According to the Allentown Village Society website "Allentown occupies about one-half square mile near downtown Buffalo. Its origins date to 1827, when Lewis Allen purchased 29 acres of farmland along the then-northern border of the village of Buffalo. The cow path on his land eventually became Allen Street. The heart of Allentown lies at the intersection of Allen Street and Delaware Avenue, one of Buffalo?s main thoroughfares.
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Over the years, the Allentown neighborhood has been home to a number of famous Buffalonians, including Millard Fillmore, Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), actress Katherine Cornell as a girl, and author F. Scott Fitzgerald in his childhood."
In the early days...
The Allentown Village Society website states "In the spring of 1958, Jason Natowitz called together a small group of other Allentown business owners to propose an event to stimulate business in the neighborhood. The meeting gave birth to the Allentown Village Society. By August, plans were in place for a September outdoor art show on the streets of the area.
Although the artists and craftsmen participating in the event numbered no more than 50 locals, and although the Allentown Village Society went $450 into the red to produce it, 20,000 people attended over the two days of the show. Louis Cherenzia, another of the founders, now a nonagenarian, recalled the first edition, "It was rated as the most colorful cultural event in Buffalo since the Pan-American Exposition." "
