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How to Take a Walk—in Buffalo, and Beyond: 3 Abandoned Buildings

We continue the series on walking Buffalo, from the intrepid couple who walked every day—no matter the weather—in the first 30 months of Covid. They think (without being systematic) they walked every street in Buffalo, and many in other cities and towns, taking some 20,000 photos, some of which are shared in this series. While not itineraries, we hope to encourage others to “walk the walk,” to see, observe and appreciate Buffalo—and beyond. William Graebner and Dianne Bennett are also 5 Cent Cine’s film critics, here.

Today’s Photo-Essay: Abandoned Buildings: Sacred Heart Church, the King Sewing Machine Factory, Central Terminal 

We don’t make it a point to go into abandoned buildings. Most of our walking is of the on-the-sidewalk (or maybe down-the-alley) variety. We poked our heads inside one of the wide-open apartments of the derelict Perry Projects, but didn’t go in. And just the other day, we turned down a mostly roofless abandoned building on E. Balcolm Street, just steps from Main Street—not a significant structure, not worth whatever risk there might be.

Nor do we recommend going into abandoned buildings.

These are not itineraries; this photo-essay simply describes walks we took. We are not recommending these walks to anyone, and we disclaim any responsibility of any kind for anyone who takes a walk based on this article.

Sacred Heart Church

That said, we have found our way inside a few abandoned, and special, places. Our first example—the Sacred Heart Church at 198 Emslie on the East Side–may be familiar to Buffalo Rising readers; it was profiled on the website by Phillip Szal in January 2021. As Szal notes, the church was built in 1912 and abandoned in 2008. Like many of Buffalo’s more than 300 churches, it was the victim of suburbanization, inner-city population decline, and an increasingly secular society. 

We came upon it just days after Szal’s article was published, and not having read the piece. A basement door was open on the north side, and Dianne posed as if she were exiting, but we don’t do basements. Around the back, a doorless opening beckoned, and we couldn’t resist. 

Like many abandoned buildings, Sacred Heart Church inevitably invokes nostalgia for what was, a sense of tragic loss. But the space remains spectacular in its own way, combining a once-glorious past with a messy, trashed, looted, graffitied present. 

A magnificent, wooden, buttress-like Romanesque ceiling, intact

Dianne, examining the remnants of the main altar

The apse

A side altar – evidence that the church has become a dumping ground

Once a place of confession

The King Sewing Machine Factory

Douglas Jemal has done some great things for Buffalo, including purchasing and renovating abandoned buildings and renovating them. Unfortunately (for us, anyway), his purchase of the historic King Sewing Machine Factory on Crowley Avenue in Riverside has not only produced significant (if inevitable) demolitions on the site, but has made what remains of the complex inaccessible. We used to crawl in through a hole in the fence on Crowley or enter through a sloping “road” off the Lackawanna Belt Line, just to the east. No more. 

The King Factory opened in circa 1910, making low-cost sewing machines for consumers. When factory-made clothes dried up that market, the company (under a different name) made radios for sale through Sears, Roebuck, employing over 1500 people in 1940, then turned to the production of Sylvania television sets. The plant remained viable into the 1970s, but it has been vacant for at least 15 years. 

Despite the demolitions, it appears that the administration tower of the complex, with the KSMCO initials, will be spared. 

There’s a functional stairway in the tower, and the more intrepid of us (Dianne and a photographer/friend) went up to have a look.

We hope the main production building will be saved, too, though it’s difficult to imagine how the roof glass could be repaired at a reasonable cost, or whether it would suit a new tenant. On previous visits, we’ve shared the space with young folks from the neighborhood and, most recently, with a couple of guys with hardhats (they didn’t seem to mind our presence).

It may be possible to make “art” out of that back-lit broken-class roof.

The rubble of abandonment. Something along these lines would be compelling as an installation in the new atrium of the AKG—ala the Chinese visual artist Ai Wei Wei.

Looking out onto Crowley Avenue

Demolitions underway, August 2021. The photo was taken through a fence that now surrounds the property. The tower is back right.

An adjacent building, now demolished, with some old-school graffiti.

Slideshow

The Central Terminal

We’re headed now to the Central Terminal, opened in 1929, just about the time when trucks, buses, automobiles and the Great Depression began to cut into the rail business, and active for (only) 50 years. 

But it’s not the iconic tower that’s we’re interested in exploring; it’s not open to the public except on special occasions, and it’s not “abandoned.” Our goal is to have a look inside two structures: a long building that housed what was the Railway Express Agency, where trains would pull in and load and unload goods; and a complex that includes the Train Concourse (until 1982 connected by a second-story walkway over the Belt Line tracks), stairways, and ground-floor platforms, where passengers would board the trains. 

Our routine (we’ve been there several times) begins at Thomas Street (off William Street, to the east of Fillmore Avenue), where we park the car in the first block. Down to William, west under the bridge, then a (cautious) crossing to the north side of the street, where there’s a short, narrow, usually muddy, debris-filled path leading to our first objective: the old Railway Express Agency. This building is owned by the City of Buffalo, which apparently has plans to demolish it. We hoist ourselves up onto one of the platforms—and there we are! Ahead, a couple hundred yards of loading platforms and side rooms, complete with shards of glass and metal, holes to fall into (or break a leg in), lots of graffiti, an old boiler. Gorgeous in its decadence. Once a thriving commercial hub, now an alternative play space for the young and restless. 

Just ahead, the platforms where passengers boarded the trains. Superb modernism.

Emerging from the loading docks building, the terminal tower, and the Mail and Baggage building, ahead. The nearby tracks are still in frequent use.

Our second objective is the second-floor Train Concourse. The ground floor area is littered with huge industrial parts. The stairways leading to the concourse can be intimidating.

A friend, posing with her dog, her hat marking the day of this 2021 visit.

On a recent expedition with our grandson, we were welcomed by two deer (they have ticks).

Here’s what the concourse looked like about a year ago.

A once-elegant entrance to a descending stairway, full of debris but artfully tiled in yellow and black.

In this view, the concourse ends precipitously where, until 30 years ago, a bridge connected it to the tower. The bridge was removed because some freight cars were too tall to pass under it.

Up an exterior stairway, a third-floor deck offers a view of the area, and the downtown beyond.

We returned, after crossing the multiple, live tracks, via a long, straight asphalt road/path, just to the north of the loading docks building.

We returned, after crossing the multiple, live tracks, via a long, straight asphalt road/path, just to the north of the loading docks building. Time for a beer at G & T Inn, across Paderewski Drive. 

Because we’re walkers, we usually park some distance away from whatever our goal is on that day. And when we’re exploring abandoned buildings, we wear boots.

How to Take a Walk in Buffalo – Look Up! Roofs and Roofers

How to Take a Walk in Buffalo – Buffalo’s Mini-Marts

How to Take a Walk in Buffalo – Remembering 9/11

How to Take a Walk in Buffalo – Street Humor

How to Take a Walk in Buffalo – The Yard as Spectacle

How to Take a Walk in Buffalo – Beware of (the) Dog

How to Take a Walk in Buffalo — Halloween

How to Take a Walk in Buffalo: Little-Known Trails and Paths

How to Take a Walk in Buffalo: Church Board Advice

How to Take a Walk—in Buffalo: Coping with Covid

How to Take a Walk—in Buffalo: Planters

How to Take a Walk—in Buffalo: Christmas Tidings

How to Take a Walk—in Buffalo: Murals… Off-the-Beaten Path

How to Take a Walk—in Buffalo: Scajaquada Creek

How to Take a Walk-in Buffalo: Block Clubs

© William Graebner 

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