Newsletter of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County (Home Page)

June 1996
Table Of Contents

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Nation's first 'day care' threatened
by Tim Tielman

The owner of the Fitch House at 159 Swan Street has filed for a demolition permit for the rear half of the structure, siting severe deterioration. The house is the site of Americaís first day care center, the Fitch Creche, set up in 1879 to care for the children of charwomen and other poor working women. The owner, James Sandoro, operates several adjacent properties as parking lots serving Erie Community College, sports facilities, and the Department of Environmental Conservation. When Sandoro bought the house it was operating as a rooming house and was in good structural condition.

The Fitch Creche became nationally famous, the subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles and spawning a nationwide movement. The illustration above was from a general article on Buffalo appearing in Harperís in 1885. According to the article, the creche was modeled on the London Day Nursery, and having cared for 20,000 babies in its first six years, could be ìcalled the model creche of the world.î

The creche grew out of the house and pocket of wealthy merchant Benjamin Fitch. The house at 159 Swan was probably built in the late 1840s in the Greek Revival style, flanked by similar houses in a solid and stolid line. It began as a fairly conservative house, but as fashions changed and the building expanded, Second Empire and Gothic Revival elements were added. In 1882, with Grover Cleveland presiding, the cornerstone for the much larger Fitch Institute was laid next door.

The Creche survived until 1933, when the Fitch endowments were exhausted during the Depression. 159 Swan was landmarked in the late 1970s, when it had been a rooming house for some time. Owner Sandoro supported the designation. Another Sandoro-owned house across the street at 158 Swan, the Mixer House, was similarly landmarked and allowed to fall into decrepitude. It was demolished through an emergency demolition order in the fall of 1994.

The permit application is currently before the City Preservation Board, which sent a twosome to meet with Sandoro, one of whom listed as qualification the fact that his contracting company has had several business dealings with Sandoro over the years.