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.

Read the full article

Well set your DVRs, our episode will air next Wednesday, December 2nd at 10pm on SyFy (channel 38 on Buffalo Time Warner Cable).

Check out the trailer at SyFy: click here

Limited tickets still available for this weekend’s ghost hunt events! Detailed event information available here.

Hear Event Coordinator Ryan Willard on WBEN this morning talking about the ghost hunt.

Set your alarm clocks, because they’ll also be on WBEN 7:20am Friday, and finish up their Ghosthunt media tour Saturday at 9am on 1230am WECK.

Part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHQwBurPblo

Part 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEbLHFPESnQ

BY EMERI KRAWCZYK

As we close in on “All Hallows Eve” and the boundary between the living and the deceased dissolves, spine-tingling stories abound — and sometimes the place where they’re told is even scarier than the stories themselves.

Ripe with ghostly encounters and strange occurrences that should lend plenty of atmosphere, two unique Buffalo locations — the Iron Island Museum in Lovejoy and the Central Terminal, will host two chilling events: “Spirits & More Spirits,” a wine tasting on Saturday in the museum and a joint event on Oct. 30 that will bring professional ghost hunters into the mix. Let’s visit — if you dare.

Read the full article

Detailed event information here

Have you seen a Ghost Hunters Academy motor home around town this week? Well the secret is out! Film crews from the TV Show Ghost Hunters Academy, filmed an episode for the show at the Terminal this last week that will air on the SyFy Channel this Novemeber. Ghost Hunters Academy is a spin-off of the original Ghost Hunters show that just filmed at the Terminal last year. The shows concept is about seasoned investigators Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango taking novice college age investigators to “haunted” locations and properly teaching them how to become paranormal investigators.

Interested in what they found? You will have to wait until the show airs sometime this end of November! Curious why the most popular Paranormal TV franchise of all time keeps coming back to film at the Terminal? If so, then you can have your chance to ghost hunt the Buffalo Central Terminal yourself this October 30th! Join the CTRC, WNY Ghost Hunters, and Iron Island Preservation Society for a dual ghost hunt at both the Buffalo Central Terminal and Iron Island Museum. The event will feature a chance to investigate these locations with World renowned Psychic and star of Paranormal State, Chip Coffey. You will also be able to work with Paranormal Investigator Brin Harnois! Brian was one of the main investigators on both Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International!

Tickets are on sale now for this ghost hunt event that also includes day long lectures, meet & greets, and more! For more information and ticket sales, please visit www.wnyghosthunters.com/halloween09.html, or
www.ironislandmuseum.com today!

What comes next for Central Terminal?

August was a heart-wrenching month for the people working to save and restore the Central Terminal.

In the space of three weeks, the restoration group lost its past two presidents — longtime leader Russell Pawlak and his successor, Michael Miller, both in their 50s, both from natural causes.

Their deaths could have been enough to derail any organization, especially this one, given its long identification with Pawlak’s infectious passion for the iconic building and more recently, Miller’s enthusiastic commitment to saving it.

Instead, their successor, Mark Lewandowski, and the Central Terminal Restoration Corp. have regrouped and will redouble efforts to realize the dream of redeveloping the 80-year-old landmark on Buffalo’s East Side.

That includes creating a master plan for the building’s vaulted concourse, 17-story tower and five-story baggage building they hope to complete in late 2010.

“We wouldn’t be at the point where we are now without Russell taking the lead. He was the face of the terminal. And then, when we lost Russell, Mike stepped up,” Lewandowski said.

“[Their deaths] were a loss, and a tragedy emotionally, but the organization moves on. There’s a whole board here that contributed over the years. We have a farm team, so to speak.”

Added board member Anthony Bylewski: “We have the responsibility to keep this building around. Unfortunately, we also have the responsibility to the people who put in the time and effort and are not going to see this building completed.”

The grass-roots group took ownership of the badly vandalized and neglected building in October 1997, 18 years after the last Amtrak train left the station. Their scrappy and successful efforts include getting the brick and masonry behemoth stabilized and sealed from the weather and intruders, and since 2003, reopening it to the public.

Their efforts have drawn praise from preservation groups as well as civic leaders.

“What those guys have done far exceeds anything such major efforts as the Martin House and Roycroft Inn have done,” said Robert J. Kresse, who played a pivotal role in helping to save and transform the Darwin Martin House Complex, Asbury Delaware Church and Roycroft Inn.

“The Central Terminal was in such bad condition that what they have done just seems impossible. I applaud them.”

Howard Zemsky — who has also played a key role in the Martin House restoration, is vice chairman of the Richardson Center Corp. and principal funder and managing partner of the Larkin at Exchange Building — also praised the group.

“The project has had what strikes me as a tremendous amount of grass-roots energy and support. They deserve a lot of credit for accomplishing a lot with relatively few financial resources,” Zemsky said.

Last Saturday, Lewandowski donned a New York Central conductor’s uniform while 70 vendors at the Central Terminal Train Show exhibited trains, tracks and accessories on the expansive concourse. The two-day show drew 3,000 people.

It was one of many public events held in recent years, from Dyngus Day celebrations to tie-ins with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, that Lewandowski said now generate “close to six-figure operating income” for the all-volunteer group, helping to shift the demographics from 50-and-older to the 25-to-35 set.

Early on, there was a belief that a “silver bullet developer” would materialize, said Lewandowski

The more sober assessment now is that a master plan needs to be developed to present the site’s mixed-use possibilities to potential developers and tenants.

The board envisions a reuse similar to other converted train stations, including those in Cincinnati and Kansas City, that offer museums, restaurants and traveling exhibits. The Central Terminal’s tower and baggage buildings, they say, could be used foroffice, residential and hotel space.

The Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal was built by the same noted railroad architects, Alfred Fellheimer and Steward Wagner, who built the Central Terminal. It was used as a shopping mall for several years before closing.

Thanks to passage of a bond to redevelop the station and a mix of public and private financing, Union Terminal reopened in 1990. Last year 1.3 million people visited its three museums, IMAX theater, research library and restaurant — more than the attendance for the Cleveland Museum of Art or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, according to Sandra Shipley, chief of staff and vice president of exhibits.

The Cincinnati terminal is also a working train station again, with several routes weekly, often during off-hours.

Board member Hank Olejniczak wants to mirror the Cincinnati transformation in Buffalo.

“It’s become a focal point for tourism, and done all the things we dream of,” he said.

Shipley said there were concerns initially about whether people would drive to the light industrial neighborhood where the Cincinnati train station is located, more than a mile from downtown. But that fear never materialized.

“I think we are a synergistic force in the neighborhood,” Shipley said.

Both the perception and reality of safety surrounding the Central Terminal has been a central, underlying issue, given its location in the Broadway-Fillmore area where poverty and crime often go hand in hand.

Lewandowski said improvements to the station must coincide with community development, including investments in infrastructure, for which he believes the Central Terminal can be a catalyst. But he believes the safety issue at the terminal can be satisfactorily addressed by the two-story parking ramp below the terminal plaza with elevators to take people inside. The 400 parking spots provided are more spaces than the Depew and Buffalo Amtrak stations combined.

“Security is the easiest thing to resolve here, it really is,” Lewandowski said.

There is also the possibility of the Central Terminal’s becoming a railroad station again.

New York state, as one of several states vying for $8 billion in stimulus funds for high-speed rail that President Obama has made a top priority, could find out as early as this month if it is selected.

That prospect has given hope to supporters of the Central Terminal, where trains still travel within the building’s footprint. They think the site, 2• miles from downtown, would make an ideal train station, just as planners imagined when it had its ill-fated opening in 1929, four months before the stock market crash that ushered in the Great Depression.

“We are on a major railroad corridor, in which every regional Amtrak train passes by the terminal, whether west to Chicago or north to Niagara Falls and Toronto,” Lewandowski said.

State transportation officials in July ruled out using the site as a station, only to reverse course and say it was premature to reach any conclusion.

“The purpose of bringing high-speed rail to upstate New York is to strengthen and re-energize our region, and if it’s possible, the Central Terminal should be part of this effort,” Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport, said at the time. She heads the Upstate New York Caucus trying to bring high-speed rail to Western and Central New York.

Slaughter also told The News that she wants to find other ways to help the Central Terminal’s redevelopment.

“We have to do something for that terminal. It is a jewel, and I am very excited about seeing what we can do. I think there will be some help down the road …,” she said.

Central Terminal volunteers are well aware redeveloping the site is an uphill task, but they say their commitment is reinforced regularly by tourists who drive up to the building.

“On any given day, we’ll have the doors open and people come in from Switzerland, Germany, California,” Lewandowski said.

By Mark Sommer
News Staff Reporter

The Western New York Minority Media Professionals are currently rehabbing the old Sattler Theatre on Broadway. More information on their group and projects can be found at http://thebroadwaytheatre.net/

As printed in the Buffalo News…

March 23, 1958—Aug. 27, 2009

WHEATFIELD —Michael J. Miller of Wheatfield, executive director of Preservation Buffalo Niagara and a longtime advocate of historic preservation, died Thursday in his home after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was 51.

Born in Buffalo, Mr. Miller was a 1976 graduate of Kenmore West High School and was employed by M&T Bank for more than 17 years.

Mr. Miller served as president and was co-founder of Broadway-Fillmore Alive.

“I owe Mike so much,” Christopher Byrd, another founder of Broadway-Fillmore Alive, wrote on the organization’s Web site. “He was a confidant and friend. He loved the neighborhood. He always pointed me in the right direction with his advice.”

Mr. Miller was an active volunteer and leader for the Central Terminal Restoration Corp. and was recently named its president.

He also recently joined Preservation Buffalo Niagara as its executive director, fulfilling a lifelong passion to work full-time in historic preservation.

“He brought significant professional skills, a wonderful spirit and enthusiasm to the organization as well as an extensive network of friends,” Catherine Schweitzer, chairwoman of the organization’s board, said in a statement. “Through his dedicated service to the Central Terminal and Broadway-Fillmore area, Michael earned the trust and respect of the preservation community.”

An avid car enthusiast, Mr. Miller also enjoyed studying architecture and photography.

Survivors include his mother, Rita, and two sisters, Karen Smith and Katie Travis.

A memorial service will be held at 7 p. m. Tuesday in the Central Terminal, 495 Paderewski Drive.

March 22, 1950—Aug. 8, 2009

Bookshelves surrounded Russell Pawlak this week in his Delaware Avenue apartment, reflecting his eclectic interests in literature, history, poetry, art and architecture. A photograph of Albert Camus peeked out, stacks of CDs overflowed on a table, and in the next room a framed print announced an exhibition on surrealism.

Mr. Pawlak’s life was enriched by knowledge, both the kind acquired through books and from a life lived deeply. That life came to an end Saturday from complications from cancer first diagnosed last fall. He was 59.

“The first thing I think about Russell is he’s the smartest guy I know,” said David Franczyk, a longtime friend and Common Council president. “He was a perfect recipient of knowledge for its own sake. But he wasn’t just a thinker, he was a doer.”

Mr. Pawlak, an avid preservationist who was married three times and had two children, played an instrumental role in resuscitating the Central Terminal train station. He also in recent years served on the Buffalo Preservation Board and the Broadway Market’s board of directors.

“My father had this larger-than-life personality, just a vivacious man whose personality made him seem so much bigger than his 5 feet, 4z inche 1/3 ,” said his daughter, Hadley Horrigan.

Mr. Pawlak worked 28 years as a field service supervisor at the New York State Insurance Fund.

“So many people look to their job to define their identity. He enjoyed his work and was anxious to go back to work, but [his identity] was as a volunteer in this community,” Mrs. Horrigan said.

Added Mr. Franczyk: “He was a bohemian in a sense, but one who had a job.”

Mr. Pawlak was born on Buffalo’s East Side in the St. John Kanty neighborhood, graduating from Bishop Ryan High School, where he played football and ran track. He played football as a running back at Culver- Stockton College in Canton, Mo., graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history.

Mr. Pawlak worked during the 1970s as executive director of the Broadway Fillmore Area Council and in community development at City Hall.

His job with the New York State Insurance Fund took him to New York City for about 10 years beginning in the mid-1980s.

Mrs. Horrigan said her father took great care to “make sure that I knew there was a big, broad world out there” when she visited, immersing her in the arts and politics.

“It was a balance of wanting me to know where we came from, but that there was this bigger place out there, too,” she said.

After returning to Buffalo, Mr. Pawlak, who grew up in the shadow of the Central Terminal and whose grandfather worked for New York Central railroad, set his sights on reviving the dilapidated and badly vandalized station.

Mr. Pawlak served as president for eight years of the Central Terminal Restoration Corp., before stepping down last year. The nonprofit organization raised more than $1 million from mostly government funds to seal and stabilize the East Side landmark, enabling several organizations, including Albright-Knox Art Gallery and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, to hold events there. Mr. Pawlak also helped popularize what’s become an annual Dyngus Day celebration at the art deco landmark.

“He saved the terminal,” said Franczyk, also active in restoring the building. “When I think of the Central Terminal, I think Russ Pawlak, no doubt about it. For 10 years, he called the shots.”

Mrs. Horrigan said the sheer force of her father’s personality had a lot to do with it.

“More than anything, I believe people became passionate about [saving the Central Terminal] because his passion was so infectious,” Mrs. Horrigan said.

Tom Pleban, who grew up four blocks from Mr. Pawlak, said he appreciated his cousin’s continuing “deep love for the neighborhood. He was always very proud and very willing to do whatever it took to try to regenerate what the East Side could be.”

Mr. Pawlak was married in June to Bernadette Majewski, whom he met at an event at the terminal.

Franczyk said his dear friend will be sorely missed.

“He did more in a short life than most people have done in twice the life span. It’s going to be a loss for the human race, not only Buffalo, because he had the purest joie de vivre of anyone I knew.”

In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by a son, Dylan.

The family will receive friends from 1 to 8 p. m. Wednesday in the Central Terminal, 495 Paderewski Drive.

—Mark Sommer

BUFFALO, NY (WBFO) – Governor David Paterson came to Buffalo Wednesday to sign the historic tax credits bill into law. Paterson appeared at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. This law will allow tax credits for redevelopment projects of historic buildings.

Last week Mayor Brown urged the Governor to sign the bill saying it could save historic buildings like the Statler Towers and Central Terminal. Governor Paterson says he signed this legislation will encourage redevelopment of historic properties and create jobs.

Audio of the press conference is available at WBFO.

Buffalo’s Central Terminal cannot be ruled out as a train hub if New York snares stimulus funds to build high-speed rail, a state transportation official said today in what terminal restoration advocates hailed as a welcome about-face.

One week earlier, Rep. Louise M. Slaughter said state transportation officials had concluded that the long-vacant East Side landmark would be ill-suited for high-speed rail.

On Tuesday, the Common Council passed a resolution reaffirming the city’s support to make the Central Terminal a regional rail stop. Lawmakers criticized project planners for striking a “nasty blow” to a distressed neighborhood. They accused state officials of basing their finding on faulty information.

Skip Carrier, the state DOT’s communications director, made it clear today that the Central Terminal has not been ruled out as a possible site.

Read the full story

Claiming state transportation officials have struck a “nasty blow” to Buffalo’s distressed East Side, the Common Council wants decision-makers to reconsider the Central Terminal as a hub for a proposed high-speed rail line.

The Council today unanimously reaffirmed its support of a plan to use the long-vacant train station as a regional hub if New York receives stimulus funds to build high-speed rail.

Last week, Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, who heads the Upstate New York Caucus, said the Central Terminal is ill-suited to become a rail hub again. The group has made bringing high-speed rail to Western and Central New York a top priority.

Council President David A. Franczyk said the station was ruled out based on flawed information supplied by the state Department of Transportation. Franczyk said the officials referred to problems that would occur as a result of freight tracks located at the northwest corner of the terminal. There are no tracks in that spot, Franczyk insisted.

Read the full article

“At first I had hoped [it could be], but I don’t think it’s situated in the right place,” said Slaughter, DFairport. “[State] transit officials tell me it would not be suitable, which is too bad. I can tell you they absolutely love it; it’s the last of its kind left in the United States.”

Skip Carrier, a state Department of Transportation spokesman, later explained that the presence of several freight tracks at the northwestern section of the Central Terminal rail yard made the return of passenger service there unlikely.

“It is a very, very difficult situation, given the congestion with freight rail traffic,” Carrier said.

However, Slaughter said she “loves the building” and held out hope for the iconic Art Deco building’s future on Buffalo’s East Side.

“We have to do something for that terminal,” she said. “It is a jewel, and I am very excited about seeing what we can do. I think there will be some help down the road, but not in the high-speed rail bill.”

The Central Terminal Restoration Corporation’s response, as stated in the article, is as follows:

“Things haven’t been finalized. Until they are, we remain optimistic that the Central Terminal will play an important role with high-speed rail in Western New York. We are still proceeding to prepare the terminal for future development”

Mark Lewandowski
Vice President, Central Terminal Restoration Corporation
July 14, 2009

The full article is available on the Buffalo News website, which now allows comments from users. Supporters of our efforts are encouraged to share their opinion.

A big THANK YOU to the following team of people who were involved in making this event happen:

Jeff Ingersoll
Ben Hiltz
Ed Werick
Bill Fitzpatrick
Tony Lewandowski
Will Wild
MJ Lewandowski
Scott Moore
Mike Ternullo
Tracy Doldan
Chris Podosek
Mark Lewandowski
and to all others that prepared the building for the Clock’s return.

A special thanks goes out to Jeff Ingersoll who’s guidance, and loan of all his scaffolds, cranes, trailer and equipment made this move safe and possible.

Job well done.

Check out the photos on our Flickr Page