A reader recently asked about the house that once stood on Locust Street near Willow, just north of the Kenan Center. Though this house stood for nearly 100 years, there were only two families that occupied it for any length of time.
In 1861, Thomas Thorn Flagler’s residence was listed at 27 Walnut St. (old number system). A year later, he appeared in the Lockport directory with “house, Washburn, south of fairgrounds.” At that time, the street running south of Willow was a continuation of Washburn Street rather than Locust as it is today. The Niagara County fairgrounds were at the northeast corner of Washburn and Willow streets. This stretch of Washburn between Willow and Lincoln, was sometimes called “the Hill,” and was becoming a fashionable address in Lockport. There were already several large houses on the street, including that of Jesse Haines, the local surveyor who mapped out the street system of what is now the city of Lockport. In the 1870s, that section of the street was renamed Locust Street.
Thomas Thorn Flagler was well-known in Lockport, having arrived in the village in 1836. Two years later, he married Huldah Barrett and began working as editor and publisher of the Niagara Courier newspaper which he did until 1843. He next embarked on a career in the hardware business, establishing a store at 38 Main St. (old number system) and later being joined by Mr. Sears and Mr. Pomeroy.
At about the same time he began the hardware business, Flagler also served two terms in the New York State Assembly, in 1842 and 1843. He was treasurer of Niagara County from 1849 to 1852, and a member of Congress for the Whig party from 1853 to 1857. He again ran for the NYS Assembly in 1860, serving one term. He was a delegate to the NYS Constitutional Convention in 1867 and 1868. In addition to this he was president of the Holly Manufacturing Co., as well as the Niagara County National Bank, the Lockport Gas Co., and the Lockport & Buffalo Railroad. During all of this, Flagler and his wife lived at what became, in the 1870s, 413 Locust Street. In 1886, he celebrated his 75th birthday with a huge reunion at his home. Two years later, he founded the Flagler Hospital on West Avenue. It was in operation until 1908 when the Lockport Memorial Hospital opened. Huldah died in 1895 and Thomas two years later. They are buried in Glenwood Cemetery.
In 1901, the house at 413 Locust St. was purchased by Charles R. Bishop and his wife, Frances Guild Bishop. He was born in 1867 in Medina and moved to Lockport at the age of 23 to work as an engineer for the American District Steam Company of which his father, Dr. Robert S. Bishop, was president in 1890. After his father’s death in 1896, Bishop took over as secretary-general manager of the company. Donald G. Bishop, the couple’s 21 year old son, was killed in an airplane crash in Florida in 1919 while training with the U.S. Naval Aviation Service. A year later, Charles Bishop left Lockport to start an oil burner business in New York City. Despite living in New York, the Bishops retained their Locust Street house until 1934. Charles Bishop returned to Lockport shortly before his death in April 1950. Frances Bishop died in 1953. They are buried with at least seven other members of the Bishop family in an elaborate, 16 crypt mausoleum set in a hillside in Glenwood Cemetery.
Following the Bishops ownership of the house, it remained vacant for a number of years. In 1940, Gerald R. Fuller was living there and operating an Author’s Script Service out of the house. By 1947, the house was vacant again. In the meantime, other houses had been built on the north side of the property and the address was listed as 421 or 431 Locust Street. On the south side of the Flagler-Bishop house was the estate of William Rand Kenan. He had lived there since 1912.
At some point after 1947, Kenan purchased the house but it remained vacant until he had it torn down in 1962 to add more garden space to his property. The original carriage house for 413 Locust Street is now the Education Building for the Kenan Center.
Ann Marie Linnabery is the assistant director of the History Center of Niagara.
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