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22 DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE // CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT 1872 a reference to ‘parkside’ is known to exist in a city neighborhoods report, described as a “detached suburb adjoining the Park on the north and on the east, designed by private enterprise, so as to secure it to a permanent sylvan character distinct from the formal rectangular streets of the city proper … a district nearly three square miles in area, extensively planted, and guarded against any approach to dense building.” 12 Incidentally, 1872 was also the year that Olmsted and Calvert Vaux ended their partnership; however, Vaux continued to prepare architectural designs for many of the park buildings built within the Buffalo park system. The Development of Parkside By 1876, when the parks plan was complete, a street layout for the “park side” area was prepared along with the plan by Olmsted with the assistance of engineer George K. Radford. [Fig. 7] 13 It was conceived originally as a railroad and horse car suburb and was to give, as Olmsted envisioned, the “upper and upper-middle classes an escape from the city, where rural countryside and city (with its modern amenities) merged.” 14 Despite the inclusion in the city’s parks plan, the 12 Douglass J. Forsyth, “Staying Put in Parkside,” American Bungalow, Issue 78, 2013, 63. 13 Charles Beveridge, “Frederick Law Olmsted’s Vision for Buffalo,” 4. 14 National Register of Historic Places, Historic Residential Suburbs in the United States, 1830-1960, Multiple Property Documentation Form, Washington DC, 2002, 4. development of Parkside was not carried out at the time except for the street directly adjacent to the eastern park boundary – Parkside Avenue. What ultimately became Jewett Parkway was originally conceived by Olmsted as an important east-west thoroughfare, and its curving alignment is clearly visible on many of the earliest Olmsted sketches. The street was privately built by land- owner Elam Jewett in 1875, though it was not deeded to the city of Buffalo until 1883. 15 As one of the first streets built, it ran from Main Street, through the still-proposed neighborhood, and terminated (as Olmsted’s design intended) at a main entry to Delaware Park. As one of the first streets created in the new suburb, the gently curving Jewett Parkway contained much larger residential land parcels than elsewhere in the area. Despite being a reflection of Olmsted’s democratic ideals, and including lots of varying sizes, the garden suburb came at a time prior to the widespread adoption of mortgages and other means of home financing, thus ensuring that the enjoyment of this new domestic “rural beauty” was still mostly only within reach of the relatively wealthy. It meant that most early owners in the district were those who could outright purchase lots and homes. 16 The new suburb, however, was slow to grow. Similar to Olmsted’s plan for Riverside, Illinois, 15 National Register of Historic Places, Parkside East Historic District, 10. 16 National Register of Historic Places, Historic Residential Suburbs in the United States, 1830-1960, 10. Fig. 7 F. L. Olmsted Sr., map of Buffalo, showing original park and parkway system, 1876.