Amherst Historic Preservation Commission·April 21, 2026
A 111-year-old estate advances · A dredging baron's house · Housekeeping, a $60 membership, and a roundtable that won't sit still
The Town of Amherst's Historic Preservation Commission moved briskly through a 30-minute April session, its one substantive action a unanimous vote to recommend the stucco-clad estate at 1 Cloister Court — once home to Buffalo dredging-and-asphalt magnate Frank L. Bapst — to the Town Board for local-landmark designation. With no owner present to argue for or against, the Commission opened and closed a public hearing to an empty gallery, tidied up a citation in the application, amended the property's period of significance to 1914–1915, and forwarded the nomination on three of the code's landmark criteria, 5–0. The rest of the night was small-bore civic maintenance: the March minutes cleared, a lapsed museum membership was renewed for $60, a long-pending rewrite of the preservation code inched toward the Attorney's Office, a preservation roundtable got its date shuffled, and three members reported back from a state conference in Cooperstown.
The centerpiece of the Commission's April meeting was a house nobody showed up to defend — and it did not need defending. The board opened a public hearing on the landmark nomination of 1 Cloister Court, a large Georgian-style residence in the Eggertsville area, and Chair Brian Swartz noted at the outset that the applicant had sent word he "was not going to make a presentation tonight."[1] No members of the public came to speak either way. So the Commission worked from what it had: the application packet, the Planning Board's slides, and its own notes.
The property carries real Buffalo history. Per the nomination packet, the estate was tied to Frank L. Bapst, president of the Buffalo Dredging Co. and general manager of the German Rock Asphalt & Cement Co. — a Gilded-Age industrialist who sat on the founding board of the Marine Trust Company and belonged to half the clubs in the city.[2] Before voting, members cleaned up a loose end: an article quoted in the application needed a proper citation. After a few minutes of page-flipping, they pinned it down as an English translation of an 1898 German-language history — "Buffalo and its German Community."[3]
Chair Swartz then read the recommending resolution nearly in full, walking through the three landmark criteria the property satisfies under Chapter 121 of the Town Code — special character in the Town's history, association with a significant person, and the distinguishing characteristics of a type and period of construction.[4] A member caught one figure that needed fixing: the period of significance read "1914" alone, but "there's photographic evidence from 1915," so the motion was amended to run 1914–1915.[5]
The vote went by roll call: "motion is approved five to zero," Swartz announced.[6] Staff will forward the corrected package to the Planning Department and on to the Town Clerk's office for filing — because a commission recommends, and the Town Board makes the designation official.
A local-landmark designation is the Town's own historic listing — separate from the state or national registers. Under Chapter 121 of the Amherst Code, the HPC reviews a property against a set of criteria (historic character, ties to a notable person or event, distinctive architecture) and, if it qualifies, recommends designation. The Commission cannot designate on its own; it forwards the nomination to the elected Town Board, which makes the final call. A "period of significance" — here amended to 1914–1915 — is the window when the property earned its historic importance. Once designated, exterior changes to a landmark typically require Commission review.
The Commission opened, as it usually does, with its own paperwork. Vice Chair Catherine A. Waterman-Kulpa[*] moved to approve the March 10 minutes; Member Jennifer Kensy[*] seconded. With no commentary offered, the motion carried 5–0 — a marked contrast to the Commission's June session two months later, when a single abstention would leave a minutes vote short of a majority. Here all five present members voted aye; only Member Jeffery Amplement was absent. The board also paused to note for the record when Planning Director Dan Howard and, later, Deputy Supervisor Angela Marinucci[*] arrived, both trickling in after the 7:00 gavel.
Under old business, the Commission tended to a small budget matter: its membership with the Buffalo History Museum[*] had lapsed. Chair Swartz reported he had reached out and been told the panel could "reapply under a new level" for just $60 a year — a single membership the commissioners can hand off to whichever member needs it, rather than the more cumbersome arrangement they had tried the year before. Swartz moved to spend the $60 from the Commission's budget; Waterman-Kulpa seconded and the motion carried 5–0. A brief mid-vote hiccup — a member wanting to raise a point after the "ayes" had started — prompted a quick re-vote to keep the record clean.[7]
Three items closed out the night with no formal action, only discussion. On the HPC code rewrite — a standing project to strengthen the language and procedures of the Town's preservation ordinance — a working group of Wright, Marinucci and Assistant Planner James Quinn had met the previous Friday, building on an earlier session about four weeks back. Quinn was asked to assemble a running list of proposed changes and propose times for an in-person sit-down with the Town's legal department; members agreed the sequence matters, taking it "one step at a time" — legal review first, to make sure the proposals "doesn't cause any disruptions to the process," then back to the full board before anything reaches the Town Board.[8]
The HPC roundtable — a gathering the Commission hosts for peer preservation panels — needed a new date. A previously floated June 4 no longer worked, and after cross-checking against tree-board and planning-board calendars, members landed on trying for May 28 or, failing that, June 2, keeping their usual Thursday format where possible. The organizer said she would send invitations to the other HPCs once Swartz confirmed room availability, with a roughly $175 food budget already approved.[9]
Finally, three members — Waterman-Kulpa, Wright and Kensy — reported back from the NY Statewide Preservation Conference, held in Cooperstown. They described the location as beautiful and the programming strong: a developer's talk on "developing small buildings on Main Streets," a planner-focused session organized by conference staff, and history tours that went "in depth" beyond the Baseball Hall of Fame.[10] Members also floated a recruiting note — the Commission has vacancies and picked up a lead or two on prospective candidates, hoping to "gather up a couple of resumes" for interviews.[11] The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
A six-member commission with five present and voting on April 21: Chair Brian Swartz, Vice Chair Catherine A. Waterman-Kulpa, and members Jennifer Kensy, Mary Lou Mancuso and Hallie Wright. Member Jeffery Amplement was absent. Deputy Supervisor Angela Marinucci (Town Board liaison) arrived 7:07; Planning Director Dan Howard arrived 7:01; neither is a voting member. Movers, seconders and vote tallies are drawn from the official April 21 minutes.
After opening and closing a public hearing at which no one from the public spoke and the owner was not present, the Commission voted to recommend 1 Cloister Court to the Town Board as a local landmark under Town Code §121-6 criteria A(i), (ii) and (iii). The motion, moved by Chair Swartz and seconded by Vice Chair Waterman-Kulpa, was amended following discussion to change the property's period of significance to 1914–1915. Corrected package to be forwarded to the Planning Department and Town Clerk's office.
Vice Chair Waterman-Kulpa moved to open the public hearing on the landmark nomination; seconded by Member Mancuso; carried. With no members of the public present to comment, Member Kensy moved to close the hearing; seconded by Waterman-Kulpa; carried. Both votes 5–0.
Vice Chair Waterman-Kulpa moved to approve the March 10, 2026 minutes; seconded by Member Kensy; carried unanimously among those present.
Chair Swartz moved to spend $60 from the Commission's budget to renew a lapsed Buffalo History Museum membership at a new level for 2026; seconded by Vice Chair Waterman-Kulpa; carried. A brief mid-vote interruption prompted a quick re-vote to keep the record clean.
A working group (Wright, Marinucci, Assistant Planner James Quinn) met to review possible amendments to the HPC code. Staff will schedule an in-person meeting between the Planning Department and the Attorney's Office before the proposals return to the full board. No vote taken.
The Commission discussed moving its June 4 preservation roundtable to May 28 or June 2, keeping a Thursday format where possible, pending confirmation of room availability. A ~$175 food budget was previously approved. No vote taken.
Members Waterman-Kulpa, Wright and Kensy summarized their experience at the 2026 NY Statewide Preservation Conference in Cooperstown — sessions on small-building Main Street development, professional planning, and history tours. Reimbursement to be handled via submitted receipts and W-9. No vote taken.
With no further miscellaneous items, a member moved to adjourn; the motion was seconded and carried on a voice vote. The minutes record adjournment at 7:30 p.m.
Motions, movers, seconders and vote tallies in this brief are drawn from the Town's official April 21, 2026 minutes, reconciled against the meeting audio and the IQM2 agenda packet (which includes the full 1 Cloister Court landmark application, the property's SBL# 79.11-1-1, the Frank L. Bapst historical materials, and the draft recommending resolution). The Commission's roster was verified against the Town of Amherst's official Historic Preservation Commission page — Chair Brian Swartz; Vice Chair Catherine A. Waterman-Kulpa; members Jeffery Amplement, Jennifer Kensy, Mary Lou Mancuso and Hallie Wright — with James Quinn (Assistant Planner), Dan Howard (Planning Director), Bryan Fadel (Sr. Clerk Typist) and Sebastine Odiata (Senior Deputy Attorney) as staff. Deputy Supervisor Angela Marinucci sits in as the Town Board's representative.
Corrections applied. The audio rendered the museum as the "Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society"; the official minutes and the motion identify it as the Buffalo History Museum — the agenda/minutes govern, and the name is corrected here. Whisper's mishearings of member and staff names ("Kenzie," "Waterman Culpa," "Marinuchi," "Odiana/Odiata," "Fidel") were reconciled against the roster and minutes. The applicant/attorney Michael McGorry appears in the application packet but is an audio-and-document name for a private individual, so it carries a [*] pending confirmation against the Town Clerk's record. A street-name validation of the transcript against the Town's street inventory flagged no errors (the only street reference, "Main Street," matched exactly).
What aired. The full ~28-minute meeting was streamed and recorded on the Town of Amherst YouTube channel; there was no executive session. The transcript is machine-generated, so quoted phrasing is approximate; figures, names and vote tallies should be verified against the official Town minutes before any formal use.