Boys and girls, this is the way it was along the south side of the canal as it moved through Lockport's Lowertown in the pre-Urban Renewal days. The picture was taken from the Exchange Street Bridge and shows the rear of buildings that fronted on Market Street between Exchange and Chapel.
Those are TV antennae on top of the buildings...all of them occupied with apartments on the top floors and an assortment of mostly bars, second-hand stores, and fish & clam shops on the street level floors. In an era before "the drug problem" the night activities on the street here were restricted to mostly street brawls, drunkenness, and occasional knifings. Urban renewal paid to have all these building acquired and then demolished. The area was converted to the canalside park you see there today. And where did the displaced population go? To Genesee Street and other once-prime neighborhoods around Lockport. There was no talk of "restoration" of these historic building along the canal. The goal was just to eliminate blight. Of course, what the politicians did was just transfer Lowertown problems to other areas of the city.
Thanks to Al Goehle, now in Lake Havasu AZ for sending this photo along which was taken by Lockport photographer John Jenkins. Jenkins now lives in Norman, OK. (10/29)
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