LOCKPORT

Willow Park

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Willow Park was subdivided in 1909, consisting of 111 lots on Willow Street, Haines Street, Holly Court, and the east side of Beattie Avenue.  The original plat map indicates the development was "Property of C.N. Lodge & Co. ①."  Lodge was an Indianapolis-based real estate broker who had past experience selling lots in subdivisions developed by fellow Indianapolitan and prominent capitalist and real estate developer, Grafton Johnson ②.  Real property records appear to indicate that the lots in Willow Park were owned by Johnson and a closer inspection of the Willow Park plat map (see below) shows that Johnson, in fact, owned Lodge's company.

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Deeds in Willow Park -- such as the one excerpted below signed by John T. Symes, an attorney acting on behalf of Grafton Johnson -- contained a familiar racial covenant routinely found in deeds from other Johnson developments across Upstate New York York:

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​In 1928, Vermont-based Caruno Realty, Inc., began offering the remaining unsold lots in the Willow Park subdivision for $1 down and $1 per week.  In typical Caruno style, the subdivision was advertised as "Restricted to Americas Only."

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Belmont Addition

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N.P. Dodge & Company developed the Belmont Addition in 1924 on Russell Street off of South Transit Road, on land adjacent to the State Armory (now the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center). In an open letter to Lockport's Mayor and Common Council published on Sept. 21, 1926, N.P. Dodge described the addition as including Russell, Weld, Cedar, and Fairfax streets ③. The advertisement below from the Lockport Union-Sun and Journal declared, "We only sell to desirable white families," and that all lots in the addition were "Restricted to white people."   

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Nathan P. & Laura Dodge signed and submitted a deed for Lot #124 on Fairfax Street in the Belmont Addition that included the following racial restrictive covenant:

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①  “Map of Willow Park, Lockport, N.Y.,” 30 April 1909 (Map Book 11, page 1053, Office of the Niagara County Clerk, Niagara County, NY).

②  "New Addition Opened," The Franklin Republican (Franklin, IN), May 12, 1905, page 1.  Accessed via newspapers.com

③  Union-Sun & Journal (Lockport, NY), Sept. 21, 1926, p. 9.  Accessed via fultonhistory.com

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© JULY 2026