At Risk: Erie Canal-era Freight Depot

Are you kidding me? Two weeks after the National spotlight is on us and the Powers that Be in City Hall still allow this crap to take place? Particularly when there IS a buyer looking to work with the building?

Mayor Brown-get with it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why keep a real canal era Building when you can have a pretend one later on.

What does the purchaser want to do with this site after the proposed demolition? Is there a comprehensive plan for redevelopment or do they just want ot demo for the sake of having another "shovel ready" site on the waterfront? I don't normally agree with Steel but it is ridiculous that this is the the type of structure that is being recreated a short distance down the river. If they were to demo it, could they use the material in the redevelopment of the inner harbor? It would take some creativity but it would be cool to use the old guts (stone, wood, and steel) to build the new structures.

is this site listed at all under national register? isn't it one of the oldest timber framed buildings in the city?

I just kayaked by this a few weeks ago and it's collapsing in on itself. A whole wall and part of the ceiling on the water side is blown completely out. It definitely needs to be saved but it's going to take a lot of fast work to do it. I'm not sure how much of it will last another winter.

Is Preservation Buffalo Niagara rallying the troops or will we not hear from them on this one?

ok what I see is the foundation is still there but the exterior facade certainly is not! Nor is the roof?

Is the framing still canal era?

There might be a real compromise here in researching what the real DEPOT looked like and allowing the demolition of the building but keeping the foundation and building a more authentic mixed use building on top.

If Buffalo is going to reweave its cultural and architectural history then it needs to make compromises...but not compromises to shovel ready sites...compromises in restoration and reconstruction and re-use...where the exterior is authentic and historical but can serve current and future uses

IMO, not worth saving. I too kayaked by the building this summer. It is in very bad shape. I am defiantly for preservation but this one should go. Concentrate your efforts on more important structures.

I agree with the sentiments that unfortunately, this one is probably too far gone. I think now, it is important to focus efforts on the future- things like examining whether any part of the structure be rescued and reused into new construction, and making sure the design plan is thoughtful and appropriate.

Given that the construction is fairly elementary, repair/reconstruction doesn't seem so high a hurdle. Despite the recent collapse of some parts of the structure, the work necessary to salvage the structure isn't of the same order of difficulty and expense as, say, recreating a Statler or Guarantee or Shea's. It's not like recreating bricks for the Darwin Martin house. It's just wood--not decorative, but functional. It was an industrial building in its day, built for utility, not glamor. Therefore, reproducing the fallen parts seems pretty straightforward to me. Much of the wood needed could probably be salvaged from local barns ready for demo.

Given that there is a group interested in redeveloping it, I wonder why the sellers are so averse to negotiation toward that end. Has the preservation group previously low balled a potential purchase, souring the sellers on dealing with them? Are they credible buyers? Even though the sellers say they're not entertaining other offers, what harm might there be in submitting such an offer anyway, conditioned on the contingency that the current offer does not close?

At the turn of the 20th century this old freight house was an Erie RR "Flour Ware House." To me, that makes it even more historically relevant to Buffalo. At this time the "Erie Elevator, a 750,000 bushel grain elevator, was located just to the south of the ware house and was served by two interior tracks with a three track yard on the east side of it. The ware house building was served by one interior track and two more outside. Later it was the Erie RR "Exchange - Lake & Transfer Warehouse" showing its transition to a general purpose freight handling role. By the middle of the century Sanborn fire insurance maps showed most of it as being vacant and owned by Buffalo Merchandise Warehouses, Inc. (as Ware House No. 6) and the far north end as being occupied by Fred G. Harding Bakery Feed Meal.

The brick wall section protruding from the river side was a machinery room that I believe was adjacent to a stationary steam engine for powering loading and unloading equipment.

This is a precious piece of Buffalo history, but it is so far gone that I fear it is unlikely that there is the political will and resources to save it at this critical juncture in its history.

I am concerned that the existing structure is too far gone, but this location is close to the Ohio Basin Entry Slip, which was (and is) the farthest western point ever reached by the Erie Canal system. I would think that would add some value to it (the location).
The boiler from this building is sitting in the river, I'm sure my fellow kayakers know it well. It must have some salvage value. Too bad this can't be combined with the sediment job. There's a lot of scrap in the river.