In April, New York State officials gave Buffalo’s former New York Central, PennCentral, and later Amtrak station, a $5 million grant to help revitalize the 89-year-old, 17-story railroad complex. The grant was part of a much-lauded Buffalo Billion investment in New York’s second city, earlier this decade. A complete restoration of the building on the city’s impoverished East Side is estimated to cost close to $100 million.
Plans include designating a part of the building to become a museum to expand and preserve its legacy while continuing restoration work. Mark Lewandowski, Director for Central Terminal Restoration Corp., says most of the money will likely be spent on new glass and lights for the main concourse with a portion of the funds set aside to breathe life into the station’s former Gateway Restaurant.
Most of the old glass in the concourse was lost to neglect and vandalism. In the arch windows at each end of the concourse, this includes several four-foot square sections of 4-inch thick glass used as walkways between the windows. Many of the light fixtures have been painstakingly recreated by several metal workers on site, but many more lights still need to be made. The goal is to return the concourse to its 1929 appearance while using modern technology.
To further that goal, restoration corporation volunteers have swept, cleaned, and raised money since 1997 to repair the concourse’s Gustavino-tiled walls and layered floors. The corporation uses the concourse as a main gathering space for weddings, festivals, train shows, and has used it in the past for concerts and beer tastings — most of which are fundraisers to support restoration.
Much of the rest of the building is in poor shape, and has been largely untouched — except for cleaning and weather proofing — since Conrail last had offices there in the 1970s and 1980s. And although the old terminal lost out to a new downtown Buffalo station in 2017, the question remains: Will trains ever stop here again? Lewandowski says the idea remains strong with terminal supporters.
“Amtrak 48 and 49, the Lake Shore Limiteds bypass downtown on it’s only routing, so it would still need to stop here to be useful to serving the downtown area,” he said. Plans are to still include rail travel as a key aspect in its future. “It only makes sense.”
Long-term, optimism couples with renewed hope that the building will be restored and may even make money in the future.
Gustavino tiles are virtually indestructible and remain beautiful after more than a century, eg. GCT’s Oyster Bar.
Why not reconnect the LS Limited to the station? NY in combination with the city ought to pay for the maintenance. I believe it could set up a new development cycle for the area.
I can imagine several trains stopping here as well as an Exchange Street stop. I understand the area around the terminal is growing. And the logic of the Lakeshore stopping there is hard to argue with.