings at the northern end. In the center of the elevation is a small roof-level stair enclosure. At the southern end of the building there are two large door openings at the second and third floor level that used to communicate with the upper floors of the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing. These voids have been filled in with CMU at the third-story level.

Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing (1903)

The Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing is oriented east to Prospect Avenue. It rises three full stories in height above a raised basement and has a flat roof behind a low parapet. The principal elevation is three bays in width and Renaissance Revival in style; the side elevations are twenty-four bays in length and more utilitarian in appearance. Some windows have been damaged and some have been boarded up, but the majority of the original, six-over-six, double-hung, wood windows are intact.

On the principal facade, the ground floor and basement of the building feature an ashlar sandstone while the upper stories are constructed of Roman brick with a carved stone cornice above. A sandstone beltcourse wraps the elevation above the first floor. At the basement level, there are rectangular window openings. The first floor contains a main entry located in the center bay with a single double-hung window to either side. Above, the second-story windows are round-headed and have sandstone archivolts. In the third story, two smaller double-hung windows in each bay are articulated with sandstone voussoirs. Apart from the basement windows and a missing ground-floor window, all of the windows on this elevation are original.

The side elevations of this wing are similar, although not identical, to each other. The south elevation is constructed of Roman brick, while the north elevation is of common red brick. As noted, this wing was originally constructed as three full stories; however, a significant fire in 1982 resulted in the removal of the majority of the second and third floors. A three-story portion four bays deep stands at the eastern end but the remainder of the wing retains only the ground floor. On the north and south sides of the three-story portion there are regular brick openings with segmental arches above and stone sills; with few exceptions, the original windows remain. The single-story portion of the south elevation originally contained regular openings as well but all of these have since been filled in with brick. The single-story portion of the north elevation contains one non-original garage door opening at the western end; a shed-roofed porch on a CMU foundation shelters the opening. An exposed brick wall-the upper two stories of the three-story portion is visible above the remaining single-story wing.

Milk Tank Wing (1904; 1905 addition)

The single-story, four-bay Milk Tank Wing abuts the rear (east) elevation of the Administration Wing's northern end and was also executed in a Renaissance Revival style. Originally, the Milk Tank Wing was significantly stepped back from Massachusetts Avenue and the north elevation of the Administration Wing but a 1905 addition extended it to the north, making it flush with the Administration Wing. The north elevation of this 1905 addition is constructed of an ashlar sandstone that matches the other wings on the building. A sandstone belt course even with that of the Administration Wing caps the ground level and introduces a sandstone parapet. The parapet terminates in a cornice of light gray stone. Of the four bays that compose this elevation, the two to the east have segmentally arched garage door openings. The two western bays have openings identical to the ground floor openings of the Administration Wing. The garage openings have been filled in with CMU and plywood; the remaining openings have also been filled in with plywood.

The four-bay side elevation of the Milk Tank Wing runs north-to-south and terminates at the northern face of the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing. This wall is constructed of standard red brick whose rough surface and truncated cornice suggest that a later addition has since been torn away. There are two narrow doorways in the center, followed by a garage loading door underneath a steel lintel. Because the Milk Tank Wing is partially embedded in the fabric of the building, it does not have any other exterior elevations.

The plan of the Buffalo Milk Company Building is divided into four areas. The first area is the three-story Administration Wing at the western end that contains two first-floor showrooms off a center hallway leading to the Milk Tank Wing and a center staircase that leads to open floor plans above. The Milk Tank Wing has two vaulted rooms that housed the pasteurization and mixing tanks, as well as two smaller rooms with loading docks. Immediately to the south of the Milk Tank Wing is the refrigeration room of the Tank Cleaning, Storage and Refrigeration Wing, a long, one-story, room with center columns and a full-height basement. The last area in the building is the three-story portion at the east end of this wing that contains the first-floor bottle intake, bottle and tank cleaning, and storage rooms.

Administration Wing

The Administration Wing has had several tenants over the course of its history, a fact that has resulted in some alterations to the interior floor plan and materials. Despite many changes of ownership, however, the interior retains much of its original historic integrity specific to its function as a milk facility. The current partitions divide the space into a central hall with a large room to the south and two smaller rooms to the north. While the Buffalo Milk Company occupied the building, a gallery space was located in one of these northern rooms, occupying the first two bays along Massachusetts Street. From the gallery, visitors could watch part of the company's manufacturing process. As a result, this space had more elegant finishes than the remainder of the interior. For instance, a pressed-tin ceiling with a deep cove and crown, also executed in tin, are still present in the ceiling. Large, original, three-over-three windows remain on the interior wall where visitors used to be able to look through and observe the workings of the plant. North of center on the rear wall of the building, the original enclosed staircase remains. The floors are of concrete with the exposed wood joists of the upper floor visible at the ceiling level. The interior face of the brick walls is exposed in some areas but it is unlikely that the brick was originally exposed, as the brick walls are plastered, painted, or dry-walled in most other areas.

The second floor features an open floor plan. The interior face of the brick walls and the wood furring are exposed, as is the wooden joist work of the ceiling. In some areas, the walls have been clad in drywall or mid-twentieth-century paneling. The original columns remain and some of them feature their original capitals, boxed pedestals, and plaster cartouches. Arched windows, present on all but the rear wall, also retain their original trim. Two fire doors are present on the rear wall where they used to communicate with the second floor of the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing, which is no longer extant due to the 1982 fire. Original hardwood flooring remains underneath later covering materials.

The third floor is similar to the second. Though covered in places by plywood subflooring, original hardwood floors remain. The interior faces of the brick walls are visible, as are the wooden joists and rafters above. Both the walls and ceiling are painted in some areas and left unpainted in others. Currently, this space has been partitioned into several smaller rooms for use as an apartment. The original wooden columns, however, are still present. On the rear wall are two fire doors that used to communicate with the upper floors of the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing, which is no longer extant due to the 1982 fire.

Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing

The remaining single-story portion of the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing consists of the original open floor plate with the original, simple, wood posts along the longitudinal axis. Some modern partitions have been added to divide the space into rooms. At the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth bays, a non-original stair descends into the basement. Floors are of concrete or plywood with an exposed wood ceiling above. In some areas, the painted brick walls have been covered with drywall; a dropped acoustical ceiling tile system is present in one of the partitioned enclosures.

In the three-story, Prospect Avenue portion of the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing, the interior of the building envelope is in good repair, even though the floor systems have begun to fail. In between the first and second floors is a mezzanine level. Each level features an open floor plate with exposed brick walls, wooden ceiling, and original hardwood floors. Each floor also retains its original wood support columns. The original stair and elevator shaft remain in the northwest corner, though they are in need of repair.

Milk Tank Wing

The Milk Tank Wing consists of two large, roughly-square rooms, and one narrow room which abut the Tank Cleaning, Storage, and Refrigeration Wing; to the north, along Massachusetts Street, are two rectangular rooms. The two square rooms originally housed the milk tanks and so were open-volume spaces with high ceilings and abundant natural light. This wing is where recently delivered milk was pasteurized and later tested before being stored in the refrigeration rooms for delivery. These spaces remain intact and feature hipped roofs with an exposed beam construction visible from the interior. The interior rafter framing indicates that central skylights originally lit these rooms, though they have since been removed. In this wing the floors are of concrete with thick brick dividing walls. Openings in the walls feature large brick arches, one of which contains an original wood loading door with divided lights in the upper half.