Here it is, Richard Gilbert’s 2nd installment
Buffalo Central Terminal September 1992 pt 2 of 2: Franczyk/Telesco Confrontation from Richard Gilbert on Vimeo.
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Nate, check out the lights i posted in the comments for the first video (the ones whos future location i wouldnt reveal) , and compare them to the train concourse chandalier you posted above
eerie similarity wouldn’t you say ?
now i have to figure out something else to replace those 4 light fixtures i was planning, ugh. i intended them to be original …. that intention has failed.
I think I remember from the April 1989 document salvage visit with the WNYRHS seeing the bison facing the front exit, and away from the train concourse. I’m still looking for my pictures from that time, haven’t found them yet. I had pictures of some of the lights too, some on 35mm, some on 110. I never dreamed back then that what happened would happen! I’m sure many of us didn’t. Too bad Warren Buffett couldn’t have stepped in at the last minute and outbid Telesco. And then told the powers that be in the city of Buffalo at the time how things were going to be. 100% per assessed value was not only outrageous, it should have been made unconstitutional! Reminds me of the ‘occupancy tax’ that was passed in the late 1970′s, and later rescinded. Nick, if any high tech method of designing another light fixture fails, if you know any young kids that still play with Spirograph sets anymore, the Spirograph might hold the key to another design. Just thought I’d throw that in!
Nick – now that I think about it I believe I found a piece of glass from one of the chandeliers from the main concourse! I measured about perhaps 2′ long and had a slight taper to it. Along with being frosted which is what the originals were, along with most interior glass in the building. lol. I’m almost certain that it had to be from a light fixture in the main concourse.
Sorry to steal you photo Nick but I believe this is the piece of glass I’m talking about…
http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv223/terminalfan/chand3d.jpg
my photos can be stolen for the good of the terminal, i dont mind.
Nate, if the piece you speak of IS from the chand, it should be approx 31 tall, 15 wide at the top, and 8 wide at the bottom,
Yea that seems about right to me.
And here is that photo from this month’s Trains Magazine in stores now!
http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv223/terminalfan/033-1.jpg
anyone know what the deal is w/ the gift shop ceiling? drop ceiling ? drywall ?
Like when is it going to be done? or started for that matter?
Nate, from what i heard the Ticket Agents office is becoming the new gift shop, so therefor its already started.
i hope im not mistaken
I’ve heard that too, that doesn’t mean it will happen. Frank was plastering up the wall and Walt needed to run some new electrical for a few nice outlets. But yea that is a much better location. Right of the concourse, no steps to trip on, larger room, no leaks, glass display windows, and a room off to the side for storage.
its a picture of a picture, but oh well. Marty had a pic of the original mez railings at the terminal on sat, and it showed glorious detail of the obolisks, requiring me to modify my obolisk prints a bunch. I dont carry a scanner in my pocket, so digital pics it had to be.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/hotrodkid/bct/bct%20projects/PICT0236.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/hotrodkid/bct/bct%20projects/PICT0235.jpg
look how thick the scroll work on the railing is!
Does anyone have any idea how much money Telesco and Fedele made from all the items they sold?
I heard from some people that Telesco made about 4 million dollars from all of the stuff he sold from the building. I never how much Fedele made from the lights he sold from the train concourse. It probably wasn’t much because he lost the building. I also heard he tried to sell some of the office furniture to pay off the taxes he owed.
I would say $4 million is WAY too high. Knowing how much the lights were being resold for, and the fact that the resellers want to make a profit too, there is no way he made $4 mil.
All the office furniture was offered for sale at some point in the 80s, our old president Russell Pawlak remembered going to the building and buying some file cabinets.
its been said that stripping and scrapping the building netted more like 1 – 1.25 million, which is probably much more correct.
It’s amazing he couldn’t be prosecuted for defacing a historical landmark. If anyone here knows anything about web optimization, we should set things up so that when someone Googles Thomas Telesco, the info we have about him here comes up in the top 10 searches.
Thanks for the information. I thought it was a little high too but I just siad what I heard.
Just as a follow up to those great videos that were posted where Telesco is confronted…
Did the meeting with the judge ever take place and what happened?
Great video? What has changed since the video was shot? Not much. Just alot of talk about things in the works. Do the math, the last guy said stuff is in the works. Well that was 1992 it’s 2010 and we hear the same stuff. I would bet in another 18 years we are going to hear the same. Thats if the building doesn’t fall down before.
Alot of talk ? why dont you swing by on a work day and tell all us volounteers in person that what were doing is all talk. Ill personally hand you a shovel so you can “talk” too.
Personally, my talking includes the following: Cad files for all the missing main concourse light fixtures, cad files for the Mezzanine railing obolisks, (all of which i will be helping to fabricate when the time comes) I was one of 3 people who helped dig out the Trolley Lobby stairs. I was one of a group of people that got the light well 80% cleaned up.
My FIRST DAY at the terminal i was digging through the rubble from the Curtiss St decorative ceiling that CTRC tore down before it fell down, and i did that a few more times, and in the end i was one of 4 or 5 people that was down there clearing the sidewalks / curbs of rubble so that it could all be bulldozed out of the way by Brian & Brian
I did my small part in helping set up the shop, ive helped setup / staff / clean up events.
the list goes on…. Heck, i even made some phone calls and got ahold of Pamela Messmore, grand daughter of the man who built the plaster buffalo statue, to see if she knew about the existence of the original molds which we KNOW existed all the way up to 1997.
I followed that up with another phone call to someone else, and got $12,000 worth of “supplies” pledged to us free of charge, as long as we come get them.
We, the volunteers of CTRC, are much more then just talk. Telesco left the building in 97, and with him went all the hot air and smoke screens.
I halfheartedly apologize if the progress we make is not fast enough to make you happy. This Saturday i will be at the building doing what i do, feel free to stop by and deliver you master plan on how we can do this project in a way YOU find to be more timely.
Please don’t feed the trolls, or we will have to close the comments to keep things civil.
(Agreed, Derek!) I had surgery in my right eye a couple of days ago, and the doctor has given me a 10 pound lifting restriction. I hope to be back up to rejoin the gang once the restriction is lifted, and hopefully the weather cooperates. I hope to get the left eye done soon after the right one heals up. The unbalance is driving me nuts! I must say though that it’s the first time since I was 7 or 8 years old I’ve been able to see this clearly with that eye without glasses! Unbelievable! I had a cataract that made looking at things appear like they were in a fog. They blew the cataract out and replaced the lens with an implant that compensates for my nearsightedness. The day after the surgery, they told me I was 20/25 without correction in that eye and it would get better when healed! I’ll probably be in touch with Hank via email (once I get caught up with those) to find out which projects are on the hot list for the spring. I’ll try to remember to bring up the screws for the door and window projects that still need them. (I take it all 4 of the outer trims were found for the big window frame?)