Bruce Andriatch: Answers to what’s in a name
Bruce Andriatch
Updated: 06/24/08 7:50 AM
If you live in Western New York long enough, you might stop thinking about the things that outsiders find strange, like why we put “the” before the names of our various expressways.
But there are plenty of head-scratchers out there.
With that in mind, here are five questions you may have asked. And the answers.
• Why is the speed limit 7 mph in Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School parking lots?
According to Michael Haggerty, assistant to the superintendent for public relations, the school district asked the buildings and grounds department a couple of years ago to put speed limit signs in every school parking lot, for safety reasons. Rick Oliver, who recently retired as department superintendent, had to come up with a uniform speed limit so he could order signs to be made.
To do that, according to Haggerty, workers drove through the lots and determined that 5 mph was too slow and 10 mph was too fast. Hence, 7 mph was just right.
• Where in Amherst does Eggertsville end and Snyder begin?
“There’s no jurisdictional or legal boundary,” said Amherst Planning Director Eric Gillert. He said the town’s comprehensive plan did denote broad boundaries for the two neighborhoods for planning purposes, but they aren’t considered “official” in any way.
Unlike the other hamlets in Amherst — Getzville, East Amherst and West Amherst — Eggertsville and Snyder do not even have different ZIP codes to distinguish them; both are covered by 14226.
Council Member Dan Ward said longtime Eggertsville residents like him regard the area on Main Street just past Daemen College as the eastern edge of Eggertsville and the start of Snyder.
• Why are there only six corners at Seven Corners in Hamburg?
The intersection of Southwestern Boulevard, McKinley Parkway and Big Tree Road is known outside of Hamburg as the place where traffic starts moving after a Bills game.
But look at it on a map, and there clearly are only six corners at the Seven Corners.
The reason: Sheldon Road, which now loops to Allendale Parkway, used to be a thoroughfare that ran all the way to Southwestern Boulevard. The road was dead-ended in the early 1970s, but just as many Western New Yorkers refer to the Bon-Ton as AM&A’s, people still call the area with six corners Seven Corners.
• How did the Village of Depew end up as part of two towns, Cheektowaga and Lancaster?
Cheektowaga Town Supervisor Mary Holtz, who is also the town historian, said the two towns existed long before the village did. Transit Road is and was the border between them.
In the 1890s, railroad magnate Chauncey Depew, who later became a a U. S. senator, decided to locate his railroad company headquarters there and bought land on both sides of Transit, about 1,000 acres. That led to a building boom and to the decision to incorporate the land into a village, named for Chauncey Depew, which occurred in 1894.
• Which “Seneca” is West Seneca west of?
Unlike North Tonawanda, which is directly north of Tonawanda, there is no adjacent community of Seneca on the border with West Seneca.
The town was first called Seneca in 1851 when it was founded, but by then there already were several Senecas in New York State, all to the east: Seneca Lake, Seneca County and the town of Seneca, which is in Ontario County.
It was the presence of this latter Seneca, roughly 100 miles away, that officials feared would cause confusion and led to the name change in 1852.
