On June 19, 1858, the Falconwood Club, located near the head of the island, was organized by Lewis F. Allen, uncle to President Grover Cleveland.

[2] Families would spend their summer weekends at the club, with businessmen making the daily run to Buffalo and back on a launch, which would drop them in the center of the city at the foot of Main Street.

[5] Under his ownership, the house continued to serve as a private club and estate for his family and friends until it was destroyed by fire in the twenties.

[2][4] The Falconwood Club clubhouse was built in 1879 to the designs of Milton Earle Beebe, a prominent Buffalo architect at a cost of $15,000.

Later that year, Buffalo architect Eugene L. Holmes was hired to rebuild the clubhouse which opened on August 16, 1883 and was constructed at a cost of $23,000.

[2] The clubhouse featured a 12-foot veranda that ran the full length of the building, providing a view of the well-kept lawn sloping down to a wharf which projected 110 ft. into the river.

The stained glass in the doors and the windows was in shades of amber, brown, red and gold, which accented the natural tones of the wood.

Outfitted as a second floor sitting room, its large crescent shaped windows looked out on the riverfront on one side and back to the Falconwood Park and forestlands on the other.

[2] The State of New York purchased Beaver Island, a large part of the Lewis F. Allen estate, all of the Falconwood lands, plus "River Lawn", the former home of the Spaulding and Sidway families.