Reviving a Border Community

Two centuries ago, the border settlement of Black Rock, like its southern neighbor Buffalo, was neither a safe nor a happy place to be. Settlers living on the narrow strait between New York State and Canada endured cannonades across the river and found themselves on the shifting, bleeding edge of a once-distant conflict. Fleeing repeated raids, inhabitants put as much distance as they could between themselves and the borderlands.

Those who returned found little more than chimneys and cellar holes. But it was enough on which to rebuild. The settlement of Black Rock, named for an ancient geologic feature that had sheltered a Niagara River ferry for as long as anyone could remember, not only rebuilt but thrived on peacetime cross-border commerce. Intrepid Black Rock even carved a still-water port from the raging currents of the river, and made a bid to be the western terminus of the Erie Canal.

When Black Rock lost that bid to rival Buffalo, its backers moved away, but others came in and built a thriving port village, taking advantage of the commerce of a nation passing by their doors. A young Grover Cleveland, on his way to make a name for himself out west, visited his uncle there, saw all that was happening and decided to stay.

In time, canal commerce moved on, and the village of Black Rock’s fate was to become just one neighborhood of dozens in a restless, expanding city of Buffalo. While some left to seek their fortunes elsewhere, others found new opportunity with the arrival of the industrial Belt Line railroad and the nation’s first long-distance transmitted electric power. The canal port became a thriving industri-al district that incubated nascent engine, automobile and even aircraft manufacture. Industry was joined by a revived cross-border commerce as the Peace Bridge was built to the south and the International Railroad Bridge to the north. So vital had this industrial and commercial district become that the Navy built a wartime ordinance factory there.

But postwar, in a nation ever seeking new frontiers and greener pastures, industry and residents alike departed for the suburbs and the sunbelt. Factories were shuttered, houses demolished, churches closed and drivers on the new Niagara Thruway bypassed once-vibrant storefronts en route to happier destinations. The graffiti-covered backsides of the mothballed factories signaled blight to our Canadian neighbors and everyone crossing the border. The community once founded, so to speak, on the rock—the original Black Rock—even lost the Black Rock name to another Buffalo neighborhood. Those who still (with affection) call the old neighborhood Upper Rock are today all but gone.

Happily, now as several times in the past, Upper Rock is in the midst of a comeback. And all was never lost: International processed foods giant Rich Products, incubated on Niagara Street at Ferry, remained, and thrived. Rich recently invested several million dollars in a Food Innovation Center that will attract top industry visitors from around the world to this border neighborhood. As in previous renewals, there is always enough left from the past to build on for the future.

Building on the past includes refurbishing housing, a mission of the award-winning organization PUSH Buffalo. In partnership with PUSH, the New York Main Street Program and a local business owner have co-funded a feasibility study for mixed-use reoccupation of several surviving storefront buildings. The City of Buffalo has invested millions reviving once-neglected Broderick Park, an Underground Railroad heritage site at the old ferry dock. Transportation funds are allocated to reconstruct Niagara Street, where transit service is also slated for a major upgrade. And the Better Buffalo Fund, the community revitalization piece of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion, is eying the district as well. Vision Niagara, a roundtable bringing together artists, businesses, community groups, and engaged citizens, is working to advance the neighborhood. The hottest brewery in Buffalo, aptly named Resurgence, opened there this year.

Buffalo’s border neighborhood proved to be a plucky survivor of the postwar devastation of two centuries ago, the postwar blight of the 20th century, and the ebb and flow of commercial and industrial cycles. On the upturn again, some of Upper Rock’s best days may be just ahead. Stop by and check out the resurgence.

Alan Oberst is a Buffalo-based blogger.