The products of the Buffalo Forge Company, 490 Broadway, carried the “Buffalo” brand to nearly corner of the planet. Named for its first product—the blacksmith forges assembled by company founder William F. Wendt starting in 1878—Buffalo Forge became one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of heating, air conditioning, dust collection, and pump and machine tool products.

As the “Birthplace of Cool,” Buffalo Forge was the site where modern air conditioning—brainchild of chief engineer Willis Haviland Carrier, who spun off to form the Carrier Corporation in 1915—was invented in 1902. Buffalo Forge acquired the George L. Squier Manufacturing Company, makers of sugar, rice, and coffee plantation machinery, in 1903, and the Buffalo Steam Pump Company in 1904. The company was locally controlled by the Wendt family until 1941, when the ownership was broadened by a public stock offering. Buffalo Forge employed 1,500 people in the Buffalo area as late as 1978. In 1993, the Howden Group acquired the company and within a year shut down all Buffalo operations, transferring production and employees to another part of New York State. The 14-acre factory at Broadway and Mortimer—including loft buildings which may have been revitalization targets today—was demolished in 2006. Howden North America has not been successful in efforts to sell the vacant land. Buffalo Machines, Inc., formed in 2003 out of the Machine Tool Division of Buffalo Forge, is still in operation in Lockport.

Image courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum. Used by permission.