Irish Community

Upon inspection of Buffalo's numerous communities one is often overwhelmed at the amount of culture they can find and the specificity of that culture that shows up in tiny pockets throughout the city. This is a fairly vague statement as I am sure that you can find these pockets anywhere you look, in pretty much every city. Not being from Buffalo originally however but having lived here for the last 5 years, I am filled with questions regarding the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of those who built the structures that we now deem 'historical'. One of the more interesting places to me in this regard is the First Ward District of South Buffalo. Perhaps it is my Irish heritage that causes this connection but it is also something else. Upon inspection of the First Ward in the present time one can undoubtedly see the general disrepair that has befallen it, along with much of this once majestic city, but more importantly one can definitely see that it is was and is still an Irish neighborhood.  
Susan Hardwick in her article on ethnicity in landscape states that ""ethnic landscape" refers to the imprints on the land left by people who share a common identity linked to a common place of origin" (231) So it is not as though the Irish who settled in the First Ward built all of their structures in the shape of a shamrock or anything quite so gaudy but rather that we can see commonalities throughout the ways that their buildings are made and the types of structures they choose to make.

The First Ward, in this zoning map from 1855-1890 shows many different neighborhoods each with their own distinctive ethnic background. The First Ward is waterside and it is said that many of the Irish settlers that came there did so after having completed their work on the Erie Canal. Typically today many people do still conceive of communities as being based around members of the same ethnic group living within the same few block radius. However this was much more prevalent during the the industrialization of the country and this is especially true in the major urban areas.

So what distinguishes the areas of Irish settlement from that of others? Well...

For one thing the tavern or pub, while not a primarily Irish idea or structure is somehow one of the most prevalent things that comes to mind when considering what an Irish neighborhood looks like. Somehow a neighborhood that does not have a pub in it cannot possibly be seen as Irish. Buffalo's First Ward is no different than this. This is just as true in the mid 1800's as it is today, if not more-so.

These photos show the same building in obviously very different states of existence. The first picture is from approximately 1850 when it was still a hotel, called interestingly enough, the German Hotel. The second is from much more recently when in 2008 its roof was lost in heavy winds. It has since been demolished.
It should be no surprise that the pub is the enduring element of Irish heritage that one thinks of whenever Irish culture is mentioned. Partly because yes, Irish people do drink...alot... but also because upon constructing their new world as a reflection of the one they left behind they would have been completely remiss in not making the pub, which was to be the center of communal activities. Lets compare the older picture of the building above, McBrides or even Blackthorn's, with this picture of a Dublin hostel.

The similarities of the building are startling. Notice the four windows on the upper floors and the two on the mid floors. Also the shapes of the buildings are the same as well. While the building from Dublin does look decidedly more modern one has to wonder at whether or not this is because of a present-day face-lift or if it is just the lighting. However the Hardwick article does say something interesting about this, " the physical and social isolation of the Scots-Irish and other immigration groups in the United States in certain parts of the country encouraged the creation and retention of unique landscape features."