When John D. Larkin, Sr. (JDL), in 1877, began purchasing property on Seneca Street while still running his soap making company on Chicago Street in a leased building, he could not have made a wiser decision about location. Seneca Street, after all, had a history then going back over a hundred years when the Seneca Indians first located in a huge area between the Buffalo River and Seneca Lake. They settled their Buffalo Creek Village just north of what we now refer to as the Seneca Babcock Community, in 1780.

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The Senecas developed a trail that led to Lake Erie, an area now known as Canalside. They could canoe to the Lake on Buffalo Creek (now the area known as the Commercial Slip) as well as use the trail. It was along that trail that Irish immigrants, forced to live outside the Buffalo village limits because of prejudice against them, began to settle, often aided by the Senecas.

 

By the mid-1800's waves of immigrants, especially Germans and Polish, who were escaping poverty, prejudice and war in Europe, followed the Irish down the Seneca trail and into the areas both south and north of it. The white government, seeing this growth and the potential for further development of the city towards the east, defrauded the Senecas to sign a treaty in 1838 ceding their right to that land, and were encouraged to move to a new reserve in Cattaraugus County.  

 

By then Seneca street had been "paved" in cobblestone and wood planks from downtown up to the Buffalo River, just before the Seneca Babcock area. A horse drawn trolley car system was established in 1834 by Buffalo Street Railway (which company was later acquired by International Railway Co. - IRC). A principle in that company was Stephen Van Rensselaer Watson, whose name or family is undoubtedly the source of the name of the LCOC's south bordering street. ("The Beginning of Buffalo Industry,: Robert Holder)

It was to this emerging industrial community that JDL ultimately purchased 64 acres of land, building one building at a time as he needed to expand. As most of you undoubtedly know, the LCOC comprising 1.3 million square feet, is actually 12 separate buildings which JDL wrapped into one "skin." Other smaller buildings like the power house and the warehouse (now Larkin at Exchange), and finally the famous Frank Lloyd Wright - designed Administration Building were added later.

 

The trolley (car route # 15 on the system) which came down Seneca Street was essential to the Larkin Soap Company (LSC) to enable employees to come to work as well as customers, especially in later years when a retail shop was established on site. 

But trolleys had their weaknesses. Snow, of course, could be a huge impediment. And the frequent flooding of the Buffalo River submerging Seneca Street between Elk and Smith Streets periodically brought the trolley to a standstill.  

 

In July, 1889, electric trolleys replaced the horses. Power substations were established, including one at Seneca and Elk just below the Buffalo River crossing of Seneca Street. (Holder)   When the Seneca and Elk substation of the IRC became overloaded in the winter of 1906, a new, enlarged substation was built at Seneca and Imson Streets in the Seneca-Babcock community, making it much easier for residents there to get to work. In years to come, the #15 trolley route was extended to the city line.

 

Needless to say, the cobblestones and wood planks which covered Seneca Street deteriorated over time and never had been optimal. Business along Seneca Street suffered from the condition of the street. So in 1818 asphalt paving was approved, with the city to pay for the work but IRC to be responsible for paving the track area. No sooner had that deal been made when the railroad workers at IRC went on a prolonged strike. IRC found it impossible to perform the paving, so the project stalled.

 

In the meantime, what was LSC to do about its employees who relied on #15 to go to and from their jobs? There had also been a strike in 1913 and another occurred in 1922. Strikes at that time often involved violence including destruction of IRC's trolley barns and cars and physical fights between strikers and union busters. But JDL was undeterred. Both for the sake of the needs of his company as well as for his employees, he sent out his own crude trolleys to provide transport. Photos of these transports are included in "Ninety Years of Buffalo Railways: 1860-1950" by William Reed Gordon (photo dated April 1913) and were published also in the LCO newsletter for its employees, "Ourselves" (May 15, 1913). The IRC book as well as individual photos are in the amazing archives of the Buffalo History Museum.

 

The 1918 strike by platform men lasted only three weeks because businesses got together and underwrote a loan to IRC to cover the increase in pay sought by the atrikers. ("Ninety Years...")

 

Years went by, however, without the paving job being done; businesses all along Seneca Street were effected because of the terrible condition of the street. By 1929 merchants and businesses were in severe distress including the retail store that had been opened at LSC. By now JDL had died (in 1926) and son, JDL,Jr. was left to deal with the situation. He became an outspoken advocate for the district. To ease his own situation, he purchased several nearby buildings near the company's property, tore them down and built parking lots. Work did finally commence in 1929 with the city paying $501,079 of the cost and 

IRC paying $1,251,479. ("Seneca Street, Among First Paved, Last to be Improved," Buffalo Evening News, August 16, 1929.)

In 1950 the trolley era came to an end. By then the Niagara Frontier Transportation System operated it and made the change to motorized bus public trans  

portation. Soon Seneca Street would have the tracks removed and the surface repaved. 

The employees from the neighborhood, of course, had access to that service, though, by then, most families had a car of their own. And the fact that this street that goes by the front door of LCOC was once an Indian trail and actually is one of the oldest and longest (ultimately ending in East Aurora) streets in the city, is barely remembered. And its history of being a lifeline to the immigrant community that surrounds it has been largely erased.

 

My special thanks the Cynthia Van Ness and Shane Stephenson in the archives department of the Buffalo History Museum for their assistance in locating sources referred to throughout this article.