North Tonawanda History Blog - By Dennis Reed Jr

Buffalo vs. Everyone: The Norsemen’s Winter of Discontent

(Read time: 10 minutes) The Norsemen start 1975-1976 hot, then learn the lesson Buffalo teams keep relearning—success is fragile, and the margin for error is thinner here than anywhere else. It will take some extraordinary moves to reach the NAHL playoffs.
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

(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

(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

(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

(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

(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

(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

(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

(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.
Before Wurlitzer, there was Eugene de Kleist

(Read time: 7 minutes)Behind the iconic Wurlitzer tower, out in the heap of old buildings, on a placard high in the air, is inscribed a less familiar name. Without it, there would have been no Wurlitzer here.
Tonawanda Power Co. Disaster

(Read time: 5 minutes)The harrowing true tale of the deadliest night in North Tonawanda history, where 13 men lost their lives.