Early years Prior to the late 1800s, Riverside was an area that remained largely undeveloped farmland. For many, it was a "rural retreat" to the larger, more industrious city of
Buffalo, inhabited mostly by a few wealthy owners of large estates. Riverside stayed this way until 1888, after the passage of the Hertel Avenue Sewer Bill, which allowed sewer construction to take place in the area. Subsequently, real estate development began in 1890 when the North Park Land Company purchased of land near the current Riverside Park (formerly known as Germania Park), which boasts a scenic outlook of the Niagara River. The land was subdivided, and construction of two-family homes started.
All Saints Roman Catholic Church was founded in 1911, and can be found in the center of Riverside. In the 1930s
Chevrolet constructed the
GM Powertrain Tonawanda Engine Plant in
Town of Tonawanda, a neighborhood bordering riverside, which helped bring about swift industrial growth. The remainder of the area continued to quickly develop through the 1950s. Many of the new residents moving to Riverside, were arriving from
Black Rock, which had become highly industrialized by the end of the 19th century. Offering views of the
Niagara River, curving streets, and larger residential building lots than its neighbor to the south, Riverside had attracted over 2,000 people by 1900, who were mostly of German and Irish descents. It was this sudden surge in population, that gave Riverside its early reputation as a northern working class 'suburb' of
Black Rock, even though it still was within the city limits. For these new residents, Riverside was only a short trolley-car ride away from their old neighborhoods. Another wave of development took place after the close of the
Pan-American Exposition in 1901. The Roblin Brothers used lumber from deconstructed buildings on the Exposition grounds to build hundreds of new homes around the areas surrounding the intersection of Ontario and Tonawanda Streets. Around the time of the
Great Depression and
World War II, with the country in an economic slump, fewer people were moving out to the suburbs, so even more housing construction took place in Riverside as the remaining land was developed.
Decline But by the early 1950s, the construction of the
Niagara extension of the
New York State Thruway, effectively cut off all access to the
Niagara River from neighborhood residents that once had existed at Riverside Park. This, coupled with the large-scale exodus of residents and businesses to the suburbs that was similarly taking place in many other parts of the country, began the long and steady period of decline in Riverside. However, the loss of population in Riverside did not have anything near the devastating impact that was demonstrated on many of the East Side neighborhoods. ==Geography==