Genesee Street
Last updated: 30 May 2005
|
Looking up Genesee across Adams, Grey and Johnson. |
|
|
German Day Parade 1964 Marching down Genesee towards Genesee Park. |
|
|
German Day Parade 1962 Genessee at Bissell. Note Hefner Photo Service in the background. |
 Source: Rich Schwegler/Phil Adams |
Also from the 1962 German Day Parade Genesee in front of Rung Brothers Furniture Company. |
 Source: Rich Schwegler/Phil Adams |
Same parade, looking down Genesee street, 1962. |
|
|
View of Genesee from Jefferson taken in 1999. You can see Sol Lenzer bottling plant (also known as Queeno soft drinks). On the far right you can see the gas company at Monroe. Farther down is St Mary of Sorrows. |
|
|
The demolition of a shoe factory on Jefferson at Genesee, 1999. |
Businesses on Genesee
- Iriquois Gas Works, 669 Genesee.
- Monroe Bowling Alley, Genesee & Monroe, 10 lanes, 35cents per game; 10 cents for shoes. c. 1955.
- Sol Lenzer, made Queeno soft drink (c. 1955); may have originally been part of Langs Beer c. 1900.
- Prat and Moor auto dealer c. 1955. They had an open car lot on Genesee and a storage lot on Brown and Monroe just behind the Gas company.
- [Unknown Name] Used Book Store at Genesee and Adams; comics without a cover cost 2 cents; paperbacks were 15 cents and considered pornography and were to be hidden.
- Cavanaugh's Bakery on north side of Geneseee, across from the gas company.
- By 1900, John F. and Arnold T. ARMBRUST opened a general hardware store called John Armbrust's Sons at 789 Genesee.
- Henry Betz & Sons / Henry Betz & Brother(s),
824 Genesee Street.
From Potters & Potteries of New York State: 1650-1900, by Ketchum, William C. Jr., Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press 1987; pp. 427-428 (Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Ref. NK4025.N7K4 1987):
"The last of the craftsmen of the 1850s is Henry Betz, who with his son, Henry Jr., established an earthenware pottery on Genesee Street which remained in family hands until well into the twentieth century.
Betz first appears in 1850 working in the Township of Black Rock (which later became part of greater Buffalo). [He is found there in the 1850 census, too. -- JSS] At this time he was already sixty-five years old. He probably owned his own kiln, as his real estate was valued at $1,000. Living with him was Henry, Jr., who was twenty-six. In 1855 Betz was listed in the directory as a potter on Genesee Street below German; two years later he and Henry Jr. were making earthenware on East Genesee near Sherman. In 1859 the son assumed management of the firm, though his father continued to work with him until 1864. [Henry Betz, senior dies in 1873. -- JSS]
The business remained in Henry Jr.'s hands until the late 1870s, when George Betz, another member of the family, took charge. But by 1882, Henry Jr. was again active, and in 1884 he seems to have resumed full control. George continued to work in the shop as a potter until 1896. [NOTE: Henry, Jr. died (commit suicide) in 1876; it was probably at this time that George stepped in; the Henry that resumed full control was actually Henry Jr's SON (the third Henry Betz), b. 1849 and who died in 1911. -- JSS]
In 1889 the concern became Henry Betz and Brothers by the addition of the younger Ferdinand and Charles [two more sons of Henry Jr.]. At this time the company expanded into the stoneware field and continued in it at least until 1893. I am not aware, however, of any stoneware piece bearing the Betz mark.
In 1894 or 1895 Ferdinand dropped out, and the firm was thereafter listed as Henry Betz and Brother. The brother varied from time to time with Ferdinand replacing Charles in the early 1900s. The potter was still active as late as 1906."
[We have not found the burial place of Henry, Sr., but Henry Jr. and his son are both buried in Concordia Cemetery. - JSS]