Fire Takes East Side Landmark: Wollenburg Grain Elevator, 1912-2006
The East Side has lost another landmark—this time a Koons Avenue grain elevator which was consumed by flames last night.
According to FixBuffalo, This building was nominated and placed on the National Register of Historic Places, two years ago. It is owned by the city of Buffalo, is wide open in various locations and home to a number of "urban campers" who manage to stay for various lengths of time. It is just over the tracks and less than 500 feet away from the recently renovated Emerson School High School - now Harvey Austin School.
According to Buffalo as an Architectural Museum,
The Wollenberg Grain and Seed Elevator is located on open land between Goodyear Avenue on the west and Koons Avenue on the east, south of Sycamore Street and north of Broadway on Buffalo's East Side. Unlike most of Buffalo's many grain elevators, the Wollenberg was built far from the city's busy waterfront at an in-town location where it was designed to receive and dispense gain by rail and by truck.The elevator stands in a residential neighborhood. To the south of the site are many late-nineteenth-and-early-twentieth-century workers' houses; to the north is a twentieth-century public school. The elevator stands nearby a railroad line that crosses the northern edge of the property and from which a short siding curves its way to the northern flank of the structure. Truck access was from Koons Avenue, with a drive entering at the southeast corner of the property.
This old landmark, with no plausible future in sight, is another piece of history that has been vanquished from the ever-expanding East Side “Urban Prairie.”
The grain Mill had sat vacant for years posing a danger to neighborhood children and ripe spot for squatting. Demolishing the structure would have been the best course of action for the city to take if it had been on their radar screen.
Now, demolition is inevitable.
Above Photo credit: Mike Gilhooly
This is a sad loss for Buffalo and the East Side community.
Unfortunately, I think we all knew that this was an inevitable end to this historic structure. Another tragic loss of a city owned property, I wonder if anyone at City Hall even noticed.
David from fixBuffalo has got some more pics and old ones too over here. We saw this first time during his tour de neglect this summer.
So much for a community that can afford $68,000 for the demolition and $0 to keep the place safe. I thoughwe were making progress.
Not to mention the money that we're begging Bass Pro to take from us.
this place was a mess in a baaaaad area...burn baby burn!!!!!!
Is there a set of criteria in place that I am unaware of, or is everything erected during the last 20th century inherently saveable???
The question is not $0 to maintain or $68,000 to demolish, its who has, and is willing to fork over the tens of MILLIONS to retrofit every relic of our industrial past.
Every 'mansion' we treasure on Deleware avenue sits on the sight of another great house that was torn down to make way for it. At what point do we justify demolishing anything in this city. I am sure I could come around to any reasoned argument to save this structure, but the same preservation arguments were used- in what is a pen-ultimate irony, in attempting to save the old Key Bank cum Willis & Lowe building that was raised to build the new and arguably improved (?) co-op on Elmwood Avenue. That was exactly the big box monstrocity preservation guidelines were meant to prevent, and there were those donning the mantel of preservationists to prevent its demolition.
Where does this begin, and more importantly, where does it end?
I'm very sorry. I've been the Councilman serving Broadway Fillmore for like forever. This is the first I've heard of this place. My staff is headed over there right now to investigate.
...who cares???? this bldg had the importance of a Louies hotdog at 4am
Lingner,
I think that's where my office's report is heading.
cool, good to hear...WTF, do are peope really this fanatical about old ass structures? its insane
The Wollenberg was Buffalo's last link to the invention that made us the world's largest grain port for years. Before slipform concrete construction made modern grain silos possible, the Buffalo waterfront was studded with wooden grain elevators like the Wollenberg, only more massive. They made possible quite a few mansions on Delaware Avenue. Apart from the sheet metal siding, the Wollenberg probably was not much different from Joseph Dart's original structure from 1842.
Yes, we should care that we lost our last wooden grain elevator, just like we would care if we lost the last Pierce-Arrow Motorette.
I'm with A little respect, please, with half of Buffalo already dedicated to parking lots, there is no reason to gloat about more of our history being burned to the ground. Do you know that Gropius and Le Corbusier, founders of the Bauhaus movement, came to Buffalo to study our grain mills? Those structures lay the groundwork for generations to come. Our connection with our history is that important. "This building was nominated and placed on the National Register of Historic Places, two years ago" - does that not mean anything? Don't answer that.
after looking at sean and mathews slide show of the sattler theater on the fix buffalo site, It pains me to see such a wonder in such shape. It should be on a must do list for renovation and restoration.
the interior skylight is as pheonmenal as the exterior facade.
what is the story on it?
MJS - Has BRO done a piece on the old Sattler / Broadway Theater?
I looked at the pictures on FixBuffalo and was amazed at how much this place was trashed. The Sattler had the misfortune of being built in the deep East Side. Had it been built near Delaware or Main Street, more people would have seen this once magestic theater and it could have been saved. It now sits dusty and decayed, like a once beautiful woman, neglected and alone, waiting for her prince to come.
Agree with queenseyes and others...
About the Sattler, an incredible gem with an amazing terra cotta facade. Think opera house, theatre collective or yes, even lofts. I'm following the Housing Court case and trying to contact owner. Interested, let me know?
Here's a post with links to DK's work here in Buffalo that a few have already mentioned - ...more right here.
The DK PhotoGroup out of Toronto is doing some amazing work here in Buffalo. If you're a local photog that documents various aspects of the East side, let me know...love to post and link. Flickr, just connect.
Just heard from Sean at DK. The Wollenberg was in the line-up for a shoot.
i mean have you guys been to koons ave? everyone is better off without this rotting squatter's paradise.
national register of historic places? hell of a way to kick architectural tours of buffalo; let's swing by this big piece of crap then buy some crack rocks before we hit up the darwin martin house.
Anyone get the feeling that DK is making a parody of Buffalo? Look at the photos on their website, it is all about decay and death. I thought this site was about rebuilding Buffalo for the future. It sounds like we are dwelling on inane structures of the past.
Buffalo has the world's largest collection of grain elevators. People who have way fewer and way smaller grain elevators than Buffalo treasure them enough to have grain elevator museums and appreciation societies. See:
Country Grain Elevator Historical Society
Alberta Grain Elevator Society
Grenola Elevator Museum
Saskatchewan even built a REPLICA grain elevator:
Saskatchewan Grain Elevator.
Now will you get a clue about the importance of what we have here and what we just lost and why it was on the National Register? All these towns are honoring a BUFFALO invention.
Newelll...no
this sh*thole was on the National Register? Oh yeah, so is the Park Lane apts...that list means about as much as to reality as Hillary Clinton's bloviating
Dear Burn.
The Park Lane is most certainly NOT on the National Register. It was awarded City of Buffalo landmark status. They are not the same thing. There is more prestige to NR listing and less protection. You can list a property today, assuming it qualifies, and demolish it tomorrow.
There was a fire? Damn I wish I had brought the marshmallows!
Tyler: I appreciate your concern, but I can assure you we have nothing but respect for Buffalo, its rich history, its current troubles, and all the cities/buildings we document. We do not vandalize them ... we try not to leave any evidence that we were ever there. We simply document the decayed, forgotten and abandoned. In the, less than, a year that the group's been together we've exhibited works from Toronto, Hamilton, Rochester, Detroit, Buffalo and many smaller cities in Ontario.
At the same time as it surely is a great loss for our city, the fact of the matter is that all of Buffalo's remaining grain elevators and various other historical buildings have fallen to grave disrepair and entertaining the notion that they will one day be refurbished is, quite frankly, laughable. The city has such amazing potential in things like the water front, and the interest in developing the waterfront is, of course, extremely high, but politicians have been arguing over it for how many years now? And the Peace Bridge has been an issue for longer than I can remember. Although it would be nice to have all of Buffalo's landmarks fixed and looked after, it's just not realistic with the local government and the time and money it would require.
So although it was a great loss for Buffalo, perhaps it is time to let go of some of the relics of Buffalo's industrial past. The only alternative seems to be a complete change of local government, and judging from recent elections, I don't see that happening any time soon, either.
At the same time as it surely is a great loss for our city, the fact of the matter is that all of Buffalo's remaining grain elevators and various other historical buildings have fallen to grave disrepair and entertaining the notion that they will one day be refurbished is, quite frankly, laughable. The city has such amazing potential in things like the water front, and the interest in developing the waterfront is, of course, extremely high, but politicians have been arguing over it for how many years now? And the Peace Bridge has been an issue for longer than I can remember. Although it would be nice to have all of Buffalo's landmarks fixed and looked after, it's just not realistic with the local government and the time and money it would require.
So although it was a great loss for Buffalo, perhaps it is time to let go of some of the relics of Buffalo's industrial past. The only alternative seems to be a complete change of local government, and judging from recent elections, I don't see that happening any time soon, either.