File:William E. Schier House, Amherst, New York - 20221117.jpg

English: The William E. Schier House, 2440 North French Road, Amherst, New York, November 2022. With its boxy angularity, flat roof cantilevered over the exterior walls, and overall low-slung dimensions, this 1,227-square-foot, three-bedroom house is a good example of the heavy influence that Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School had over Midcentury Modern residential architecture in the United States. The earliest years of the house's history are a matter of some dispute: Erie County's Real Property database dates its construction to 1954, and although that's not always a reliable source, its absence and presence, respectively, on photographs from government-commissioned aerial surveys in 1951 and 1958 indicate that that datum is at least approximately correct. It's likely that the house was built as a speculative venture, as its first recorded owner, William E. Schier (1914-2001), did not purchase the property until 1958. A lifelong dairyman, Schier began his career as one of the area's last generation of horse-drawn milk wagon drivers - in later years, he recalled that his worse knew the delivery route so well that it would routinely move on to the next stop before Schier was done dropping off the basket at a given house - and retired as a supervisor of the Coley Dairy Company on the West Side of the neighboring city of Buffalo. He was also notable as a competitive ballroom dancer of local renown. Schier lived in the house with his family until his death.