Kensington Gardens Apartment Complex

Kensington Gardens is a World War II-era apartment complex on the eastern edge of Buffalo, New York, next to Cheektowaga. Built in 1941-42 by New York City developer Godfrey Weinstein, it holds 280 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in 59 detached or semi-attached brick buildings. The Colonial Revival buildings are grouped around grassed courts along curving interior streets, with three building types and entrances topped by fans, pediments or dentil moldings. The complex was built to house workers in nearby war industries, including Curtiss-Wright and Bell Aircraft, at a time when employment in the Buffalo area grew sharply. Weinstein, acting on Federal Housing Administration guidance about where housing was most needed, developed it with FHA mortgage insurance. Its layout follows garden city ideas promoted by the agency: low building coverage, shared green space and curvilinear streets away from main roads. When completed it was the largest privately built housing project in Buffalo. Its original site plan, building forms and apartment layouts remain largely intact, and the buildings continue to serve as apartments.