Suggested Reading List
City of Light
Author: Lauren Belfer
Description: City of Light is the story of one of the largest cities in turn-of-the-century America, host of the Pan-American Exhibition and center of the emerging hydroelectric power industry: Buffalo, New York, the "city of light," a fountain of wealth and sophistication admired the world round.
City of Light is also the story of a woman whose safe existence within Buffalo's prosperous ruling class is suddenly threatened by scandal. She has led a rare life for a single woman in her time, as headmistress and hostess for Buffalo's most affluent families. But she has secrets whose revelation would destroy all she has worked for.
City on the Edge Buffalo 1900-present
Author: Mark Goldman
Description: City on the Edge is a narrative about the life and times of a city over a one hundred year period. An overview of the history of Buffalo from the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 to the ice storm of October 2006, it is a broad, sweeping historical narrative that leaves little out.
In fifteen chronologically arranged chapters that deal with the arts, city planning, urban renewal, the changing economy, racial and ethnic change, as well as a scathing critique of the deal to bring casino gambling to Buffalo, City on the Edge, written in a scintillating and accessible style, is clearly a must-read for anybody who cares about the critical events that have shaped this city over the past one hundred plus years.
Classic Buffalo:Heritage of Distinguished Architecture
Author: Richard O. Reisem
Description: Buffalo became one of America's greatest cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A significant amount of the enormous wealth generated in the City by the Lake was invested in buildings by America's greatest architects, such as Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Richard Upjohn, Stanford White, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Amazingly, Buffalo boasts more than 2,100 structures, plus numerous parks, parkways, circles, places, avenues, and even a cemetery, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Classic Buffalo celebrates the outstanding quality and diversity of Buffalo's architecture in striking color with many dramatic full page photographs of both the interiors and the exteriors of hundreds of the most interesting buildings and spaces in the city. Along with more than 200 extraordinary photographs by renowned architectural photographer Andy Olenick, are the fascinating stories behind these grand structures.
Buffalo Buffalo - Preserving a City
Author: Linda Levine Maria Scrivani
Description: Buffalo, New York, was one of the first planned cities in the nation, and continues to be one of America's architectural surprises. According to some, "it has more good architecture for its size than any city in America."
Although many treasures have been lost, Buffalo has much to preserve and has preserved much. Lethargy alone preserved some of Buffalo's great architecture. But preservationists began their work in the mid-1960s, starting with houses and gradually encompassing even the industrial waterfront.
Why people preserve places is the mystery the twelve fascinating stories in this book seek to help solve, as it lovingly documents the preservation movement in Buffalo.
Buffalo Memories
Author: George Kunz
Description: "George Kunz was a sentimental man," according to his daughter, Mary. He also loved Buffalo history. The teacher of English and Latin took his children on "field trips" to the old Buffalo and Erie County Public Library before it was torn down, and on the Canadiana just days before the grand old boat was scrapped.
When he retired from teaching, George Kunz found a new career telling his stories on the editorial pages of The Buffalo News, occasionally in the Wall Street Journal, and in various nostalgic magazines.
He was "a born chronicler," recalls his daughter. "He had a passionate and hilarious eye for detail." Everyone who reads the 160 short stories written by the late George Kunz that make up Buffalo Memories will agree. This book is a "feast of charm and nostalgia for Buffalo area readers." (Buffalo News)
|