Shane E. Stephenson Bücher

When Buffalo was incorporated as a city, the East Side represented a vast forested area and farmland that would one day be booming with industry. By 1832, the beginnings of the major arterials of Genesee, Sycamore, Broadway, William, Clinton, and Seneca were there. These streets were laid out in 1826 and represented the seeds of the East Side's explosive growth. The development of railroads and the Buffalo Belt Line, constructed in 1883, created a semicircle pattern that outlined the East Side. Industries began sprouting up, eager to use their proximity to the belt line to transport wares all over the country. Immigrants from Germany, Poland, and Ireland, along with African Americans from northern and southern states, began establishing their lives around these industries. Access to land, water, roads, and rail lines and eager immigrants and natives looking for work led to the development of Buffalo's East Side industry, an immensely diverse industrial base and workforce.

The story of John Larkin, Buffalo businessman, and his soap company that was one largest mail -order companies in America and left the legacy of Larkinville. Born at 13 Clinton Street in Buffalo in 1845, John D. Larkin went on to become one of the most successful businessmen Buffalo has ever had. Developing from his experience in the soap industry with his brother-in-law Justus Weller in Buffalo and Chicago, the Larkin Company, established in 1875, became one of the dominant mail-order businesses in America. In 1885, Larkin and his wife's brother, Elbert Hubbard, promoted The Larkin Idea, which brought the business a national customer base through Factory to Family direct sales. At the height of the company, 90,000 Larkin Secretaries established clubs to bring Larkin soap and other products to women in their neighborhoods. This system of secretaries and clubs created an external promotional engine unlike any other previously known. The company closed in 1967, leaving its mammoth footprint in Buffalo's Hydraulic neighborhood, now aptly called Larkinville.