August 14th, 1947, was a hot day. The masonry was baking like it was back in the kiln, and down on the street the temperature was merciless. The heat kept building, and building, all throughout the day. And then, just a few minutes after six o’clock in the evening, it collapsed.

In the blind attic of a four-story brick building, Nos. 114-120 West Main Street, air temperatures had built up to an incredible level. Only eight feet deep and lined with brick, the small windowless space at the top of the building had heated like an oven. The old bricks couldn’t take anymore; between age, accrued damaged from old fires, the weight of a granite cornice, and the endless heat of summer, something had to give. In the blink of an eye, several tons of bricks cascaded onto the busy sidewalk below.

Amazingly, considering the busy nature of this part of West Main, there were no injuries from the plummeting masonry, save one–a little black cat whose paw was crushed by a falling brick.

In the above image, a parked car was crushed by an avalanche of bricks; from the license number, it was learned to be the car of August William Blanck, from Buffalo, NY. In the below image, he’s in the suit and tie at right, looking the way anyone probably would at their completely crushed car at 8:30 at night when they’re about to drive home to Buffalo.

Of all the rough days described during this incident, few may have had a rougher one than Anna Mae Charboneau.

Anna Mae Charboneau was just heading into a neighboring restaurant when she heard the mighty rumble; she saw the bricks begin to crumble and plummet to the ground, and screamed loudly. In response to this scream, everyone present took notice of the impending disaster and scrambled for cover.

This apparently wasn’t the only noteworthy thing to happen to her that day. Earlier that day, one of the cars on her used car lot caught fire; and to start off the bad day, she witnessed a child being struck by a cab–while that’s technically something bad happening to someone else, it was undoubtedly stressful and weighing heavily on Charboneau’s mind when all the other shit happened.

In the below cropped 1950 Sanborn map, one can see the exploded buildings marked in red. Directly adjacent, at Nos. 108-112 West Main Street, was Bob Clifford’s Grill, the restaurant Charboneau was entering for dinner at the time of the explosion. Adjacent that, at No. 102 West Main Street, was Future Motor Sales, the automobile repair and used car lot which belonged to Charboneau, and employed Joseph DiGuardi.

An investigation discovered that the disaster had been a simple masonry failure causing catastrophic collapse of the attic wall, and not a heat-ignited explosion as had previously been believed.

The above states that the “building formerly was owned by the maternal grand-father of W. Averill Harriman, former ambassador to England and now federal Secretary of Commerce. The Averills were a Rochester family.” The building once belonged to noteworthy citizen George Candee Buell, who gave the property to his daughter Mary Blossom Buell Averell in his will. William Averell Harriman, the above-mentioned ambassador and federal Secretary of Commerce, was the son of Mary Williamson Averell Harriman; her father was William John Averell. Either I’m making a mistake, or they are, but that doesn’t seem to be the same person.

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George C. Buell

George Candee Buell was a Main Street dry goods and grocery wholesaler of remarkable success. He later incorporated into his business his son, George Clifford Buell, becoming George C. Buell & Co. The company would move from its Main Street location to a specially-built building at Nos. 37-39 Exchange Street.

Buell would get into dealing real estate, particularly commercial real estate. He held a number of individual stores and a couple of buildings, including the ones between Sophia and Washington; of course, the one of particular interest to us is Nos. 114-120 West Main Street, the one we’re focusing on for this post. You know the one.

An excerpt of the obituary of G. C. Buell in the Democrat & Chronicle goes into some of his proprietary holdings:

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Culhane’s New Block

John Culhane built one of the buildings that would go on to comprise Buell’s block. A wholesale confectioner, Culhane had the building erected in 1872 with the intent of undertaking a retail aspect to his confectionery.

Setting up shop in No. 144 West Main Street, Culhane rented out the second storefront at No. 142 West Main to other businesses, such as the liquor store of John Anthony Felsinger and his partner, Leander W. Kaufman.

Culhane’s son, William T. Culhane, would join his father in business as “Culhane & Son”. By 1879, John Culhane & Son seems to have dissolved; William T. Culhane has entered the employ of George C. Buell, working as a clerk at the No. 37 Exchange Street location of G. C. Buell & Co.

It is probably around this time, 1878-1879, that George C. Buell purchased the building, and incorporated it and its neighbor to the west into a singular block, known as the “Scribner Block”.

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Scribner Block

According to numerous ads and maps, this building was known as the “Scribner Block”. Why? I’ve yet to find that out; nothing thus far has explained it, and haven’t seen anyone named Scribner involved in this property’s history.

As one can see in the map above, the Scribner Block is in the possession of Mary B. Averell, George C. Buell’s daughter; in a codicil to his will, among other personal and commercial properties, the block was passed to her.

The building would remain as part of her estate until her own death on August 1st, 1937.

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The Reed House

Starting around 1918, the old Scribner Block’s upper floors became used as a low-income boarding house for working men. This was known as the “Reed House”; again, I can’t figure out why. I had assumed the proprietor to be named “Reed” but I haven’t happened upon any evidence of that.

In 1931, this boarding house was central to a purported scheme by the Democratic ticket to “colonize” the vote by boarding numerous men who would vote Democratic, inflating their numbers.

Nothing much came of it, despite a lot of furor from everyone.

In a tragic turn the following year, the son of Reed House proprietor Hiram Day ended his life by leaping off the recently-built Veterans Memorial Bridge. It is supposed that a family disagreement over the young man’s employment pushed Edward J. Day to this dramatic final act.

At some point the Reed House would be leased by the Days to the Brownyards, Frank Henry Brownyard and wife “Lottie” Cable Brownyard. It was Lottie’s name the building was under as of the 1947 brick avalanche.

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Snyder’s Shoe Store

A highly-visible advertisement, painted onto the upper west side of the building, was that of Snyder’s Shoe Store. Snyder’s moved from No. 166 West Main Street to No. 120 West Main Street in January of 1896.

Snyder’s was the shop of George Lawrence Snyder. It would remain there until 1935, when Snyder retired from the shoe business and sold his assets.

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Demolition

As of 1955, the buildings between Scott Alley and North Plymouth were slated for demolition, to be replaced with parking. Note that, in the below photo, you can see the attic of the middle building–where the 1947 collapse occurred–has been repaired with new bricks.

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North Plymouth Terrace

Construction of a new building on this site began in 2011; This would be a three-story commercial building connected with the rowhouse development of North Plymouth Terrace:

And thus, with the construction of the North Plymouth Terrace, this parcel on West Main was no longer mere parking, but once again a mix of business and residential. This building, let us pray, is a darn sight less susceptible to sudden masonry collapse. That’s how we build a future, folks: incrementally.

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