Buffalo Central Terminal

From my neighborhood friend Pam Arbogast:

I never really thought about it before.

Today, I was walking my dog and happened to notice the color. The sky was shades of gray with white blue swirls. There were sunbeams peeking out from the clouds and the birds were flying overhead. Even with the chill in the air, I felt warm. All around me there was color and life. I never really thought of it before.

This is the property surrounding the Central Terminal. I live in her shadow.

Since I moved here 15 years ago, I’ve watched the evolution! When I first moved in, there were mounds of dirt and garbage. The tire piles were huge. You couldn’t walk around the parking lot, there was too much trash, crumbled pavement and broken glass; walking around was considered unsafe. There were many nights of fire, with flaming invoices from years long past, billowing out the windows. The sound of vandals screaming from the towers and breaking glass was nothing new.

Then something happened. Someone showed they cared. Crews of volunteers started cleaning up the property. Then the roof got fixed. The windows were patched. The towers were magically lit. The clocks restored. New pavement. New trees. Old trees carved into new treasures! Daffodils! I even think I saw a cherry tree in full blossom today!

Every day, one of my dogs and I take our walk. My puppy is in training, so he gets unleashed; I only hope that he’ll remember to pay attention to me when I call. He’s so busy chasing bunnies and birds and smelling all the good smells of spring that he forgets himself! My other dog has short legs and tries her best to keep up, but she always stops to smell the flowers.

The three of us treasure this building. We are thankful for all the love and hard work that has made this such a wonderful place to walk and enjoy.

I’m noticing new faces. I’m noticing other people walking their dogs. I’m noticing other people walking the concourse. Just yesterday, I saw a little boy clutching his grandfather’s hand as they enjoyed the scenery. Grand dad was pointing to something high in the tower; it was probably the family of hawks that are living in there. On Fridays, if I’m lucky, I’ll even get to watch Cousin Kelly work on his tree carvings! (more…)

““Central Terminal: Saving a Buffalo Landmark,” has been selected for screening at the 5th Annual Trenton Film Festival May 2 – 4, 2008. The documentary, produced by the Canisius College Video Institute, will be screened on Saturday, May 3 at 4 pm at the Broad Street Bank, and will include a panel discussion moderated by Preservation New Jersey.

You can read the whole story here. Congratulations to Kirsten Jahn, Scott Richardson and Dr. Barbara Irwin!

Note: the documentary will air on WNED again on Wednesday April 30 at 10:30 PM and on Sunday May 4 at 4:30 AM and 4:30 PM.

We got this email on our Bronze Buffalo and I wanted to share. Brian did some great research for us and despite the outcome, we appreciate it.

“Well, I beat the bushes around UB and, yes a few people remember seeing the molds. However, perceptions of time passed are the same for most of us and “seems like yesterday” turns out to be a decade or more. After talking with a few directors of various departments and them having their people look, the consensus is that the contractor who cast the UB bison, did indeed pick up the molds from UB. After the new bison was put in place, the contractor did not return them. Nobody recalls enough about the contractor except when someone eventually did try to track them down, they were out of business. Paper work is gone.

I was a bit hopefull after one of the conversations about 2 weeks ago, but today ended the quest on a sour note. Que sera sera, Sara !

Regards,

Brian P. Rawson”

I’ve been keeping an eye on www.buffalotube.com to see how many people have been viewing our videos. As of this morning, the “Route 66″ is the number one most viewed video, with 872 hits. Number two is Johnny Rzeznik’s 2004 visit with 669 hits, number three is “Best Friends” with 571 hits, number 4 is “The Natural” with 497 hits and number 8 is the CTRC slideshow with 432 hits.

From the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation

Photo by Arthur Kogutowski