File:Adam Widelski House, Buffalo, New York - 20210704.jpg

English: The Adam Widelski House, 21 Milburn Street, Buffalo, New York, July 2021. This is a typical example of what's known locally as a "Buffalo double", a type of multi-unit residence that was a common element of the local housing stock and speaks to the forward march of construction technology of its era, and specifically the newfangled technique of "balloon framing". This new method of wall construction, using long continuous framing members ("studs") to which flooring elements are appended, opened the door for large wall elements to be essentially mass-produced in a central factory, transported to the site, and assembled like puzzle pieces, making for a much faster construction process while still maintaining decent structural quality. The heyday of the construction of Buffalo doubles was roughly the 1890s through the 1920s; this particular house dates to early 1912, when it was built for Anthony Widelski (1878-1948), a Polish-born laborer on a railroad coal trestle who stayed on as owner until moving to the suburb of Depew in 1924. Originally a four-unit dwelling, Widelski initially rented out the other units, but as his family grew - he and wife Bertha already had four children upon moving in, and would go on to have four more - they came to occupy an entire half of the home. A much later resident was the photographer's great-great-uncle Eugene Buczkowski, a machinist at the local Chevrolet plant who lived there with his wife Stella from c. 1944 through c. 1953.