Fall/Winter 2004 Table of Contents
Celebrating 200 years of Ellicott's radial street plan with a discussion of paranormal theory
A Review by Beth A. Polzin
Whispers attract attention. Ears perk up and voices hush. That which is secret or coveted provokes our curiosity. Such was the climate at paranormal historian Mason Winfield's lecture: "City Planning and Psychic Folklore." Winfield spoke in the fifth week of the Landmark Society's five-part spring lunchtime Ellicott Lecture Series,commemorating the 200th anniversary of Joseph Ellicott's 1804 completed survey of Western New York and his Buffalo Radial Street Plan.
And what a finale Winfield presented ashe talked of buried roads, sacred architecture, conspiracy theories, archeo-astronomy, and how these topics play out in Western New York. It was history with a twist: how we take for granted in the present what came to be in the past, and why.
Winfield defined archeo-astronomy asthe idea that ancient people constructedreligious monuments to astronomical phenomena, a concept only recently accepted in the wider academic community. A classic example is the Great Pyramids in Egypt which are aligned to compass points. Certain buildings on the Roycroft campus inEast Aurora are also designed in this way,Winfield contended.
Sacred architecture is more subtle, often discreetly hidden in the structure anddesign of a building, he said. Various elements can create a sacred element. A perfect replica of classical Greek designs, such as the First Church of Christ, Scientist, at the corner of Elmwood and North Streets, makes a building sacred. The church is perhaps the most sacred building in all of Buffalo, according to Winfield.
Another sacred distinction is the golden rectangle, an architectural design meant to replicate spirals found in nature, which are thought to represent, among other things, the human soul. Golden rectangles are brilliantly masked in architecture across Buffalo, including the Allendale Theater. The symbol is hard to spot by just looking at a building, according to Winfield, as is the equally sacred Pisces symbol: two overlapping circles representing the joining of opposites and embodying the idea of perfectibility. The symbol might represent male and female or spirit and matter.
The octagon shape is another example of sacred architecture. The rare octagonal buildings were built in the belief that a home without corners was ghost proof, since ghosts need corners in which to lurk. "You can tell a building has some sacred inspiration, direct or not, just by eyeballing it," Winfield said.
"Other broad sacred, shapes are squares, double-squares, [and] pyramids."
The concept of sacred architecture is not limited to buildings. The octagonshape is found in Buffalo's NiagaraSquare, the most sacred part of the city,according to Winfield. And here the story connects with Joseph Ellicott, the primary creator of Buffalo and Western New York's street design. Attendees of two earlier lectures in the series learned about Ellicott, a Holland Land Company surveyor assigned to survey our region. The presenter, James A. Nearhood, described EIlicott's life story, the story of the territory of New York State, and the story of Joseph's brother, Andrew, also a Holland Land Company surveyor.
Andrew was assigned to survey Washington, D.C., along with the better known Pierre L'Enfant. Andrew also assisted in the development of Buffalo's street design; thus, the similarities between Buffalo's and Washington, D.C.'s radial streets. Winfield explained that archeo-astronomy's role here manifests on Maryland Avenue in the capital when the spring solstice beam shoots right down the avenue as the sun rises. Winfield argues that Buffalo and Washington were purposefully designed this way.
Winfield said that although more research is needed to explain why, he cansay with conviction that Niagara Square is sacred. As he put it, "Niagara Square is the heart of Buffalo's energy," due in part to a concept called "ley," an old English word meaning "meadow." A ley refers to a straight line extending varying distances. It is defined in one of three ways: alignments of sacred sites (typically six or more in ten miles), processionals and pathways, and energy lines.
Niagara Street, Delaware Avenue, andGenesee Street are believed to be ley lines. If one could follow Niagara Street in a perfectly straight line from its plotted direction at Niagara Square (or Niagara Octagon, as Winfield determined the area could be called), the street leads directly to the Falls, which are considered a sacred energy center.
Delaware Avenue leads to Gates Circle, former site of a major natural fountain. Beyond the fountain lies Delaware Park, site of prehistoric battlegrounds and"earth works."
Finally, what is sacred about Genesee Street remains mysterious. One theory Winfield mentioned is that the angle of Genesee Street, like Maryland Avenue in Washington, D.C., may be the same as that of the spring equinox sunrise.
The Ellicotts and others involved in surveying and street design were in close contact with the Senecas and are believed to have learned about ley lines and sacred places from them. Winfield emphasized how the blocking of a ley line is a recipe for bad luck, citing the Convention Center site blocking Genesee Street.
Mason Winfield mentioned the best-selling book, The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, by way of impressing upon his audience a context for understanding what he was describing. The book presents in a fictional, suspense-tale format one of many theories on the "big picture" of world events. Winfield said that paranormal theories such as these -- anything outside of normal theories -- begin as whispered secrets. Then a convincing piece of research appears or a best-selling novel is published, such as The Da Vinci Code or Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent. Suddenly theworld at large accepts the possibility of a theory whose exponent might previously have risked life and limbexpounding.
Readers who find the subject of local paranormal history of interest can check out Winfield's website.
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