Buffalo! Can We Save the Central Terminal?

If you are anywhere on the East side of Buffalo you are going to see it. The Central Terminal, a staple of Buffalo and the beautiful architecture here, was raved about in the October 2011 National Preservation Conference in Buffalo. But, it is need of repair which to do the minimal work will cost $800,000 to do all the necessary roof work just in the main concorse and that's not all.

It's going to cost $3,000,000 to do all the needed roof and masonry repairs. $50 million to $100 million to renovate the whole thing and as you can imagine, there are not many people raising their hands quickly to volunteer to fork over that amount of money.

Opened just months before the Great Depression began, it handled most of Buffalo’s passenger train service at a time when trains were the way to travel long distances. Virtually every soldier from WNY in World War II took a train leaving from the Terminal to basic training, or on leave. It’s still a beautiful building. But is it a building we can afford to save?

"Contractor Chris Ziolkowski said water has rolled into the corners of the roof, between the roofing and the concrete deck, disrupting the unheated concourse’s tiles through cycles of freezing and thawing. Stopping the water’s infiltration and preventing further damage to the tiles, he said, needs to be the first priority", according to the Buffalo News.

Now, I've only been in there twice and both was for Halloween parties (which, might I say is arguably the best Halloween party in Buffalo) but, it truly is a staple of Buffalo and is beautiful inside.

Facebook

But, here's where we come in Buffalo. Volunteers have been making strides in raising the money by themselves and now, there is an Adopt-A-Tile Program in place. You can be apart of it all. This is what happens here. You purchase a tile for as low as $75 and than you will see the name or name of your company added to a special Adoption Board that will be mounted in the Concourse area for all to see and your adoption fee is 98% tax deductible! Without our help there's a good chance it's going to be demolished.