Central Terminal on the Fast Track to Oblivion Summer 1992
Central Terminal on the Fast Track to Oblivion
Erie County Preservation Coalition, Summer 1992
To the casual passerby it is clearly deteriorating more and more with each passing day. The increasing number of broken windows and the debris littering the grounds are bad enough. Those who have been inside say the systematic looting and stripping of the building make it questionable whether it can ever be restored.
Each year or so a new savior comes to town and beguiles the public with enchanting tales about how they are going to restore the Central Terminal. The latest champion was Bernie Tuchman with plans for shops, offices and housing. His plans suffered a setback when the IRS chose the Apple Tree Mall for new offices over the Terminal. Tuchman is now suing the IRS over this decision.
Tuchman was believed to have purchased the building from Tom Telesco who had acquired the building at a city tax auction. However when Tuchman stopped paying Telesco due to the stripping that had taken place in the building, the courts turned the building back to Telesco.
Telesco’s reemergence marked a turn for the worse for the building. Telesco, who at one time seemed sincere about plans for the building, seems bent on destroying the place. Security guards that protected the building have been called off, letting vandals roam freely.
Railroad enthusiast Stephen Koening says, “A crime was committed against the New York Central Terminal. Eighteen square shaped light fixtures that adorned the Main Concourse and two small fixtures were taken down and removed from the building by an antique dealer by the name of Robert Rockford.” Koening says Rockford told him that they were removed as a favor for Tom Telesco and that he had done all the removal of these items in the past for Mr. Telesco.
On one visit to the Terminal, Koening observed a truck parked in front, the door open and a man with a large pair of bolt cutters. A call to the police brought the shocking news that the truck belonged to a man that worked for Telesco.
Koening says, “On February 20, I happened to stop at the main entrance of the building and I found no vehicles around but the door was ajar. As I looked inside I saw the pickup truck with another red pickup truck and a red van with light fixture frames loaded into it. I managed to take enough pictures to capture the most convicting aspect of the crime and then I made for a fast exit. Later I spoke to one of the security members and he said that he was there that day and confirmed that the lights were being removed. With a sick feeling in my stomach I sat at my desk feeling helpless.”
Koening says that other neighbors of the Terminal have observed fixtures being removed.
Another observer noted that copper lining has been removed from the roof and that toilets have been thrown out of the building, smashing roof tiles. These actions will have calamitous effects on the building as water seeps in and destroys the building.
The famous bison that watched over the Terminal, the central clock, the brass railings, the doors and the plumbing have all been vandalized.
Fillmore District Council Member David Franczyk says, “If this information is accurate, the building is being raped.”
The Central Terminal is both a local and national landmark yet so far its destruction has gone unchecked at the hands of private enterprise.
City ordinances require that a building be maintained. That is not the case here. The Preservation Coalition calls upon the city to enforce its building ordinances and bring those responsible for the destruction of this building before housing court.
Council Member Franczyk is putting together a task force on the building but swift action must be taken if there is to be anything left of the building to preserve, indeed if it is not already too late.
