Where in the world are the Central Terminal’s lamps?
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Some of the most beloved features of the Central Terminal – it’s various art deco lamps – are the most sorely missed by those who come back and see the building today. The CTRC regularly keeps track of artifacts that came from the building, and it’s been known for several years that some of our lamps ended up in a chain of restaurants called the Cafe Deco in Hong Kong. We’ve had several people visit the restaurants and take numerous photos and even measurements of the lamps to help us in their eventual recreation.
Yesterday, the Buffalo News ran an article entitled Scattered pieces of Buffalo near and far exploring, among other items, our lamps.
Cynthia Schwartz went to a mountaintop cafe on the other side of the world and found a piece of Buffalo.
As she looked through her camera lens on the lights that once illuminated the Central Terminal, she was stunned by the size and beauty of the frosted panes in silvery frames.
The staff at Cafe Deco in Hong Kong looked on as Schwartz snapped away.
“They all thought we were just lunatic tourists,” she said.
Since the boom times of the last century, Buffalo’s grand old buildings have been torn down to make way for the new, sometimes just a parking lot. While most demolitions disappear, often to landfills, some of old Buffalo has scattered and resurfaced — near and far.
The new owners of these pieces of old Buffalo say the city’s grandeur transforms their new addresses with soul and beauty — from the Hong Kong cafe to a room in the American Wing of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art; and from a summer retreat in Fort Erie to a new home in Colden built with salvaged pieces.
“It surprises us how often we bump into a piece of Buffalo in some strange corner of the world,” Schwartz said.
