Let's see if there's any life left in this thread...

I lived in the Buffalo / Charles housing project from 1955-1959 and attended KB White school. Here are some memories of that time:

Layout: The projects consisted of around, maybe 30 brick-shaped 2-story brick buildings, each of which had apartment units for around 7 or 8 families. There were two coal-fired "powerhouses" with tall smokestacks that supplied steam heat. In the middle was a big playground for kids with swings, etc. Each of the residential buildings had a street on one side and a pedestrian court on the other. Most units had, I think, 2 or 3 bedrooms. A few of them had "penthouse" units, presumably for bigger families. It was well-maintained, and everything worked. No graffiti or trash.

Residents: Rent was subsidized, for poor people, so many of the people there were widowed, unemployed, semi-disabled, or underemployed. At that time, only white people lived there, although some black people lived south of the projects, so their kids attended KB White school, which was integrated. I had some black friends, but not many. North of us, as best I recall, was an all-white neighborhood. Hispanics and Asians were rare. Many European national origins were represented, Poles, Irish, French, German, etc. My best friends there were George "Sonny" Konvinski and Eugene Genest. Some surnames were, Ritchie, Vengris, Frishcosy, Rhode, Filipski, Peters, Whalen, Charanzak, many others.

Environs: North of us, on Charles street, were a grocery store, a soda bar / drugstore, and some kind of tavern or night club. Farther toward the school was a little candy store. The public library was on Conant, across Jayne field. To the west of us, across Buffalo, was a big empty, weedy, lot, our favorite place to play. We called it the "Wooden Projects" because it was said that, before the brick buildings were constructed, there were wooden structures there, but that was before my time. Around the time I left, they built single-family homes on that lot, so we lost our field. Silverstine's Army Surplus was on McNichols, a couple of miles away, within walking distance.

KB White school: It was a big building, divided into two parts, "White school," per se, and "White Special," for kids with various disabilities, cerebral palsy and such. There was virtually no interaction between the two groups. Teachers I remember were Mrs Martin [[Science), Mrs Kass [[Social studies), Mr. Bernstein [[Art), Mt. Tomberg [[Library), Miss Curtiss [[3rd grade), Mr. Cochran [[Gym), Mrs Harcourt [[4th grade), Mrs Schultz [[5th grade), and Mrs Brightwell [[6th grade). I remember all of them well. It was, I would say, a very good school, with good teachers.


Overall: I'd say that it was a good place to live. We were poor but happy enough. There was very little crime-- We never heard of burglaries, robberies, assaults, and it was safe to walk around in the projects at night. Oh, there was the usual kid stuff, some bullying, etc, but nothing serious. The "Wooden Projects" was a great place to play, and there were the "approved" places like Jayne field and the projects playground.

I could say much more, but let's see if there's any interest in such things.