Riverside, Buffalo

Riverside is a neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, located in the northwestern part of the city, along the Niagara River. It is sometimes referred to in conjunction with another community located directly south, Black Rock.

Prior to the late 1800s, Riverside was an area that remained largely undeveloped farmland. For many, it was a "rural retreat" to the larger, more industrious city of Buffalo, inhabited mostly by a few wealthy owners of large estates. Riverside stayed this way until 1888, after the passage of the Hertel Avenue Sewer Bill, which allowed sewer construction to take place in the area. Subsequently, real estate development began in 1890 when the North Park Land Company purchased 30 acres (120,000 m²) of land near the current Riverside Park (formerly known as Germania Park), which boasts a scenic outlook of the Erie Canal and Niagara River. The land was subdivided, and construction of two-family homes started. All Saints Roman Catholic Church was founded in 1911, and can be found in the center of Riverside. In the 1930s Chevrolet constructed the GM Powertrain Tonawanda Engine Plant in Town of Tonawanda, a neighborhood bordering riverside, which helped bring about swift industrial growth. The remainder of the area continued to quickly develop through the 1950s.

Many of the new residents moving to Riverside, were arriving from Black Rock, which had become highly industrialized by the end of the 19th century. Offering views of the Niagara River, curving streets, and larger residential building lots than its neighbor to the south, Riverside had attracted over 2,000 people by 1900, who were mostly of German and Irish descents. It was this sudden surge in population, that gave Riverside its early reputation as a northern working class 'suburb' of Black Rock, even though it still was within the city limits. For these new residents, Riverside was only a short trolley-car ride away from their old neighborhoods.

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