While browsing the Preservation Ready site on Facebook this morning, I came across a post by East Side activist Marty Biniasz who uploaded an incredibly depressing newspaper clipping. The clipping was from a Buffalo Evening News ad for the Larkin Admin Building in 1947. The ad broadcasts the sale of “The Only Building Of Its Kind in the World” – The now demolished Larkin Administration Building.
My aunt recently visited Buffalo and told me that she once stepped inside this spectacular building. She told me that words and photos could never do the interior justice. She said that it was one of the most remarkable interiors that she ever saw, and the experience is still vivid in her mind. Just talking to her about the building made my heart break for Buffalo.
Apparently the building was marketed nationally, with no takers. According to Jerome Puma, in the Pres-Ready comment section, “By 1949, the assessment value had dropped to $128,960, and the City received two offers of $26,000, but the prospective buyers backed out. The City eventually sold it for $5000.”
We all know what happened after that.