888 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo, NY, USA

Charles W. Goodyear House

Completed in 1903, for Charles Waterhouse Goodyear (1846-1911) and his wife, Ella Portia Conger (1853-1940). Situated in the middle of what is still referred to as Buffalo's 'Millionaire's Row' in the Delaware Avenue Historic District, it was designed by the city's arguably most prolific Gilded Age architect, Edward Brodhead Green. On completion, it was the largest and most elaborate of Delaware Avenue's mansions, until eclipsed by Goodyear's brother's house at 762 Delaware. Having since been through many changes, its sumptuous interior still survives almost entirely in tact.

Not to be confused with the Charles Goodyear of rubber fame, Charles W. Goodyear came from rural New York to Buffalo in 1868 and in 1887 traded in his legal practice to go into the lumber business with his brother, Frank. They acquired hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin forest in New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Mississippi, becoming the largest growers of hemlock in the world while building the largest sawmill in the world that processed 400,000-feet of timber a day. Branching into coal, iron and railroads, Charles was the President of the Buffalo & Susquehanna Railroad and the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad. Grover Cleveland personally backed Charles to run for Governor of New York calling him, "one of my best and most intimate friends," and in 1886 he and Ella were the first guests of President Cleveland and his new bride at the White House.

"One Man's Misery..."

In July, 1900, Goodyear purchased the not-so-old but already abandoned George H. Van Vleck house at 874 Delaware Avenue. Three years earlier, Van Vleck had estimated its worth at $70,000 when it became subject to his acrimonious divorce suit, but having been seized by the Sheriff for an unpaid bill five months before Goodyear doubtless picked it up for considerably less. The Goodyear's old home at 723 Delaware Avenue didn't shift until 1904 when they sold it to William J. "Fingy" Connors who lived there for ten years before building the substantial stone house that still stands further up on Delaware at 1140.

Dressed to Impress

Charles commissioned his new house in the same year (1902) that he and Frank incorporated the Goodyear Lumber Company. No expense was spared as he employed Buffalo's leading architect, Edward B. Green, of Green & Wicks, to design his statement mansion and the latest addition to what locals had already dubbed 'millionaire's row'. Green did not disappoint and for $225,000 delivered not only the largest mansion on the avenue, but with Ella's input, one of the most elaborate. Yet, behind its principally French Renaissance exterior and elegant patterned brickwork hid a fireproof frame that was at the cutting edge of modern engineering. The house was supported by steel beams with concrete floors, and the spaces between all the partitions were filled with hollow bricks.

After the Van Vleck house was pulled down, Goodyear's mansion was finished by the fall of 1903 and given its new address: 888 Delaware Avenue. Although to the outside eye it presents itself as a two-and-a-half story house, inside it spreads out over five levels including the basement and attic. Each of the 11-family bedrooms had their own marble fireplace and adjoining marble bathroom; and, just to ensure that you weren't left in any doubt that you were in the home of an American lumber baron, the very highest quality of American walnut and Honduras mahogany is evident throughout in the décor and in the furniture that was custom-made in Boston to older European designs.

The reception rooms include the Library, Drawing Room and Dining Room that leads onto the Breakfast Room, Palm Room and Loggia overlooking the gardens. For the most part, they all feature marble fireplaces and were once lined with Italian silk brocade, but all the while displaying the richest woods beautifully carved with festoons and other classical features - not only in the reception rooms, but the hallways too. The elegant Georgian-style spiral staircase with wrought iron balustrade and oak handrail connects the ground floor to the two upper bedroom floors, and for those too fatigued, an elevator stands by.

Scattered conspicuously across the house are a profusion of stained glass windows literally highlighting various coats-of-arms that helped to serve as a useful reminder to their guests that although only recently rich, the Goodyears possessed suitably genteel and antiquated roots via their descent from Stephen Goodyear, Deputy-Governor of the New Haven Colony from 1643 until his death in 1658. It is worth noting that after Charles' brother, Frank, was invited to join the notoriously elitist Jekyll Island Club, he was the only member not born into wealth nor with an Ivy League equivalent education.

"Life" In the House and Hall

As imposing as it was intended to be, the Goodyears ensured that on entering their home few could be lost for words. Imbedded above the fireplace in the hall is an unmissable six-foot square marble bas-relief entitled "Life," by the famed Karl Bitter so favored by the Vanderbilts at Biltmore, Idle Hour etc. Weighing two-tons, it rests on a foundation set in the cellar and won the Gold Medal at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. It's set off exquisitely by a hand-carved, fluted surround flanked by a pair of pilasters under coved mouldings all matching in style and made of the highest quality American walnut.

Ever since the Goodyears had been gifted 723 Delaware Avenue by Ella's father as a wedding present in 1876, they had gained a reputation for their "generous hospitality". That reputation only increased after moving into No. 888 where their annual summer garden party was a regular and much anticipated event. The house and "Madam Goodyear" (as Ella came to be respectfully known in Buffalo society) achieved their crowning social achievement quite literally in 1919 when she (by then widowed) entertained King Alfred I of Belgium, his wife Elisabeth, and their heir apparent, Leopold.

As the family grew, it was not unusual to see 25-children and grandchildren seated around the mahogany dining room table for Sunday lunch or special occasions. The family's needs were tended to by a loyal staff of fifteen who according to their son, Charles Jr., were treated, "almost like members of the family". On Christmas Day, the staff were given a buffet supper prepared by the family after which they were given their presents.

Notable among the staff was Andrew, the "faithful family coachman," who with the dawn of the automobile unhappily traded his position on the driver's box of Madam Goodyear's carriages and sleighs for his new role as chauffeur. He abhorred the smell of gasoline and longed for a return to the familiar sight and smell of the horses he loved. Similarly, the once proud footman, James, although happy to be employed, never accustomed himself to becoming a houseman in blue jeans after having worn for so long cream-white buckskin breeches with high polished boots back in the good old days. The changes also saw the stables demolished, but its foundations were repurposed into a charming sunken garden.

Goodbye Goodyears, High McMahon

Charles died here in 1911 while Ella lived on for just short of three more decades until her own death in 1940. All four of their children survived them but none wished to take on the house that was attached to its own power plant by a 4-foot wide tunnel, requiring one-and-a-half-tons of coal per day to heat during winter. In 1942, the American Hospital Association announced that No. 888 would become the administrative headquarters for the Blue Cross Plan. Little was changed and in 1950, they sold it for $85,100 to the Buffalo Catholic Diocese when it became the Bishop McMahon High School. Additional buildings were attached in 1953 and 1959, and still it managed to retain its sumptuous interior.

Boutique and Beyond

It was sold again in 1988 and became a children's hospital known as the Robert B. Adam Education Center. In 2005, it was reverted back to school life again when it was sold for $875,000, becoming the Oracle Charter School. The house was renovated to accommodate its new role but the school closed down in 2018. Prior to the Covid pandemic, a plan was in motion to convert the property into a boutique hotel and as of 2022 rumor has it that those plans are once again being re-examined. In the meantime, despite all the changes it has gone through, its irreplaceable interior remains almost entirely in tact.