Located near the Commercial slip, several black-owned businesses opened in a single group of buildings including Dug’s Dive, a subterranean saloon established by William Douglas on Commercial Street near the Iron Bridge. Reportedly accessed by going below street level via a set of stairs to the Canal towpath, the 1874 Buffalo City Directory lists William Douglas as a saloon owner at 21 Commercial Street.
Dug’s Dive was not only a saloon but a place where newly arrived African-Americans could find a place to sleep and a meal when there was often nowhere else to go. This almost certainly included enslaved freedom seekers hoping to make their way across the Niagara River to Canada.
The Union block, the name reportedly given to this group of buildings, was the target of unrest in the area, most notably during the Civil War. One local story described black residents and sailors hiding out in Dug’s Dive until police could safely extricate them from the area during a riot in 1863.
Eventually, like much of the development near the Canal terminus, the Union Block became uninhabitable; the city demolished it at the turn of the 20th Century. The foundations of these buildings remain buried at the terminus site of the canal, however, and similar ruins are accessible to explore at the recently redeveloped Canalside Historic District.
1881 Sanborn Map corrected to 1888. When lit from beneath the location of Dug's Dive, listed in the City Directory as 21 Commercial Street, is revealed. By 1888 the building housing this historic business was razed.
Article from the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser dated July 7, 1863 describing a riot which resulted in the death of several African American residents from the City of Buffalo. Many black residents were taken to jail for their own protection.