Ohio Street, parallel to the Buffalo River, once ran clear to Main Street. In this photograph, taken sometime between 1912 and 1914, the Harbor Master’s Office is seen at 135 Ohio Street, built in the right-of-way of Columbia Street. Two boys walk by. A passenger ship is docked at Kelly Island. The Michigan Avenue Bridge, a jack knife bridge constructed in 1897 and replaced in 1929, is visible to the left. Behind the bridge is the Kellogg Elevator, built by Spencer Kellogg & Sons in 1910. The elevator is connected by overhead gantry, erected in 1912, above the now-buried Kellogg Slip to what was, from 1879 to 1961, one of the country’s largest vegetable oil plants.

The Commissioner of Public Works appointed two Harbor Masters, one on duty in the day and the other at night, tasked with supervision and control of the harbor, directing bridge engineers and bridge tenders, and keeping records on the condition of bridges, docks, and other city property on the harbor. This office and the foot of Columbia Street were replaced with the construction in 1914 to 1915 of the DL&W Terminal. Ohio Street now terminates at the Fire Department slip west of Michigan Avenue.

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