English: As seen in May 2020: the John Lord Cottage, at 794 Potomac Avenue, is among the oldest existing buildings in Buffalo's Elmwood Village, dating to between 1866 (the
Stone & Stewart Atlas of Erie County shows Lord living in an apparently no-longer-extant house down the block near the corner of Delaware Avenue) and 1872 (the
Hopkins Atlas of Buffalo does indeed show the house in its present position). It's a wood-frame farmhouse of vernacular design and no particular architectural style, typical of the housing stock of rural America at the time.
Dr. John Chase Lord (1805-1877) was founding pastor of the
Pearl Street (later Central) Presbyterian Church, which split from
First Presbyterian Church over the latter's too-liberal interpretation of Scripture. As one of the most outspoken of Buffalo's prominent citizens of the day, Dr. Lord regularly issued blistering sermons and public pronouncements opposing slavery, Catholicism, immigration, the drinking of alcohol, etc., earning him a national audience and more than a little controversy at home. He lived the final years of his life in this house; retiring from ministry in 1873 and dying four years later. The house remains a private residence; its owner died in 2019 and it's currently for sale. It was named a Buffalo city landmark in 2017.