Since passenger train service stopped in 1979, the unoccupied Buffalo Central Terminal has been the focus of local preservation efforts.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
An Abandoned Art-Deco Landmark in Buffalo Awaits Revival
After decades of neglect and painstaking restoration work, plans to transform the huge Buffalo Central Terminal into a mixed-use complex are gaining momentum.
On a rainy afternoon, Buffalo Central Terminal looms like a specter over the East Side of the city in Western New York, its 15-story tower overlooking a landscape of deepening poverty.
The last passenger train left the Art Deco rail station in 1979; by then the once-bustling neighborhood surrounding it had descended into a white-flight induced decline. The vacant terminal, a massive dun-colored complex of brick and stone designed by the architectural firm Fellheimer & Wagner, became a shell of its former self. Over the decades, vandals and salvage companies descended, stripping its ornate lighting fixtures and shipping pieces off to far-flung places like a restaurant in Hong Kong.