They keep watch over Buffalo from the steps of City Hall. They are Grover Cleveland and Millard Fillmore, the two men who made it from Buffalo all the way to the White House.
Few are the cities that can claim one president. Our town can claim two. Their names are everywhere. Cleveland can claim elegant Cleveland Avenue in Buffalo, well-traveled Cleveland Drive in Cheektowaga and, in Amherst, the Grover Cleveland Golf Course. Millard Fillmore has Fillmore Avenue, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital and Millard Fillmore College.
Otherwise, though, Fillmore and Cleveland linger mostly as kind of a joke. They could be called the presidents of the obscure presidents’ society.
Maybe we should take a closer look at them.
Why is it, after all, that some presidents are remembered, while others are not? The presidents whose names survive enjoy that distinction because of challenges they faced. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson ... we can recite the first few presidents because of the miracle they pulled off of getting the nation on its feet. Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant were tied to the Civil War.
Presidents can be forgotten simply because their administrations were peaceful and prosperous. William McKinley, a card-carrying member of the obscure presidents’ society, was popular and presided over a time of rapid economic growth. As a result, he is remembered only for his assassination in Buffalo. Other presidents fell off the merry-go-round of history because no one can any longer name anything that happened on their watch. Events that once loomed large are lost to time.
Back to the gentlemen whose statues stand at the doors of City Hall. They have an air of mystery. They are always looking at us. It is time we stopped for a moment and gazed back at them.
Presidents Day – it’s no longer about just Washington and Lincoln. This Presidents Day, let’s make it about ours.
A tale of Buffalo’s two presidents. Page F2
Few are the cities that can claim one president. Our town can claim two. Their names are everywhere. Cleveland can claim elegant Cleveland Avenue in Buffalo, well-traveled Cleveland Drive in Cheektowaga and, in Amherst, the Grover Cleveland Golf Course. Millard Fillmore has Fillmore Avenue, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital and Millard Fillmore College.
Otherwise, though, Fillmore and Cleveland linger mostly as kind of a joke. They could be called the presidents of the obscure presidents’ society.
Maybe we should take a closer look at them.
Why is it, after all, that some presidents are remembered, while others are not? The presidents whose names survive enjoy that distinction because of challenges they faced. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson ... we can recite the first few presidents because of the miracle they pulled off of getting the nation on its feet. Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant were tied to the Civil War.
Presidents can be forgotten simply because their administrations were peaceful and prosperous. William McKinley, a card-carrying member of the obscure presidents’ society, was popular and presided over a time of rapid economic growth. As a result, he is remembered only for his assassination in Buffalo. Other presidents fell off the merry-go-round of history because no one can any longer name anything that happened on their watch. Events that once loomed large are lost to time.
Back to the gentlemen whose statues stand at the doors of City Hall. They have an air of mystery. They are always looking at us. It is time we stopped for a moment and gazed back at them.
Presidents Day – it’s no longer about just Washington and Lincoln. This Presidents Day, let’s make it about ours.
A tale of Buffalo’s two presidents. Page F2