There’s a New Urban Legend in Buffalo But Is It True?

Growing up in Western New York, you hear a lot of stories that have been passed around for years. Some of them are very well-known, like the Pigman Killer and Goodleburg Cemetery.

But there's a relatively new urban legend in Buffalo, and we're wondering if it's true or not?

Buffalo Rising recently posted about what seemed to be a new story gaining traction in Buffalo -- a new "urban legend," if you will.

The legend says that City Hall once had a fire and all the records were destroyed.

The Online Assessment Roll System (OARS) has a trend that states many of the houses were built in 1900 here in Buffalo, which obviously can't be right according to Buffalo Rising because a city like this couldn't have been built in a single year -- or at least a major part of it.

The urban legend basically started because this information must be wrong, and it's wrong because City Hall has incorrect information due to a catastrophe, such as a fire destroying records.

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However, after Buffalo was burned down by the British in the War of 1812, there are no known records or accounts after 1812 of a major fire happening at City Hall or another government building in Buffalo. No newspaper stories or headlines that state a fire took place at City Hall.

Considering there are no accounts or records to know of, this City Hall fire theory likely (almost certainly) isn't true and the 1900 build date anomaly was perhaps due to the year being used by default by record keepers, to keep it at a nice, and round number for historical puposes...not because there was a fire around that time period that wiped out records.

Oh well, I do like a good urban legend. It's okay, we have many to still indulge ourselves in here in Western New York.