North Tonawanda History Blog

North Tonawanda History Blog

By Dennis Reed Jr.

  • Inside the Norsemen Locker Room: The Cast of Characters

    Inside the Norsemen Locker Room: The Cast of Characters

    (Read time: 10 minutes) THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BUFFALO NORSEMEN PART 4: Meet the colorful personalities on the Norsemen squad.

  • Hockey Night in Tonawanda – Norsemen v. Sabres

    Hockey Night in Tonawanda – Norsemen v. Sabres

    (Read time: 7 minutes) THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BUFFALO NORSEMEN PART 3: The Norsemen face their first test in a sold-out exhibition game at the Tonawanda Sports Center.

  • Countdown to Training Camp

    Countdown to Training Camp

    (Read time: 6 minutes) THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BUFFALO NORSEMEN PART 2: Turecki has less than five months to build a team from the ground up before their first game: An exhibition match in North Tonawanda against Buffalo Sabres rookies.

  • Tonawanda Sports Center

    Tonawanda Sports Center

    (Read time: 5 minutes) THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BUFFALO NORSEMEN PART 1: Fifty years ago, North Tonawanda hosted its own pro hockey team: the NAHL Buffalo Norsemen. Their only season’s unbelievable ending became the stuff of movie legend.

  • Postcards from (Daniel) Webster Street

    Postcards from (Daniel) Webster Street

    (Read time: 4 minutes)Learn how Webster Street got its name, and check out six historic views of NT’s main drag.

  • Alexander’s Lounge: A revealing history

    Alexander’s Lounge: A revealing history

    (Read time: 7 minutes)If you expect Alexander’s Lounge—the longstanding gentlemen’s club in North Tonawanda that announced its closure this week—to have a colorful history, you will not be disappointed.

  • VIDEO: Gratwick Grandfather’s photos reveal life 120 years ago

    VIDEO: Gratwick Grandfather’s photos reveal life 120 years ago

    (Read time: 5 minutes)A grandfather’s box of fragile glass negatives is seen for the first time in a century, revealing fascinating and intimate glimpses into the lives of a Fredericka Street family.

  • The Chamber of Commerce Ghost Hoax of 1920

    The Chamber of Commerce Ghost Hoax of 1920

    (Read time: 24 minutes)In 1920 a series of purported ghost sightings captivates the Tonawandas. But are the poltergeists just political propaganda?

  • The lost village of Ironton and the birth of the Avenues

    The lost village of Ironton and the birth of the Avenues

    (Read time: 9 minutes)Sometimes a place name can be on the lips of generations, and then just…disappear. Such was the fate of Ironton–the North Tonawanda neighborhood of the 1870s.