The Louis Surdam House at 62 Middlesex Road traded hands on Friday for $1.45 million. It is the highest priced home sale in the city. Ever. According to County Clerk records, the bashful buyer is 62 Middlesex LLC. The Koessler family sold the amazing residence.
Duane Lyman was the architect for the 6,300 sq.ft. home. Lyman was called the "dean of Western New York Architecture" when he died in 1966. He designed such notable buildings as the Saturn Club, 800 West Ferry, Delaware Court Building, Vars Building, Convention Tower, and the Eckhard's Building at Broadway and Fillmore. According to the Buffalo Architecture and History site, Lyman designed over 100 school buildings, churches and many large city and suburban houses.
62 Middlesex surpassed a few recent sales to claim the city's high-priced honor. The home at 37 Middlesex sold in 2008 for $1.4 million and the Canadian Consulate purchased 196 Soldiers Place for $1.39 million last June. A condominium at the Avant sold for $1.365 million in March.
The $1.45 million record sale may be short-lived however. Three city properties have higher asking prices: 50 Tudor Place at $1.65 million, 245 Nottingham at $1.8 million and Richard Snowden's 175 Nottingham at $2.195 million.
Seven figure home sales remain rare in Erie County but that hasn't stopped sellers from asking. There are 26 properties listed on MLS priced over $1 million, six of which are in the city.
The record sales price in Erie County was a two-property, $6.3 million purchase on Boston State Road in Hamburg in 2008. Those properties were returned to the seller in a foreclosure proceeding less than a year later. An Old Lake Shore Road mansion in Hamburg sold for $1.791 million in December 2008.
Imagine the price they could have gotten if it did not snow on this plot in July