Concrete grain elevators tower over small worker cottages along the Buffalo River.
What Old First Ward looks like
Concrete grain elevators rise over the ward, taller than anything else nearby. At Silo City on the Buffalo River, the Perot malthouse stands in brick and concrete. Built in 1907, it now hosts weddings and live music inside its old work floors. Marine A, a poured concrete elevator built in 1925, is open for public tours. The , a working grain complex since 1928, rises over the houses on St. Clair Street.
Small wood frame cottages sit in tight rows below the silos, one and a half to two storeys with modest clapboard siding. The streets form a narrow triangular grid between South Park Avenue, Smith Street and Michigan Avenue.
, a corner bar on South Park Avenue, has been open since 1934. runs its own brewery a few blocks south on Hamburg Street, and stands nearby on O'Connell Avenue in rusticated stone.
The Buffalo River runs along the ward's edge, with on Hamburg Street giving a kayak and canoe launch under the elevators. Rail spurs and open lots separate the houses from the water on this side of the neighborhood.
Shot in Old First Ward
Buffalo '66 passes through the Old First Ward on Billy Brown's bus trip into the city, catching Adolf's for about a second on South Park Avenue. The tavern has run at the same corner since 1934.
Buffalo '66, 1998
Adolf's Old First Ward Tavern
Billy Brown's bus passes Adolf's on South Park Avenue for a single brief shot on its way into Buffalo. Founded in 1934, the bar still operates today as Adolf's Old First Ward Tavern. Street View
Locust Point pairs the same combination of a concrete grain elevator and small worker rowhouses beside a harbor. The elevator, later converted into Silo Point, was built in 1924 at a comparable scale to Buffalo's own concrete elevators. The tower's windows and balconies from its residential conversion show in any shot above the third floor, so keep the camera low and close to the rowhouses. Baltimore's brick rowhouses read differently from Buffalo's wood frame cottages in a close texture shot. Try searching grain elevator harbor rowhouses now.
Rice's Point in Duluth, Minnesota
Rice's Point is a working grain port with concrete elevators and rail spurs still active today, the same present day operation Buffalo's Standard Elevator keeps running. Elevator A there dates to 1908 and returned to active service after a period standing idle. Duluth's harbor is far wider than the Buffalo River's narrow channel, so a tight shot along the water keeps the two believable. The houses near Rice's Point sit farther back from the elevators than Buffalo's cottages do. Try searching working grain elevator rail spurs now.
