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TRANSCRIPT
Volume I8 Number 2 Weslern New York! lllustruled History Mogozine 57.00 Summer 2015
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Bv Williain C" Even
he year 1925 was an eventful one in the heart of the "Roaring Twenties":
Calvin Coolidge became the first U.S. President to have his inaugural
address broadcast on the radio; Scotch tape was irntented; F, Scott
Fttzgerald published The Great Gatsby; and mobster Johnny Torrio turned over
his Chicugo gungland empire to an up-and-coming gangster named Al Capone.
Closer to tto-. , tgZS saw the establishment of the four original Erie Counry
parks. Thus, this summer marks the 90th annivers ary of the dedication of these
beautiful lands to the citizens of Erie County.
28
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Southeasterlyf am Buffilo fapproximatelyfifteen miles south oJ'dor.untozun] there i.r a
gratlual rise tov.tards tltefoothilk af the Alleglteny Mauntains i.n Pennsyloania. The.first
sharp rise in this directionfam the gently slaping basin rahich surraunrls Bufala at the
fiot of Lake Erie lta.r an ele,uation of abowt 1,20AJeet" It is abaut seven mi/es inlandfomLarte Erie. One af tltese ridges rruings westerly ta merge izt tbe oyf>fands on the eastent.ride
o-f the Eighteen Mile Creek talley, ruhich extends southward. Along the crest aJ-this ridge,
Erie County ;pioneers faund yTtan! enarmlus chestnut trees and ever since thaf time this
section has been *.no"un as Chesmut Ridge.
uch was the geographic de-
scription ofthe site chosen forthe southwesternmost of these
initial county parks, as it appeared in the
Commission's 1939 Annual Report. The
great chestnut trees that had given thislocality its distinctive name were deci-mated by blight - a parasitic fungus
introduced into North America fromAsia around the turn of the 20th centuryand which traveled westward from the
Atlantic coast. A11 of the trees in the
park were infected and died. Ironically,while the chestnut trees could not resist
the effect of the fungus, their lumber was
coveted for its resistance to rot. The
standing dead chestnut trees were logged
for decades aftenvards and converted intorough lumber.
As originally laid out, Chestnut Ridge
Park encompassed 320 acres, purchased
from the Grace, Graves, ZeIl andBen-ning families. The total cost of these
plots was fi24,050 - roughly $75 per acre.
Today, Chestnut Ridge Park comprises
L,231 acres of land at the south end ofthe Town of Orchard Park. It is the larg-est of the Erie County parks, and argu-
ably one ofthe largest county parks in the
United States.
Among the numerous improvements
to the area described tnthe 1926 AnnualReport, the most interesting includedthe drilling of we11s for drinking waterand the building of two dams inNeuman Creek to impound water to be
used "for sanitary purposes over the
entire park area." Furthermore, three and
one-half miles of road were constructed
to "open up the beautiful parts of the
entire park." Numerous paths were also
cleared and rustic bridges built across the
ravines through the woods. Some 700
trees were transplanted along the drives,
and the open areas of the park were
ploughed, limed and seeded. Lastly, a
plot of about 12 acres was set aside fordevelopment as a general playground.
This ca 1925 aerial view shows the areab,eing developed for Chestnut Ridge Park.
The original wooden casino ts vjsib e atupper left center. COURTESY ER E COUNTY
Ovens, shelters and drinking fotr,ntains
were also conveniently placed through-out the park.
While Chestnut Ridge Park contains
many remarkable natural features, the
most impressive man-made structure isthe Chestnut Ridge Park Casino. Theoriginal timber casino was built in 1925,
but was destroyed by fire in !932. It v,as
then replaced by the current stone struc-ture, construction of which began on
June 9, 7936 andwas completed in 1938.
Building materials for this "new" casino
included the parkt aforementioned chest-
nut trees, along with repurposed stones
from the newly renovated streets and
curbs of Buffalo, supplemented by ErieBarge Canal rip-rap. An article tn The
Bufalo Times, published on Septem-
ber 2,1936, described the building of the
casino by 47 employees of the WorksProgress Administration, and observed
that the new structure "wi1l be five times
as large as the old one." Created as partof Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal," the
Works Progress Administration providedjobs for unemployed laborers. The fed-erai government worked with state and
local governments to complete projects,
such as the Chestnut Ridge Casino, bycovering the vast majority of the costs,
with the balance being the responsibilityof the sponsoring state or municipality.
The original Park Commissiont in-terest in environmental conser-vation was
evidenced by the building of a pheasant
house in 7927. This house was used toraise pheasants in cooperation with the
New York State Department of Conser-
vation, Division of Fish and Game. Newlyhatched chicks were raised starting inApril and then released throughout the
The original members of the Erie County Park Commission, ca. 1924. Back row (l to r): EdwinLang Miller, Hamilton Ward and Franklin E. Bard. Front row (l to r): John J. Lenahan, Richard S.
Persons and Frank lV. Spitzmil er
30COURTESY ER]E COUNTY HISTORIAN
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COURTESY ERIE COUNTY HISTOR AN
eligible for a HAVA (Help America Vote
Act) grant. This federal matching grantcontributed 260/o of the $587,000 spent
on redesigning and improving lightingin the parking 1ot. It also improvedtraffic flow and access to the casino. Inaddition, a number of the dilapidatedstructures within the park have been re-
moved or restored. Recent county bud-gets have also included requests foradditional park staff.
Not all assistance came from govern-
mental agencies, however. In 2011, the
Boy Scouts'Legacy 11 initiative helped
to build a spectacular fishing pier on
the 1ake, which includes access for the
disabled. The scouts also undertooknumerous painting and repair projects
throughout the park.
not make a first impression worthl, of the
park as a whole, while adequate direc-rionll and interpretive signage was
lacking. In the face ofthis general dete-
rioration, funding to the parks system
had not kept up with the rising costs ofiabor and maintenance. This forced cut-backs to park staffing. Consequently,
general maintenance, such as lawn mow-ing and reDairs to structures, play-grounds, etc., was frequently delayed ornot performed at all. The Master Plan
also referenced an "apparent underuti-lization of some of the park facilities,"including the main casino building, con-
cession stand, Martin Lodge and othershelters. Ultimately, it can be argued thatmost, if not all of the problems were the
result ofdeclining funds and resources.
Fortunately, the tide has reversed since
the report was published 12 years ago.
Erie County has been placing more fund-ing emphasis on all of its parks, and sig-
nificant improvements to Chestnut Ridge
are noticeable. Major renovations have
occurred at the casino, including a new
roof, new interior lighting, new concrete
sidewalks and a neu. patio. A beautifulflower garden, surrounded by a circularstone wa11, now protects the flag pole next
to the casino. The Commissioners cabin
has been reopened to the public, the
access road has been paved and pubiic use
ofthe secluded lake has been reinstituted.
The lower 12 tennis courts have been
resurfaced and painted, and new hard-ware has been installed. The casino is
now used for voting, which made the area
The current casino was built by the WPA between.1936 and 1938. Bui ding materLals included dead chestnut tlmber harvested from the park, as
Orlginal w nter amenlties in the park ncluded this skl jump The jump was closed in the 1930s, however, due to numerous injuries suffered by
nexpenenced lumpers. COURTESY ERIE COUNTY HISTORIAN
32
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donations, sponsorships, grants and fund-
raisers remains under its control. Whilethe Master Plan provides direction and
the parks department has {rna1 approval,
the CRC suggests projects and deter-mines which of those it will undertake.
Since its inception, the Conservancy
has installed pet waste collection stations
throughout the park, donated benches
and multi-purpose bio-cle/s1ed racks, pro-vided flnar-rcial sr-rpport ior the Bov Scouts'
Leqacr' 11 project, plar-rted chestnut trees,
purchased wind screens for the tenniscourts and installed mailboxes that hold
park maps for public use. The largest and
most ambitious project tackled to date is
the restoration of the five iconic murals
inside of the casino. After nearly two
years and $40,000, the murals painted in1948 by 1oca1 artist, Bernard C. Feld-man, have been cleaned and restored by
Eileen Sullivan, of Aurora Art Restora-
tion in East Aurora. Sixty-five years'
worth of grease, dirt and fireplace smoke
had accumulated on the paintings. Be-fore and after pictures reveal an amazingtransformation as the cleaning process
progressed.
In addition to restoration and im-provement projects, the Conservancy
holds various events throughout the year
that serve to raise money to fund pro-jects, as well as increase public awareness
of the park. Past events have includeda casino Halloween costume parrv, a
casino beach party and three very suc-
cessful annual gala events held at the
Orchard Park Country C1ub. In 201.1.,
the CRC began offering free outdoor
The refurbished interlor of the historic caslno i lustrates some of the significant rnprovements
that have been made to the park's faci lties tn recent years
COURTESY WESTERN NEW YORK SOUTHTOWNS SCEN C BYWAY
Restoration of the casino's historic mura s has been one of themost ambitious prolects of the Chestnut Ridge Conservancyio date. These mages show one of the murals before cleaningand (inset) during the restoration process, show ng thed fference made by the processWILL AN4 C. EVEN PHOTOGBAPHS, 2013
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*€'s 13
s a bonus to the previous story on its development and
history, we have compiled a series of additional images ofChestnut Ridge Park from the1920s and L930s, courtesy of
the Aurora Town and Erie County Historians' offices. We hope
you enjoy these scenes from nearly a century ago. Perhaps theywill inspire you to visit the park this summer - and why not take
your copy of Western N eut York Heritage along? See if you can findany of the spots shown in the following pages!
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