Buffalo Milk Company Building (Later Queen City Dairy Building and Niagara Gateway Apartments)

Construction of the three-story, L-shaped Buffalo Milk Company Building, also known as the Queen City Dairy Company Building, first occurred between 1903–1905. Additions were made to the building in 1910 and 1911. The dairy company served as Buffalo's first to engage in the large-scale pasteurization and distribution of milk. The company accomplished the mass production of milk in the "consolidated works" building; its design allowed for specialized spaces for manufacturing, administration and distribution to take place in one building. The company capitalized on new trends in milk consumption related to an understanding of germ theory, high infant death rates, and women's need to work as laborers while also relying on Gilded-Age marketing and investment strategies. 

The Buffalo Milk Company opened its doors in 1903 and then transitioned to Queen City Dairy in 1909. The two operations (hereafter, Buffalo Milk Company) combined to produce milk in the building for eleven years. The dairy operation and its historic building arose when the city enjoyed the fruits of turning the Niagara River and Falls into a source of hydroelectric power. The city's early embrace of electric power led to the nickname "The City of Light," notably after displaying the wonders of electricity at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. Steel mills and other industries took advantage of the power and waterway access, and eventually, railways. Buffalo's population grew from slightly more than 80,000 in 1860 to 352,387 by 1900, climbing to the nation's eighth-largest city. Buffalo also supported more than sixty millionaires and a robust economy. As the population and economy grew, so did the city's birthrates. 

The Buffalo Milk Company operation represents the increased demand in urban communities for pasteurized milk and the resultant need to revolutionize the speed and efficiency of production to meet that demand. As well, a greater awareness of health and wellness — from sanitation to clean food, emerged as the U.S. transitioned from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era. With that awareness came the scrutiny of health officials who pointed to unpasteurized milk as a leading cause of child sickness and mortality. 

Milk production and consumption during the early twentieth century differed significantly from the much more agrarian United States of the early nineteenth century. In a world dominated by small towns and farms, most drank milk within hours of its production, limiting bacteria's proliferation. In contrast, by the turn of the century, American urbanization meant milk consumers no longer lived near farms; milk had to be transported a long distance from farm to city and then distributed throughout the city. Hence, milk routinely sat in unrefrigerated storage for days, leading to microbial growth and subsequent sicknesses, especially among children. Urbanization and the changing workforce culture changed milk habits, too. Many women worked outside of the home, leading to a greater reliance on cow milk at early ages. The changing nature of urbanization and milk consumption culture pointed to a market for mass-produced milk and mass-distributed milk networks and delivery services 

Investors, primarily from New York, incorporated the Buffalo Milk Company on July 1st, 1902. Around that time, statistics show that Buffalo residents consumed 130,000 quarts of milk, produced and delivered by 4,500 workers. In short, milk was big business. The process of putting milk in the hands of any Buffalo resident proved to be an enormously challenging task. First, farmers had to milk the cows, and then they transported it to railroad depots (where it sat unrefrigerated until a train arrived). When the milk arrived in Buffalo, it had to be transported to a depot (such as Buffalo Milk Company) and then delivered to every person in the city, block by block — each morning. Thus, the investors sought a method for which to enhance the speed of the process substantially. 

The company also looked to seek an edge in the milk industry by marketing cleaner, purer milk than its competitors. So, when pasteurized milk remained a rare commodity, the Buffalo Milk Company embraced pasteurization and built a facility that made it possible to accomplish that goal. In truth, not everyone believed in the benefits of pasteurization at first. Some scientists believed the process destroyed the milk's quality and the cost of pasteurized milk made it too expensive for poor residents to afford, thus leading to more infant deaths. However, the Buffalo Milk Company invested in its building and a campaign to change people's understanding of the benefits of pasteurization. The campaign pushed politicians to conduct studies that resulted in the 1906 Food and Drug Law passage, followed by Teddy Roosevelt commissioning a pasteurization study in 1907. Roosevelt's commission determined that pasteurization prevented sickness (and saved lives) and did not degrade the milk's quality. 

With the increased belief by people in need of pasteurized milk, the Buffalo Milk Company profits rose immensely. Their investment in the building paid off as it not only allowed for mass-production of pasteurization but included refrigeration, steam cleaners for bottles, and sanitation facilities, which they touted in almost every advertisement. They also routinely hosted tours to show off their production process, invited doctors to inspect their facilities, and held classes for mothers to explain to them the benefits to them (and their babies) of pasteurized milk — a creative marketing strategy, too. More significantly, the factory allowed the Buffalo Milk Company to produce an almost unfathomable — at the time — amount of (pasteurized) milk to the city. Many smaller companies accused Buffalo Milk Company of monopolizing the industry. The company's only issue arrived in 1908 when it was discovered they were guilty of mixing skim milk with raw milk shortly before pasteurization, a scandal that included a government fine. So, they re-branded as the Queen City Dairy Company in 1909 and enlarged the facility to include buttermilk, butter, and cottage cheese production. Within months, the scandal vanished, and profits soared.

In 1914, the company sold the building to the Maguire Ice Cream Company, and in 1926, Queen City Dairy had sold off the remainder of its holdings. By 1920, the milk market had again changed with grocery stores and multi-purpose markets appearing in U.S. cities. As well, suburbanization made deliveries a more challenging endeavor. For that matter, farmers increasingly pasteurized their milk and sold it directly to the aforementioned grocery stores, usually via refrigerated cars and trains. 

The Maguire company also advertised its sanitation efforts, continuing the same strategy employed by the Buffalo Milk Company. The ice cream company maintained ownership of the building until the Great Depression's arrival, followed by various owners and tenants throughout the twentieth century. The building has since been redeveloped as an apartment complex known as Niagara Gateway Apartments. Its presence speaks to numerous layers of American history, namely how milk consumption provided a window into histories related to germ theory, science, urbanization, labor, the Gilded Age giving way to the Progressive Era, and much more. 

Jung, Lara, "Reimagining the Country: A Landscape of Children's Health and Wellbeing from 1875-1975" (2019). Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2018-2019: Stuff. 9. https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2019/9

King, Derek, Matthew Shoen; Kelsie Hoke; Caitlin Moriarty & Jennifer Walkowski "Nomination Form: Buffalo Milk Company." National Register of Historic Places. nps.gov. June, 2016. https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/places/pdfs/16000839.pdf

Obladen, Michael. "From Swill Milk to Certified Milk: Progress in Cow's Milk Quality in the 19th Century. " Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism 64, no. 1 (2014) 80-87.

Wiebe, Robert H. The Search For order 1877 - 1920. New York: Hill and Wang, 1967.