FPC Buffalo

In 2003, the Buffalo Central Terminal was designated as one of "Seven to Save" buildings by the Preservation League of New York State. It is also listed in the U.S. National Registry of Historic Sites.

More importantly, the Central Terminal has "beloved building" status among the city’s own residents who show up by the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, when the building is open to the public or special events are scheduled. When renowned installation artist Spencer Tunick came to the Central Terminal to do one of his famous installations on August 15, 2004, some 1,850 people took off their clothes and laid down naked on the floor—four shades of marble, no less—for Art.

"Building love"

There is a constant stream of serendipitous visitors to the Central Terminal. Whenever passing drivers notice that the chain link gates outside the main entrance are open, they high-tail it up the impressive concourse and try to sweet-talk their way for a sneak peek inside the great hall—or even a short building tour if they really luck in. That’s "building love," and for diehard Art Deco fans, "building lust."

Buffalo was strategically located at the mid-point between New York and Chicago. This meant that from the mid-1870s to the late 1930s, the city was second only to Chicago in terms of its economic importance. Buffalo was a giant industrial and transportation hub in 1927, with 13 trunk line railways connecting it to every major city in the U.S. northeast and a population of about 550,000 residents. Today, Buffalo’s population hovers around 285,000 and is projected to sink lower still to about 275,000.

The concept of a ‘central’ or ‘union’ terminal emerged in the 1850s, partly as smaller railroads merged with larger ones, partly as cost-sharing among railroads, and partly as a way to improve passenger comfort, efficiency, and safety. In Cincinnati, for example, seven railroads cooperated to build the Cincinnati Union Terminal which was dedicated on March 31, 1933.

A vision unfulfilled

In the 1920s, the two major railroads that served Buffalo were the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central. In 1924, Buffalo native and New York Central president Patrick Crowley set the wheels in motion for a new station to be built two miles outside of Buffalo’s downtown core, on cheaper land. The Central Terminal was erected on Padewerski Drive and Curtiss Streets, and it was Crowley’s vision that the Buffalo business community would follow his lead. The complex was built in anticipation that Buffalo’s population would eventually rise to 1.5 million.

Construction on the Buffalo Central Terminal began in 1927 and opening ceremonies were held June 22, 1929, and included a gala sit-down lunch for 2,200 in the main concourse. After speeches and dessert, the crowd hurried to the platforms to watch the departure of the very first train: the eastbound Empire State Express at precisely 2:10 p.m. At the midnight hour, the full complement of 1,500 New York Central Railroad employees began full service with 200 passenger trains a day began—that’s one train every eight minutes.

Cost estimates for the Buffalo Central Terminal ranged up to $14 million in 1929 dollars. Unfortunately, it was the right building at the wrong time.

The stock market crash of October 29, 1929—"Black Tuesday"—plunged the U.S. into the Great Depression. The floundering economy, combined with better highways, and the advent of air travel, was the beginning of the end for the Buffalo Central Terminal. It barely saw four months of at-capacity train operations.

By 1933, revenues of the New York Central plummeted 60 percent and the bleeding continued for decades. Finally, the last train pulled out in 1979 and the building was sold to a private developer who stripped the building of its wonderful copper roof, copper plumbing, every Art Deco tulip-shaped light fixture in frosted glass, right down to every last door knob. Like Dr. Seuss’ fabled character, the Grinch, "On the walls, he left nothing but hooks and some wire…."

In 1997, the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation (CTRC) was formed with a mandate to stabilize the building from the weather, secure it from vandals, and clear out thousands of pounds of debris, mostly old insurance claim forms from the offices of the New York Central. This list of tasks has almost been completed thanks to the current Board of Directors, headed by Russell Pawlak, and dozens of volunteers.

Emotional ties to the Buffalo Central Terminal

Today, when air travel is so commonplace, it is hard to fully appreciate the emotional impact of the Buffalo Central Terminal on the lives of the city’s residents. Airports quite simply don’t evoke passionate feelings as do railroad terminals. Seventy years ago, travel was still a Big Deal. And, of course, there was the romance of the train: elegance served in old-world, wood-paneled passenger cars. The whole scene evokes men with fedoras, ladies in elbow-length gloves, and clicking heels on marble floors.

Pawlak reminisces that his parents departed for their honeymoon to New York City from the Buffalo Central Terminal. His father left to fight in World War II from the Central Terminal, and was welcomed back at the Terminal when the war ended, thank God. And Pawlak himself left to go to college from the Central Terminal, no doubt his mother reminding him to keep warm, eat well, and to write home occasionally.

To thousands of Buffalo residents, the Buffalo Central Terminal has been a unifying thread that has helped weave the tapestry of their life stories, richly embroidered with seminal moments, bittersweet and sweet alike.

And these same powerful emotional ties— the very fiber of life—keep the city’s residents wondering, wishing their Buffalo Central Terminal gets a meaningful reincarnation.