{"nrhp_refnum":"05001378","name":"Entranceway at Main Street at Roycroft Boulevard","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Main St., jct. with Roycroft Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Amherst","county":"Erie County","state":"NY","lat":42.962174204000064,"lon":-78.77991242999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-12-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A suburban subdivision entranceway of half-height random ashlar stone walls and posts on the south side of Main Street (Route 5) at Roycroft Boulevard in the Town of Amherst, Erie County, New York, built circa 1917 to 1920 by Abbott and Beymer Land Co.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is an intact, relatively rare surviving example of an early twentieth-century Tudor Revival subdivision entranceway. It is tied to Amherst's change from rural town to a residential suburb of Buffalo, and to the broader national growth of suburbanization. It marks the entrance to the Aurora Park subdivision.","narrative":"Three half-height stone walls and two free-standing stone posts mark the Main Street entrance to Roycroft Boulevard in Amherst, New York. Built circa 1917 to 1920 by the Buffalo developers Abbott and Beymer Land Co., the entranceway announced the Aurora Park residential subdivision. A nearly semicircular wall of random ashlar stone sits in line with the boulevard's wide median, flanked across the roadways by two L-shaped walls with stone posts and a corner pilaster. Its Tudor Revival character reflects the eclectic tastes of the period. Developers used such gateways in the 1920s to present their subdivisions as desirable places to live, as Buffalo's streetcar, railroad and automobile links opened rural Amherst to suburban growth. The street and plot plan was drawn by Straley Bros., civil engineers from Buffalo. Some posts carry later caps and lamps, and the walls show patching and leaning, with the central and east sections in poor condition. It was recognized for its local and national role in suburban development and for its design.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1918","architect_builder":"Abbot and Beymer, Developers","architectural_style":"Late 19th and Early 20th Century Revivals/Tudor Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still serves its original function of marking the entrance to a residential subdivision; the central wall and east side wall are in poor condition, the west side wall in fair condition.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:53.481438-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/05001378.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001378/8aa09c76c0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001378/8aa09c76c0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"TonyTheTiger","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20090412_Entranceway_at_Main_Street_at_Roycroft_Boulevard_from_northeast.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">TonyTheTiger</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20090412_Entranceway_at_Main_Street_at_Roycroft_Boulevard_from_northeast.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75312791","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entranceway_at_Main_Street_at_Roycroft_Boulevard","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5380681"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/erie-county/entranceway-at-main-street-at-roycroft-boulevard-05001378/"}