Van Rensselaer Street, seen here looking north toward the Larkin Company complex, was and is a typical residential street of a Buffalo industrial neighborhood. Working class cottages with gable roofs and aluminum awnings front upon modest front yards. A groceries and tavern occupy the corner with Roseville Street—long the home of Stanley Makowski, the Buffalo mayor from 1974 to 1977. North of Roseville Street is the Gardiner Manufacturing Company, makers of 101 Solution—a mural reads “Stains Run from 101.” Beyond is the Van Rensselaer Street viaduct (since demolished), as well as the Larkin P Building (burned in 1955 and razed in 1962) and Larkin Terminal Warehouse, now a Class A office building. 

 

Here’s the same intersection in August 2017: