NINETEENTH CENTURY MENNONITE SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN WESTERN NEW YORK: PRESERVATION OF EXISTING RESOURCES
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Date
2005
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MA in Historic Preservation
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This work may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.
Subjects
Historic preservation -- Theses
Mennonite architecture -- New York (State) -- Amherst.
Mennonite architecture -- New York (State) -- Clarence.
Historic buildings -- New York (State) -- Amherst.
Historic buildings -- New York (State) -- Clarence.
Mennonites -- Colonization -- New York (State) -- Amherst.
Mennonites -- Colonization -- New York (State) -- Clarence.
Mennonites -- New York (State) -- Amherst -- History -- 19th century.
Mennonites -- New York (State) -- Clarence -- History -- 19th century.
Clarence (N.Y.) -- Colonization -- 19th century.
Amherst (N.Y.) -- Colonization -- 19th century.
Mennonite architecture -- New York (State) -- Amherst.
Mennonite architecture -- New York (State) -- Clarence.
Historic buildings -- New York (State) -- Amherst.
Historic buildings -- New York (State) -- Clarence.
Mennonites -- Colonization -- New York (State) -- Amherst.
Mennonites -- Colonization -- New York (State) -- Clarence.
Mennonites -- New York (State) -- Amherst -- History -- 19th century.
Mennonites -- New York (State) -- Clarence -- History -- 19th century.
Clarence (N.Y.) -- Colonization -- 19th century.
Amherst (N.Y.) -- Colonization -- 19th century.
Abstract
This study examines the history and current state of preservation of early- to midnineteenth-
century Mennonite properties in the Towns of Amherst and Clarence, Erie
County, New York. Few and scattered, these endangered resources are in desperate need
of a preservation plan. This study will demonstrate how they are eligible for inclusion in
the National Register of Historic Places as a multiple property listing.
The thesis is organized in four main parts. Chapter II examines Mennonite
historic contexts and themes within the broad subject of growth and development in
western New York. Mennonite settlement and participation in western New York's early
agricultural economy along with their influential presence on early regional growth and
development are examined. Chapter III explores early- to mid-nineteenth-century
Mennonite settlement patterning throughout the Towns of Amherst and Clarence and the
forces that influenced these patterns. Chapter IV contains the results of an architectural
field reconnaissance survey, which documented and inventoried extant properties
associated with the period of early- to mid-nineteenth-century Mennonite migration to
Amherst and Clarence. Chapter V integrates the results of the information presented in
the preceding sections and uses it to provide a framework in which each individual
property is evaluated for its eligibility to be included in the NRHP as a contributing
property in a multiple property listing.
These few remaining historic properties associated with the early- to midnineteenth-
century Mennonite populations of Amherst and Clarence represent a distinct
ethnic cultural tradition in western New York (the Pennsylvania German) and are eligible
for inclusion in the NRHP as a multiple property listing.