Although the Hydraulics neighborhood continued to thrive into the twentieth-century, by the mid-1900s, the area faced increasing economic difficulties. Like the city of Buffalo as a whole, job loss, declining population and the aging of the transportation infrastructure began to cripple the Hydraulics neighborhood.
Times were quickly changing in Buffalo during the post-World War II era. By the 1940s and 50s, the city's railroads and factories, which had been constructed nearly a century earlier, were rapidly aging and becoming obsolete. Buffalo also suffered from a series of crippling labor strikes which made many industry and business owners leery. Many of Buffalo's largest manufacturers began leaving in order to build new state-of-the-art facilities in other places; Spencer-Kellogg, the nation's largest linseed oil products maker relocated its 50+ year old plant in 1952, followed by Dupont who constructed a new multimillion dollar plant in Ohio.
The opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959 delivered a final crippling blow to manufacturing and industrial economy of the city, rerouting the transportation of goods around the former terminus of the Erie Canal. Many of Buffalo's largest manufactures and industries left the area, and as jobs left the region, so too did the residents. During this period, the population of the city of Buffalo reached its peak of 532,759 in the 1960 census, and began to decline as residents relocated to cities with more jobs and opportunity. The city's once-prosperous industries such as the grain trade, railroad commerce, steel manufacture and other industrial concerns began leaving Buffalo beginning in the mid-twentieth-century.
Like the city of Buffalo, the Hydraulics neighborhood also suffered the loss of many of its industrial and manufacturing enterprises. Perhaps the most significant development which impacted the local economy in the neighborhood was the construction of the Niagara Branch of the New York State Thruway (I-190). Completed in 1959, the Niagara Thruway traced much of the earlier Erie Canal and Main and Hamburg Canal rights-of-way (by then infilled) and was constructed on the former Scott Street just south of the primary core of the Hydraulics neighborhood. The elevation of the roadway, coupled with the congestion, noise and pollution, created a physical rift between areas to the north and south of the Niagara Thruway; the road literally became a line which marked a physical and psychological barrier. While initially the Thruway project, like other highway projects going on across the county at the same time, was seen as beneficial and a means to modernize transportation to and from the city, it soon proved to have the opposite effect on the city.
The same year the Niagara Thruway was opened, 1959, also saw the loss of several key businesses in the Hydraulics. The F.N. Burt Company, maker of paper boxes, as well as J. W. Clement, and the Keystone Warehouse Co. constructed new facilities in the Buffalo suburbs of Cheektowaga and Depew, areas made easily accessible via the new Thruway system. The opening of the highway system proved devastating for the commercial interests in the Hydraulics as well; Seneca Street retail merchants reported an overnight drop of 75 percent in traffic on the street as commuters bypassed the smaller street for the new highway.
Maps and photographs of the neighborhood reveal the true extent of the damage to the Hydraulics neighborhood. Once the area was packed with buildings along all the streets; brick multi-story commercial buildings lined Seneca Street, with dense rows of houses in residential areas. Large industrial buildings jockeyed for space with railroad buildings and other manufacturing facilities. After the downturn the neighborhood faced in the 1950s and 60s, many of the properties were abandoned and neglected as people and business left the Hydraulics for the suburbs. These properties fell into a general state of disrepair and were demolished, clearing large vacant lots and parking areas in the dense urban fabric. The demolition of the renowned Larkin Administration Building in 1950 began the wave of demolitions which destroyed entire blocks of the Hydraulics neighborhood.
Industrial buildings, unlike commercial and residential architecture, were not constructed with aesthetics in mind; typically these buildings featured simple, utilitarian designs based on function and the needs dictated by the interior production. Industrial buildings of the nineteenth-century relied on the natural elements for interior illumination, ventilation and even for the power to drive the belts and shafts which in turn operated machinery. As a result, industrial buildings are often constructed in phases, with additions added to the building as need dictated, and typically featured numerous window voids. Industrial buildings were typically not thought of as true "architecture" in the nineteenth-century, and in fact many architects lacked interest in industrial architecture due to the financial and economic limitations and a belief in the lack of artistic possibilities in their design. Factory design was often a mix of common empirical engineering with engineering based on rationalized, technological planning. But, prior to the development of specialized engineers or architects, early factory design also involved a bit of luck and trial and error by builders and craftspeople. As a result, most nineteenth-century industrial buildings were designed as collaborations between industrialists, engineers, local carpenters and buildings, and mill builders.
Industrial Architecture
The industrial architecture in the Hydraulics neighborhood is significant for its embodiment of unique industrial architectural styles. The extant industrial mills and factories which largely date to the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century signify the area's origins are the core of manufacturing and industry dating to the neighborhood's founding in the 1820s. Many of the companies which called the Hydraulics neighborhood home played a significant role in shaping the development of industry not only in the immediate area, but Buffalo and also the nation. The presence of these industrial facilities indicates the self-contained quality of the Hydraulics neighborhood as a place to live and work.
1.) 567 Exchange Street (image right) 
Formerly the Buffalo Lounge Company Building, a rectilinear 4-story brick industrial loft building. Upper floor features segmental arched window details. Building appears to date to ca. 1900.
2.) 619 Exchange Street (former Iroquois Door Company Building)
A large, rectilinear 4-story brick industrial loft building which features a raised cut-stone foundation, large rectangular windows divided by simple continuous brick pilasters. Originally constructed in 1904 with later additions in the 1920s.
3.) 290 Larkin Street (former Larkin Company "L, M" Building)
This building is a large, 7-story brick industrial building with a cut stone foundation, ground floor shipping and loading bays. Several bays appear to have once featured larger door openings for bringing goods into the building through the use of large roof-mounted hoists (partially extant). Constructed in 1908, the L, M Building once served largely as a storage building for the Larkin Company.
4.) 500 Seneca Street (image right)
The former F.N. Burt Company is a sprawling complex of buildings featuring 4- and 5-story portions set on cut-stone foundations with large window voids throughout. Constructed in numerous stages between 1901 and 1927, the architecture of the building reflects the development and refinement of new industrial architecture technology in the early twentieth-century.
5.) 635 Seneca Street (former Larkin Company "I" Building)
A large, 4-story brick industrial building, notable features for this structure include large window voids divided by brick pilasters with a simple brick cornice above. Reinforced concrete was used for the basement floor and foundations while brick was used above. Perhaps the signature element for the building is its tall brick chimney. Constructed in 1902, the Larkin Company "I" Building served as the Power House for the entire complex.
6.) 701 Seneca Street (former Larkin Company "B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, N, O" Building)
The most massive of the buildings associated with the Larkin Company in the Hydraulics, this large edifice is actually a combination of several smaller building components which were constructed at various stages between 1898 and 1913. Primarily a 6-story industrial building, it features numerous aligned and regularly spaced window voids, loading docks and shipping bays on the ground floor and a corbelled cornice along some portions of the roofline. The building has been resurfaced in a cement-like finish sometime in the 1960s, but where some the surface has worn, portions of the original brick construction and segmental arched, paired 12/12 wood framed sash windows are visible.
7.) 545 Swan Street (former The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Building)
A large, box-like 8-story reinforced concrete framed industrial building with brick spandrel panels, concrete pilasters and now largely infilled bands of window. Still visible are the traces of painted lettering and signage which advertised the former A&P brand. This simple, utilitarian building was constructed by the Keystone Warehouse Company between 1903 and 1917.
8.) 239 Van Rensselaer Street (image right) 
This is the former Larking Company "U" Building. Unlike a majority of the other industrial architecture in the Hydraulics, this 3-story brick building with Medina sandstone accents is designed in the decorative Romanesque Revival style. The primary western façade features a series of large arcaded arches which contain windows and a central entry door. Originally constructed in 1893 by D. Ullman Sons, a large-scale industrial salvage and recycling firm, the Larkin Company purchased the building in 1911.
Mixed-use Commercial Buildings
Like any nineteenth-century community, the Hydraulics neighborhood once boasted a large, thriving commercial area primarily located along Seneca and Swan Streets. Extant early commercial architecture in Buffalo generally dates to the Victorian era (ca. 1850s-1900s), and displays styles which coincide with many of the popular residential styles from the period including Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque. As was common in commercial architecture, historic photos show that a majority of the architecture was designed as two-part commercial blocks (the prevalent style from the 1850s to the 1950s) with a façade which was divided into a lower floor public commercial space with unified upper stories which accommodated other functions such as private offices and residences.
While certainly early commercial buildings were located in the Hydraulics neighborhood in the 1820s, much of the commercial development in the area was during the late nineteenth-century. Rows of three-, four- and five-story buildings lined the streets and housed a variety of small enterprises including butchers, blacksmiths, brewers, painters and a myriad of other trades. Maps indicate that a majority of the commercial buildings were constructed of brick, sometimes with wood framed additions or out-buildings, and were tightly-packed along the street line. Today there are few remaining examples of commercial architecture in the Hydraulics neighborhood; much was demolished in the twentieth-century or has been significantly altered. The view down Seneca Street in its hey-day would have been typical of any city in the nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century; a walkable street bustling with activity, buildings densely lining the streets.
Public Architecture
Being that the Hydraulics was a self-contained, self-sufficient settlement within the confines of the larger Buffalo area for a majority of its history, it is not surprising to find that the area once contained several examples of public architecture. Public buildings are those which served governmental, municipal services or other similar capacities including schools, fire stations, post offices and other functions. Often these buildings shared many characteristics of typical commercial buildings from the time including a ground floor service zone with additional stories above. At the end of the nineteenth-century, the Hydraulics neighborhood contained its own post office branch (located in the Kamman Building at 755-757 Seneca Street), was home to Public School Number 5 at the corner of Hydraulic and Seneca Streets, and featured a fire station (Hydraulic Engine Company No. 9, established on October 18, 1845) located on Seneca Street near the Swan Street junction. With the exception of the Kamman Building, much of this original public architecture has now vanished from the landscape of the Hydraulics neighborhood.
Commercial and Public Architecture Examples
1.) 594 East Eagle Street
A 2 ½-story front gable wood-framed vernacular style building which retains its original carved wood storefront façade on the street level. Perhaps one of the oldest remaining mixed use buildings in the residential area, this building appears to date to at least the 1870s when it served as the residence of J.B. Burldenberg, and became a store in the 1880s.
2.) 831 East Eagle Street
A 2 ½-story front hipped brick building with a vernacular Italianate design with a ground floor store and upper floor residential. The ground floor East Eagle façade retains much of its original storefront design including pilasters, molding and what appears to be decorative wood paneling. It appears to date to the 1890s.
3.) 700 Seneca Street (Buffalo Firehouse Engine 32 Ladder 5)
This one-story brick fire station was constructed in 1955 in a simplified Art Deco design. The beige glazed brick edifice with verdigris copper flashing features three large bays for the fire equipment which are labeled with slightly projecting Art Deco-style metal lettering, flanked by a smaller bay to the south of the building which is labeled "Chief, South Division."
4.) 740 Seneca Street (right, image by Chris Hawley)
The former Marine Trust Bank Building, a 3-story, brick commercial building with a 3-bay primary south façade, is designed in a vaguely Renaissance Classical style. East façade features two light wells cut into the upper floors which indicates the close-proximity of a now-non-existent neighbor. Designed by architect Joseph J. W. Bradney (who also designed the home of John Durrant Larkin Jr. House at 65 Lincoln Parkway in 1912) circa 1900 to originally house Henry Schaefer's grocery store, the building was enlarged in 1919 by the firm of Mann and Cook to house the bank.
5.) 755 Seneca Street (The Kamman Building)
A 4-story, 7-rank brick and Medina sandstone commercial building in a Romanesque Revival style. An example of a two-part commercial block building, the ground floor storefront features cast iron pilasters, lion head ornament and a sign noting the building as "The Kamman" at the center above an entry door. Constructed ca. 1883/84 by architect Franklin W. Caulkins on property owned by the Kamman family.
6.) 760 Seneca Street (right, image by Chris Hawley)
This Romanesque Revival two-part commercial block brick building, the former F. X. Winkler & Sons Building, is 3-stories with a 7-bay primary south façade. The ground floor features brick infill set into the original cast iron store front façade which still retains decorative pilasters at each end of the façade and flanking a central entry door. Constructed ca. 1893 by an unknown architect, this building served as the F. X. Winkler & Sons grocery store until it closed in 1968.
Railroad Viaducts and Subways
Given the industrialization and development in the Hydraulics neighborhood, it is not surprising that the area contains several excellent examples of structural design. These interesting engineering feats are related to the railroad in the form of cast iron and steel subways, which interlace the neighborhood. The presence of these metal structural elements, juxtaposed against the residential and commercial fabric, strengthens the sense of industrialization and transportation which formed the foundation of the Hydraulics neighborhood. The use of rivets indicates that these structures most likely date to the period before 1920 when the advent of welding and bolted joints became more common.
Today there are large holes cut into the architecture of the Hydraulics neighborhood. Many of the houses have been modified with new materials, odd additions and alterations and some have entirely lost the character of the original design. Some of the houses which have been maintained now are sheathed with modern materials such as vinyl siding and have had replacement windows inserted, also negating the original historic character of the building. Neglect is still a primary concern for many buildings, and properties are lost each year to arson. Commercial properties fared equally as poor as their residential counterparts.
A majority of the original architectural stock of streets like Seneca Street has been lost to demolitions, and many remaining commercial properties are significantly disfigured by later alterations and modifications. Industrial building have fared much the same. The handful of buildings which do remain and do retain the original character of their architecture in the Hydraulics neighborhood are rare surviving examples of what the neighborhood once was at the height of its prominence.
But enough remains to create a solid foundation for a brighter future thanks to the visionaries at Larkin Development Group that rehabbed the Larkin at Exchange building. Commercial tenants quickly filled the property's 600,000 sq.ft. of office space, buying into the neighborhood's future and encouraging the developers to rehab other structures and plan for new construction. The City pitched in to undertake a streetscape project along Seneca Street. Other developers are following their lead unveiling plans for both small and large-scale reuse projects. The Hydraulics District is returning to its roots as an economic engine.
Source: National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form prepared by Architectural Historian Jennifer Walkowski of Clinton Brown Company Architecture.
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Two top images courtesy of Chris Hawley @ The Hydraulics Press