The Statler

(originally published August 2009, I somehow put this back into "draft" status by mistake, and discovered that fact while looking for it for something else...will see if this now counts as "new"...one of my favorites, anyway)

When the historic Statler in Buffalo was put up for auction a few weeks ago I wandered over there to take a few pictures, thinking that this was the perfect opportunity. Wrong. Too many people and too many television cameras were in the immediate area. Then it occurred to me that the building was still open to the public and all I had to do was come back some other time. So I did. Twice.

The former Statler Hilton is located on McKinley Square near City Hall; it was built on the site of a former home of President Millard Fillmore. The view is here is from Franklin Street.



The doorway to the famed Golden Ballroom is to the left and up a few stairs when entering from Delaware Avenue.



Bars at both ends beckon as soon as one walks inside. The present was immediately interspersed with the past, reminding me of the movie The Shining.



With only a point and shoot camera in hand, it was difficult to capture the essence of the ballroom and elsewhere since the chandeliers throw the lighting off. Upon leaving I saw that the doors were labeled "push", much like the signs today that everyone notices after they pull:



Across the way is the Terrace Room. Somehow I could just picture Jack Nicholson sitting at a table, busy typing his "novel"....



Then up the stairs to the mezzanine level, where work had been started in a large area.



From there a stairway led to the 2nd floor. Totally deserted...or was it?





Even though there are many more floors on the Delaware side, I think I was in the lower section so I had topped out. Just as well. After the fact I thought about how hobos or anyone could have been roaming about. If anyone had come up behind me and said "boo" I would have totally freaked out.

Truthfully, I didn't get the feeling that it was haunted, but then again, I'm not a medium either. All I know is that I didn't get too far from the stairwell on the second, worrying that I would lose my bearings. I could just imagine getting lost in the many floors that raise above Delaware, and eventually turning up in an old time picture :)



The End.

Old vs New - The Saga of the Peace Bridge Houses

My grandmothers were about the same age, but led different lifestyles and had opposite opinions when it came to the subject of old versus new.

On one side of the family, that grandmother enjoyed rescuing antiques and refinishing them to their former glory. Interestingly enough,that grandfather enjoyed emerging technologies and they had an early color television., even though they were not wealthy. They respected the role of their past, but were not adverse to looking towards the future.

On the other side, my paternal grandfather was very, very frugal. This translated into that grandmother using a wood-burning stove into the 1970's. While it may horrify those into all things rustic, as soon as that grandfather died, grandma threw out that stove, along with the wringer washer, and other way out-dated appliances.  They represented "old", and she was eager to move on. No nostalgia there, because for her, it had not been an option.

Sometimes it seems that the current and long standing debate about the Peace Bridge area and the houses that have been left to rot is a lot like that...those who see beauty in things and places that have existed before the current generation (or early in one's own life), and those who have nothing but scorn for all things that are not shiny new, like they had been forced to wear second hand or homemade clothes growing up and are now hell bent on being consumers of the new, no matter what the price in heritage or real dollars.

All of that brings me to the saga of the Peace Bridge houses. I totally get that people outside the City may not care, either because it's not their backyard, or because thinking about anything city related brings stress (real or imagined). What I don't understand is outright hostility by some. If they're in the construction industry and are hoping jobs come their way instead of to out of state companies (as is likely), they have a stake in this, but most don't.

Let me reframe this in a manner that the people along Route 219 or anywhere near the airport already understand. Say that you live in a house that is located somewhere in the vicinity of a thruway or an airport or whatever, that may have had some distant disadvantages, but the pluses outweighed them. Everything could even have been peachy-keen with no storm clouds in sight, for that matter. Suddenly a government entity comes sniffing around.

This here "Authority" has decided to build, expand, or do something that will drastically alter the complexion of your neighborhood. The home that has been in the family for generations, or the historical treasure that you have lovingly restored, or the dream new build, or the merely comfortable home that you have come to love, is threatened. What now?

Selling out to the powers that be is probably not even an offered option. Selling it anyone at all is now problematic. The disruption, pollution, and what have you will now destroy your neighborhood and there's not a whole lot you can do about it but protest, and try to force people to listen and to imagine that it can happen to them...because it can.

Government can use eminent domain or the stealth approach, where it buys out properties that are in the way and proceeds through outright demolition or allowing decrepitation until some neighbors buckle under the stress, but the results are the same. The process can take many years, and for just as many years the interested parties keep going at it, while those on the "outside" roll their eyes and call out seemingly oppositional terms like "obstructionists" and "economic development", like they think preservation and progress can't go hand in hand.

In a (very large) nutshell, that's what the conflict about the Peace Bridge houses is about (that, and taxpayer dollars being used for private gain aka the Duty-Free store). This picture, which I just blatantly borrowed from Facebook, is version of the undercover proposed plans. Notice the Hutchinson Chapel being rendered inaccessible:

To quote from the Campaign 4 Greater Buffalo "There are alternatives. The neighborhood can be restored, the Peace Bridge can have more inspection booths and smoother flow, and everything can be linked to an enhanced waterfront and rebuilt Porter Avenue."

Where does it stop?  It CAN happen to you.

Rally for Prospect Hill (name of Peace Bridge area) Part II tonight at the Armory Restaurant (a former silent movie house until 1916), 311 Connecticut Street 6-7:30pm...come, listen, and learn!

771 Busti (part 2), A House by the Peace Bridge

Quite a while back I wrote about the Wilkeson House at 771 Busti, along with several other homes. They were purchased (after some browbeating and implicit threats) by the Peace Bridge Authority in order to build a parking lot, and then left to rot. So, of course they are vacant, boarded up, and deteriorating! That was part of the plan!

In 1980 771 Busti was lived in and loved...

...by 1996 it had been bought and boarded, with others soon to follow, and the rest is history, but not the good kind....A few weeks ago the chain link fences went up...

Just looking at the property records, it seems that there was quite the turnover in the effected houses starting in the late 80's to people who then sold out...wonder if they knew something in advance? No way of proving it, and real estate speculation is as old as the land the PBA covets.

Speaking of which, down at the end of the block at the corner of Busti and Massachusetts sits the former Episcopal Nursing Home.

Not all that long ago it was filled with people...than unfounded rumors started that the place was going to go down along with the houses. People panicked and didn't chose for their loved ones to reside there. Others moved while they still had a choice. Soon the owners were all stressed and declared they had to close...well...they managed to build a spanking new place out in the 'burbs, although I don't think many, if any, of their former residents followed.

And then they waited, and waited, waited for the buy-out that never came.  Meanwhile they quit paying on loans, taxes, and other financial things specific to that building.  But then the governor tossed some $15 mil in a Peace Bridge related pot and said use this for whatever (wink wink)...Wow...that just about covers any liens and a good chunk of demolition (people who think demo's don't cost any taxpayer money are sadly deluded)...Coincidence? I think not.

To the rescue came Mayor Byron Brown...thank you Mayor...urging restraint, however temporary that may be. Also, the Campaign 4 Greater Buffalo rode in and obtained a court order for a stay of execution, pending further review. Thanks!  What I would like to see is the PBA be held liable for the dereliction of the houses and ordered to restore them. I won't hold my breath though.

I still worry about the Hutchinson Chapel too, connected to the Episcopal Home by a walkway...

Supposedly it will be saved, but moved. It's historic where it is, not somewhere else! Building the shiny new duty free store around it might be awkward though...sort of like Trico Plant#1 being built around the Weyand Brewery.  Maybe they'll move it next to its mother church, St. Mary's on the Hill...oh, wait...City took care of that already...maybe on the vacant lot where it once was. Meanwhile the Episcopal Church, one time owner of all, looks at the sky and whistles off key...

Despite what the unknowledgeable prefer to believe, there are a lot of beautiful sections of the City of Buffalo, some large and others small. Prospect Hill (the name of the area) is one of them...for now anyway.  By the time the PBA gets done it'll be a big parking lot and another duty free store. Is that number 3 or 4? The last one they built is only 7 years old...

...but that's considered progress, Buffalo-Style.

Bethlehem Steel

The last few days I've been hanging around just over the Buffalo border in Lackawanna, site of one of the last remaining vestiges of the days when steel was king and tens of thousands of people were employed in the mills. The work was hard, dirty, and very dangerous, but yet provided a steady paycheck, and a better life.

When the mills started shutting down, those who apparently could not land a job in any of the factories took up the company stance that the wages were too high. But people were getting sick and dying, and instead of shrugging it off as part of the job, they were starting to wonder why the plant didn't do more to protect the workers.  Environmental standards were making an appearance, and it was cheaper to import foreign steel, where standards in air quality, worker safety, and wages were/are non-existent.

As long as the administration building stands, it's not too late. Call the Mayor of Lackawanna and express a preference for repair and preservation instead of demolition with no plans for the vacant lot.  Lackawanna has a lot of those.  Of course, not everyone feels that way. Some see it as a symbol of promises not kept, capitalist greed linked with disregard for the common worker, jobs gone that will not return. Tear it down...like they'll ever forget.

These last few days it's been like a vigil, with people coming and going in shifts. Some are preservationists, both those who have been adamant about saving and preserving history and heritage for a while now, .and those younger, awakening to what is around them and what it means.

Then there are those who spent part or maybe a good portion of their lives in the mills. Some reminisce, some just come and look, perhaps taking a mental roll call of their co-workers...how they were then...how things are now...

There are places I'll remember

All my life, though some have changed

Some forever, not for better

Some have gone, and some remain

All these places have their moments

With (people) and friends I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life, I've loved them all...

It's not living in the past...it's respecting the past, our heritage, our history, and looking to integrate it as we move forward.

Save St. Adalbert Basilica!

Despite being self-sustaining, Bishop Kmiec has ordered the shutdown of St. Adalbert Basilica on Stanislaus Street.  The last day as a full time church is scheduled for this upcoming Sunday. The people strenuously objected, much to the dismay of those who prefer to believe that demographers and the bishop can do no wrong.  As fast as the signs went up, some people felt a need to tear them down.  Ha...missed one...

Painting for Preservation did its last Art-In to bring attention to the plight of the devastated parishioners, and as a show of support. You can read about it in the Buffalo News, as well as view a few pictures here. Note the scaffolding...the people haven't given up.

It was a beautiful day, and wonderful homemade food and music were provided by the parishioners for all to enjoy. The keyboard player also played the sax, and as I was wandering down a side street she let loose with a plaintive solo that just seemed fitting, echoing through the quiet neighborhood.

There is an Ethiopian Orthodox Church across the street, and a few streets over I spotted some new domes peeking up over the houses. Later on I went over to check it out...

...and did a little research once I got home. While the main church is now a mosque/school (other building appears unused), the Holy Mother of the Rosary Polish National Cathedral was built in conjunction with St. Adalbert...sort of...Seems that back in the day the parishioners got in a bit of a battle with each other, things got ugly. Then the Diocese tried to dictate the outcome...some things never change. From my favorite church history site (click on link to read the rest):

The seat of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese of the Polish National Church, former parishioners of St. Adalbert's Church on Stanislaus Street founded the church after a period of discord resulted in their departure. Throughout the early years of St.Adalbert's, constant turmoil existed among the immigrant congregation. Some of the members were at odds with the Catholic Diocese over who controlled the property and buildings which they had built and maintained through their contributions. On 27 July, 1895 after an extended period of violence and bloodshed, the church enlisted the assistance of police in having thediscontented parishioners removed from church property. After their dismissals, they banded together and purchased property on Sobieski Street. On 8 August, 1895 they celebrated their firstmass on the vacant lot.

After enduring throughout the years, St. Adalbert should be saved and savored, not merely somewhat preserved, to gradually fade away. The faithful should be rewarded, not shunted off to another parish. Multiple priests staff the moneyed...surely some could be spared where the need is greater....Save St. Adalbert Basilica!

Anyway, the Art-Ins are done for the season, however samples of the artistry produced will be on exhibit at the Statler Hotel during the National Preservation Conference.  Until next year...

Shutterbug Tour of The Central Terminal

A month ago I was fortunate enough to tag along on a shutterbug tour of the Central Terminal.  I think most of us had high hopes of being allowed into hidden spaces, as was somewhat promoted on the overall story, but the specifications for the Terminal actually said "Mezzanine" (a shot from)...

...and "Trolley Lobby"...

...and that's what we got.  Not meaning to complain really, since I had never been inside before anyway.  It's just that a few of us had visions of being waaay up in the tower. However, it was not on the schedule; but an excellent and informative tour was!

Beautiful building, with history being preserved and enjoyed...

Outside too...

The Van Dyke Cab sign is a salute to an earlier time. For some reason the thought of having some type of treasure hunt there took hold...Maybe they had one once and it lodged in a brain cell somewhere.  There are still remnants of the days when it was a functioning train terminal everywhere.

Every way you looked there were church steeples in the distance, nestled among nearby homes...

An Art-In was held at the same time, so artists were scattered around too.

I took over 100 pictures but am trying to show some discretion here by only posting a few :) There are some great shots on the Painting for Preservation blog, and some beautiful artwork too.  I'm totally in awe of the artists that can put something together in a few hours and it looks like it took much longer.  Someday maybe I'll give it a try, but for now I can remain delusional as to what the results would look like :)

The Central Terminal is beautiful, and definitely an ongoing project of love by the restoration group.  They give tours, and not just at ghost-hunters time - go there and see for yourself!