FIRE & WATER: DISASTERS ON THE BUFFALO HARBOR AND THE SURROUNDING WATERFRONT

• “Fire and Water” features over forty-five catastrophic and near catastrophic events that include:
  
  Barge 45 impaled on the Peace Bridge – 1986.
• Pillsbury Mill Explosion – 1972
• Destruction of the Michigan Avenue Bridge – 1951
• General Mills Fire – 1940
• The Gale of 1921
• Minnesota ore dock disaster – 1900

More than 300 photos, maps, and illustrations complete this comprehensive volume.

Printed on high quality gloss paper.
Soft Cover.
254 pages including index and bibliography.

$33.00 includes New York State sales tax and media rate shipping.

THE BUFFALO WATERFRONT:

A HISTORY IN PICTURES

The Buffalo Waterfront: A History in Pictures presents over 120 years of history of the Buffalo Harbor. It tracks the evolution of the inner and outer harbors and the Black Rock Canal by comparing archival photographs of the significant structures and features to contemporary images. Included are plans and illustrations of proposed waterfront developments and rejected proposals from the late 19th and the 20th centuries that were not meant to be.

All segments of Buffalo's waterfront are presented: Buffalo River Entrance Channel • Watson Turning Basin • City Ship Canal • Upper Buffalo River • Outer Harbor • Erie and Black Rock Canals • Slips and Ancillary Canals.

The Buffalo Waterfront - A History in Pictures features:

• Over 300 images from the archives of the Lower Lakes Marine Historical Society
and private collections that span 120 years from from 1890 to present day.

• Maps and illustrations that depict changes to the harbor's shoreline.

• Perspective maps orient the reader to the camera
location relative to the subject in select images.

• Introductory text to each chapter and informative photo captions provide
an overview of the rich history of the Buffalo's waterfront.

• 226 pages printed on high quality gloss paper, indexed with bibliography.

$33.00 each. Price includes NYS sales tax and media rate shipping.

AGAINST THE GRAIN:

THE HISTORY OF BUFFALO'S FIRST WARD

Against the Grain tells the story of a group of mostly Irish immigrants who toiled in the hulls of grain ships and in other waterfront industries in an area called the First Ward of Buffalo, New York. The First Ward was a geographically isolated area of Buffalo primarily inhabited by settlers from the south and west of Ireland, but was also home to enough Germans, Poles, and Italians to make life even more interesting. This economically deprived area produced an abundance of historically important people including Fingy Conners, the largest private employer on the Great Lakes; Michael Shea, Buffalo’s greatest entertainment showman; “Wild Bill” Donovan, the founding father of what became the CIA; John Sheehan, one-time Tammany Hall boss; Jimmy Slattery, the Light Heavyweight Champion of the World; and Jimmy Griffin, the longest serving mayor in Buffalo history. The stories of other lesser-known but equally important Ward residents such as Mike Quinn, Jack White, Algie McGuire, Roggie Lavin, Father Thomas Conway, the McCarthy brothers, and even Rick James are also told. Readers will also learn about historical events that Ward residents were thrust into such as the Tidal Wave of 1844, the Fenian Raid, violent railroad strikes, the Great Strike of 1899, the Tewksbury Disaster, and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway—the ultimate cause of the demise of Buffalo’s waterfront economy.

275 pages
More than 60 photos
Index

$28.00 each includes NYS sales tax and media rate shipping.

GREAT WHITE FLEET:

CELEBRATING CANADA

STEAMSHIP LINES PASSENGER SHIPS

A richly illustrated story from the glory days of passenger travel on the Great Lakes.

For decades Canada Steamship Lines proclaimed itself as the world’s largest transportation company operating on inland waters. Its passenger and freight vessels could be found on the Great Lakes as far west as Duluth, Minnesota, and as far east as the Lower St. Lawrence River.

The passenger steamers were known collectively as the Great White Fleet. These ships – from day-excursion vessels to well-appointed cruise ships – had rich histories. The sheer scope of these passenger services were a wonder to behold. No fewer than 51 steamers comprised the passenger fleet at the company’s inception in 1913, and its network of routes was awesome.

This is the story of the beloved steamers of the Great White Fleet from 1913–65, when the passenger vessels stopped running. Nearly half a century after the last passenger boats sailed, this book will provide a window into a wonderful lost way of life.

Hard Cover
142 pages
Loaded with photos and illustrations
Index

$39.00 each includes NYS sales tax and media rate shipping.

STEAMERS OF THE CRYSTAL BEACH LINE

The Steamers of the Crystal Beach Line traces history of a select group of steam-powered passenger boats that plied the waters between Buffalo, New York and Crystal Beach, Ontario.

More than just a book of photographs and statistics, Steamers of the Crystal Beach Line chronicles the events that put these steamers in newspaper headlines before during and after their years of service sailing to Crystal Beach.

The sixty-seven year history of the Crystal Beach Line is stippled with collisions, fires, sinkings, groundings, drownings, suicides, rescues, and government seizures. All are documented within the book including the near collision of an RCAF fighter plane with the Canadiana while en-route to the park, and the grounding of the Crystal Beach Steamer Pearl during a severe thunderstorm with 900 passengers on board.

Steamers of the Crystal Beach Line is highlighted with...

. . . over 200 photographs and illustrations from museum archives and private collections.

. . . floor plans of the Crystal Beach Line's palatial steamers the Americana and Canadiana.

. . . more than 125 references to period newspapers and nautical journals.

. . . references to every known vessel associated with the nautical history of Crystal Beach that includes more than 75 steamers, yachts and tugboats.

$35.00 each. Price includes NYS sales tax and media rate shipping.

CRYSTAL BEACH LIVE: ENTERTAINERS FROM BUFFALO

AND TORONTO AND MORE

Crystal Beach Live: Buffalo & Toronto Entertainers & More is the second volume of the History of Crystal Beach series. It is a chronicle of the live entertainment – musical and thrill show – that entertained and thrilled park visitors during its 100 seasons.

The first half of the volume focuses on the non-musical entertainment – the aerialists, stunt pilots, acrobats, daredevils, athletes, celebrities, fashion shows, beauty pageants, animal acts, and many other "shows" – that awed Crystal Beach audiences from as early as 1891 through the mid 1950s. It is a forgotten aspect of Crystal Park history but was an integral part of the amusement offerings that made Crystal Beach the summer entertainment capital of Western New York and Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula.

Included are the details of the "Canadian-American Dance Marathon" that was the only such event held at Crystal Beach and the only known marathon staged in part on land and water and in two countries and witnessed by thousands.

The Crystal Beach appearance by some of the stunt artists was their last.

• Musical entertainment is the focus of the second half of the volume. Unlike the nostalgic accounts of Crystal Beach that only scratch the surface of the musical entertainment at the park with a brief mention of a few of the famous big bands, Crystal Beach Live delves into an entire century of music that attracted untold millions to the resort. The artists that performed at Crystal Beach represent the popular sounds of their eras that range from the brass bands of the late 1890s to new wave rock of the 1980s. Musical entertainers span the genres of:
  
  Brass Bands (1890s-1910s)   
• Jazz (1920s-1930s)   
• Big Bands and Rock-n-Roll (1940s-1950s)   
• Polka Bands (1950s-1960s)
• Rock Groups and the return of the Big Bands during the 1980s.

Unlike other amusement resorts of the 20th Century, Crystal Beach captured the sounds of local and regional bands from Western New York and Southern Ontario. The home bases for these bands included Buffalo, and Toronto and cities in between. Many of these bands and orchestras were the house bands at Crystal Beach that provided music daily and clocked more hours of playtime in one season than a century of all of the one-night-stand headliners combined. Compiled for the first time ever are the histories of these local and regional bands that makes Crystal Beach Live a chronicle of a mere fraction of the vast musical heritage of Western New York, the Niagara Peninsula, and the Toronto area, that has mostly gone undocumented.

Coverage of the local bands includes the Harold Austin and his Orchestra of Buffalo. Until the publication of this volume, there was very little recorded history of this long-time Buffalo bandleader and his band. Crystal Beach Live

Benny Louis and his Orchestra was another in-demand orchestra from Toronto. His life and career were limited to brief, semi-accurate one-page synopses in Canadian Music historical publications. For the first time, there is an authorized biography of Benny Louis, his life and his Orchestra presented in Crystal Beach Live thanks to the assistance of Benny’s family.

Crystal Beach Live profiles 35 local and regional bands. It includes mini bios of an additional 50 “national/international” bands that performed at Crystal Beach ranging from the obscure and forgotten to those of international renown.

Crystal Beach Live not only underscores the prominence Crystal Beach once held as a summer entertainment capital on the Niagara Frontier it also spotlights its significance in the entertainment industry as a “must stop" by touring bands, orchestras, and “thrill-show” style entertainers. It is also a glimpse into the rich entertainment heritage of Western New York and Southern Ontario.

This second volume of Crystal Beach history features:

• Over 400 photographs and images from museum archives and private collections.
• Over 30 thrill show and non-musical acts, ten originating from Buffalo and Toronto.
• Twenty Buffalo area bands and orchestras.
• Biographies of over 20 bands and orchestras from Toronto and the surrounding region.
• Coverage of three Miss New York State pageants held at Crystal Beach.
• Artie Shaw’s infamous 1939 appearance.
• Mini profiles of once famous national and international bands and orchestras that played at Crystal Beach and have slipped into obscurity.

$30.00 each. Price includes NYS sales tax and media rate shipping.

BOATS BUILT AT BUFFALO, NEW YORK

Boats Builts at Buffalo, New York by Matthew Weisman, Paula Shorf, and Jack Messmer is the fifth in a series of the Boats Built on Lake Erie covering the New York State Shoreline. It is a massive, 550 page compilation of all the vessels built here. Thousands of boats are listed from the very beginning to now. The details include the boat types, builder, size, history, etc. with articles of the day. Canal boats are included. Biographies on all the prominent ship builders of the area are all new. Boats Built at Buffalo is fully indexed.

A limited number were printed so order quickly.

Printed on high quality paper.

8.5 x 11

Soft cover

$40.00 each. NYS sales tax and media rate shipping added at time of sale.

REAL HONEST BOOK WITH A GREAT LAKES CAPTAIN

Real Honest Book with a Great Lakes Captain by Warren Gerds

A limited number were printed so order quickly.

Printed on high quality paper.

8.5 x 11

Soft cover

$25.00 each. NYS sales tax and media rate shipping added at time of sale.