{"nrhp_refnum":"11000741","name":"House at 218 Dearborn Street","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"218 Dearborn St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Buffalo","county":"Erie County","state":"NY","lat":42.93719616800007,"lon":-78.90158017299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2011-10-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story wood-frame shotgun worker's cottage at 218 Dearborn Street in the Black Rock neighborhood of Buffalo, Erie County, New York, built about 1880 with a decorative porch added about 1890. The builder is unknown.","why_significant":"The house is significant under Criterion C in Architecture as a surviving example of the post-Civil War worker's cottage, a type that once dominated Black Rock. The survey found as few as four such cottages in the neighborhood with enough exterior integrity for listing. This one is the only known example with both an intact interior plan and an intact late-Victorian porch. It reflects the housing of working-class immigrant families during industrialization.","narrative":"Built around 1880 in Buffalo's Black Rock neighborhood, this one-story shotgun cottage at 218 Dearborn Street is a rare survivor of a house type once common among working-class families. Its clapboard walls rest on a limestone foundation beneath a low gable roof, and the rooms run in a straight line from front to back on a narrow 33-foot lot. A porch added about 1890 carries turned columns, spindles and lace-like spandrels, and much of the interior woodwork, pocket doors and bead board wainscot remains. Black Rock grew with waterfront and railroad industries, and German immigrant families filled many such cottages. The earliest documented occupants, in 1900, were Isador and Catherine Keller, followed by the Sommer family, who lived there into the 1970s. A 2010 neighborhood survey found as few as four comparable cottages with enough integrity for listing, and this is the only one with an intact plan and porch. It was listed for its architecture, as an example of industrial-era workers' housing.","period_of_significance":"c. 1880-1890","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Late Victorian / Worker's Cottage","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Currently in use as a single dwelling, as it was historically; the exterior and interior woodwork are largely intact, though the interior has no central heat.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:48.327301-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/11000741.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000741/bb285e1935-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000741/bb285e1935-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Pubdog","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:House_at_218_Dearborn_Street_Jul_11.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Pubdog</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:House_at_218_Dearborn_Street_Jul_11.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75312739","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_at_218_Dearborn_Street","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14706427"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/erie-county/house-at-218-dearborn-street-11000741/"}