Parkside West Historic District

Parkside West is a crescent-shaped residential neighborhood of about 53 acres on the northwest edge of Delaware Park in Buffalo, about four miles north of downtown. Its curving streets follow the park edge and trace the western half of Frederick Law Olmsted's 1876 plan for the Parkside subdivision. Streets such as Nottingham Terrace, Middlesex Road, part of Lincoln Parkway and part of Delaware Avenue are counted as contributing structures. Although planned in 1876, building did not begin until 1923, and most lots were filled by 1940. Restrictive covenants on style and cost produced a cohesive group of expensive, mostly architect-designed brick, stone and stucco houses. Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival and French Chateau designs dominate, with a few manor houses in other styles. Buildings by Bley and Lyman, Shelgren and North, and Frederick Backus are among those described. The district retains a high level of integrity, with few alterations and cast-iron street lights surviving from the period.