BUFFALO, N.Y. — They are two Buffalo institutions, with a link of which you may not be aware.
One is a historic neighborhood which recently found new life as an entertainment district, the other the identity of East Aurora.
We are talking, of course of Larkinville and The Roycroft Campus.
Both are reflections of days gone by.
Remnants of Larkin are everywhere you look on this historic stretch of Seneca Street. An ornamental wall left over from the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Larkin Administration Building, the street named for the legendary company, even the actual concrete signs on the former terminal warehouse building, all a lasting tribute to the men who started it all.
John Larkin, Elbert Hubbard and , eventually Darwin Martin grew the small Larkin Soap Company into an international mail-order giant, with Hubbard as the marketing mind behind it.
Howard Zemsky, the man who oversaw the renovation of the old terminal building and the creation of Larkinville from a neighborhood once known as "The Hydraulics" says that Hubbard became a iconic American business figure and philosopher. But Hubbard soon decided he was sick of corporate America and the rat race.
He decided to follow his dream of being a writer. That paves his way from Buffalo to East Aurora to pursue that dream. Unfortunately he had trouble getting published.
But then, according to Roycroft Programming Manager Amanda Falkowski, on a trip to London, he has an idea that will change American pop-culture. "There he visits William Morris's Kelmscott Press which is all about a return back to making things by hand especially books."
Director of Programming Alan Nowicki adds "arts and crafts really started in 1850s and it was kind of a backlash against the industrial revolution, which machines were making products that have been handmaids since the beginning of time. So arts and crafts really looks back at making extremely high quality handcrafted art."
This inspired Hubbard, who returned home to East Aurora and opened his own print shop, Roycroft. He then attracted other crafters and artisans to his growing Roycroft Campus.
In 1899 things really took off when he published a short story based on his interpretation of an event during the spanish-american war, advocating that hard work leads to success. "A Message to Garcia" became the third best selling book of the time and propelled Hubbard and Roycroft into the national spotlight.
Visitors came from all over, leading Hubbard to build the inn, along with a copper shop and woodworking facility.
The Roycrofters and the arts and craft movement became a major force in the early 20th century, influencing everything from art to architecure.
Elbert and his wife Alice died a short time later, in the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania, which was torpedoed by a German u-boat. The event drew the U.S. into World War I.
The Roycroft Campus continued to be successful under the guidance of Elbert's son, until the crash of 1929. By 1938 they declared bankruptcy and the campus was closed.
Fast forward 50 years and the Roycroft restoration was underway.
Today it continues to carry on the legacy of Elbert Hubbard, right down to the working press room, printing the simple writings of Elbert Hubbard, which Zemsky says may be a leftover from his Larkin days.
"In the Larkin Administration building they have these. You know, pithy slogans that and are reflected their company philosophy and it was awfully similar to the many slogans that represented the philosophy of the Roycrofters in East Aurora and of course, the thing that ran through that was Elbert Hubbard."
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