WNYRHS HISTORY

This page is devoted to some of the many historical articles about railroading in the Western New York area, written or edited by Society Historian, Greg Jandura. As more articles are added, old ones will be archived. So sit back, or feel free to print out, and enjoy the rich railway heritage of Western New York.

"BUFFALO'S
TOWERING TEMPLE
Of TRANSPORTATION"
Part I

By: Greg Jandura

On June 22, 2004, Buffalo Central Terminal, that towering landmark on Buffalo's East Side will be 75 years young. This story recounts the events which led to its construction, decades in the making and the glorious realization of fulfillment of a dream.

A newspaper article written in 1938 for the Buffalo Evening News starts out by saying, "When the New York Central gets around to changing the routing of its tracks on The Terrace, some suitable monument might well be erected at this spot.

"The Terrace is the cradle of the early railroading days in Buffalo--in fact all of Western New York."

It was here that Buffalo saw its first steam engine and it's first horse-drawn tramway cars. Here thousands of westward bound pioneers changed from barge canal boats to steam trains to take them to Black Rock whence they began their journey West.

The first locomotive pulled out of The Terrace in August, 1836. Railroads had not yet reached Buffalo from the East; in fact the great New York Central System was just in its infancy.

Buffalo had just 15,000 people, Andrew Jackson was President. Streets were of miry clay, which sucked into its adhesive depths the wheels of wagons and the boots of pedestrians. Darkness on Main Street was made visible by a few oil lamps.

Men who congregated on the old Terrace platform of the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad (chartered in 1836) wore blue dress coats, with costly gilt buttons, a voluminous white cravat, a ruffled shirt, and carried a gold-headed cane. Mixed in the crowd were blanketed and moccasined Indians and immigrants in strange costumes of foreign lands.

And what a rickety old railroad it was! The awkward little engine ran on two parallel lines of wooden stringers six inches square spiked to cross ties. On each stringer was laid a flat bar of iron, called the strap rails, the surface the train was to run on.

The first cars were small four-wheel coaches, holding 16 to 20 persons, and were divided into two or three compartments with crosswise seats. The terminus was Pearl Street and The Terrace.

This was the enterprise of General Peter B. Porter, the distinguished soldier who was responsible more than anyone else, perhaps, for the development of Black Rock. The road at first went only as far as Tonawanda over a route which antedates almost all of the present streets in the locality. But after a few years of rapid railroad progress, it gave way to a more modern rail line to Niagara Falls.¹

"When the remaining walls of the old New York Central Station on Erie Street (built by the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad) were pulled down a few days ago (November, 1903) there was nothing left on that spot to tell the younger generation what Buffalo was in the way of a railroad center 50 years ago."

The old building was built during 1852-1853. It was put up in a way different from buildings of now days. The walls of the train shed were four feet thick and the foundations were 30 feet deep. The contractors who have demolished it say the old walls would be good for a century or more. But it was not the conditions of the building which led the railroad company to pull it down, and put up another. It was the increasing business which had outgrown the old trainshed.

When the station was put up, (some twenty years after the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad was open for business) there was now in place a single track line to Niagara Falls (using standard steel rail), taking a traveler there in about two hours. The line was equipped with passenger cars which would now (in 1903) be rejected from service as freight-train cabooses. There were no through tickets issued, and no checked baggage, There were no hourly trains to Niagara Falls, no mile a minute service, no Pullman cars, or block signals. There were no train orders issued, there was no telegraph, and one train had the right of way. When it came to a curve it slowed down and a man went out ahead to see if there was anything coming around the curve. The New York Central then did not have its tracks across The Terrace from the Exchange Street Station, and passengers on the Buffalo & Niagara Falls, who wanted to go East, or passengers on the New York Central who wanted to go to the Falls, were taken the short distance by an omnibus line. People who lived between North Buffalo Junction and Niagara Falls, who wished to go East, went to Tonawanda where they took a Canandaigua & Niagara Falls Railroad train and went to Batavia, connecting there with the main line of the New York Central. The Niagara Falls & Lockport Railroad was another line which connected with the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad."²

In 1853 the original New York Central Railroad was formed out of the merger of several railroad line across the Empire State. The New York Central in the 1860's gained control of the New York & Harlem Railroad and also the Hudson River Railroad linking Albany with New York City. In 1869 the New York Central & Hudson River railroad was created through consolidation. In 1914, the NYC&HR and the LS&MS and several other smaller railroads merged, forming New York Central Lines and years later the New York Central System.

"A railroad over in Canada was called the Buf- falo & Lake Huron, and had its terminus at Ft. Erie. Passengers on the Buffalo & Lake Huron were taken across the Niagara River on a boat that landed at the foot of Erie Street. The Michigan Central Railroad then came only as far as Detroit, and the Great Western (Canada) Railway, afterward, to be called the Grand Trunk Western, was not built as far as Buffalo. In 1860 the Grand Trunk Western bought the Great Western (Canada) Railway and the Buffalo & Lake Huron Railroad and ran its first trains into the Erie Street Station. In 1860 the Grand Trunk Western introduced a car ferry connecting to its trains on the Canadian side. The car ferry was then towed across to the foot of York Street, where the cars were taken off and run into the Erie Street Station over the New York Central's tracks.

The old station played many dramatic parts in the Civil War. It is said many escaped slaves passed through its gates, some as freight, and in various disguises, all hoping to reach the other side of the river, the country which was to be their promised land. Old railroad employees say it was in 1878 that the Central built the first tracks which would be used as the Belt Line, running the Niagara Falls business out of the Exchange Street Station to William Street and around the city to North Buffalo Junction, which was a station about where Austin Street now crosses the Central tracks."²

By 1879, there was not less than three principal railroad stations of the New York Central in Buffalo--a station in East Buffalo almost on the site of the present day Buffalo Central Terminal which was used chiefly by through trains of the Central and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. Not much is known about this structure except that it was in service for about ten years.

First turning our attention to The Terrace, "After much effort and litigation, the New York Central suc- ceeded in getting a track connection down between the Niagara Falls line and the Exchange Street Station and the depot now known as The Terrace Station was opened in the Summer of 1880. This was all in accordance with a plan thought out in cooperation with the City of Buffa- lo. For a long time the New York Central had been hampered by the lack of a direct connecting track between the two downtown stations in that city. The citizens of Buffalo did not like having the principal station of the railroad in East Buffalo, in that day relatively much fur- ther out then today.

Here was a trading point. The trade was made. Buffalo sacrificed to a degree its historic and once beautiful cobblestone "Terrace" which was already going to seed and the New York Central was permitted to put tracks though it from Erie Street to Exchange Street. In return, it promised these tracks to passenger trains and promised always to maintain a passenger station west of Michigan Street in a contract which it has fulfilled to the letter, even upon completion of Central Terminal and to the present day."¹

"The old station on Erie Street was not abandoned as a passenger station by the Central right away. All passengers which came over the Grand Trunk Western, and many from Buffalo, who were bound for the Falls, still patronized the Erie Street Station, and a coach was taken out of there four times a day and drawn to North Buffalo Junction, where it was attached to the regular train which had gone around the Belt Line the day previous. It was not until the last months of 1880 that the old station was abandoned by the Central as a passenger station."²

"Until 1929, when the New York Central opened the new Buffalo Central Terminal on Curtiss Street in East Buffalo, The Terrace and Exchange Street area was the great interchange point between eastern and western civilizations."¹

"For six decades New York Central's Exchange Street Station (abandoned in 1929 and demolished in 1935) felt the tread of the rich and the poor, the mighty and the lowly, the happy and the sad. Every President from Grant to Coolidge at some time or another used its venerable trainsheds, while royalty in numbers were received by admiring throngs."³

Upon the formation of the New York Central Railroad in 1853, company records indicate that land was purchased that same year and a simple platform and shed were built in 1854. Business increased and the structure was renovated and expanded in 1856. The final Exchange Street Station was erected in 1870 on the site of the original Exchange Street station. Its a little murky as to what happened to the original structure. Additions were added on in 1885, 1900, 1901 and 1907. Facilities included a baggage -check room, ticket area and waiting room, dining room, kitchen, laundry and railroad offices. ⁴

Over the decades, the proud Exchange Street Station stood tall when President Abraham Lincoln and his wife came through in 1861 on his way to his first inauguration, and later felt the grief of a nation with the funeral train carrying his mortal remains back to Illinois stopped for all to pay their respects in 1865. In 1901 of the 8 million visitors who came to see the wonders of the Pan American Exposition, 1 million of them passed through the Exchange Street Station's gates. President and Mrs. William McKinley also came to the Exposition by rail and two weeks later from unforeseen medical complications at the hands of an anarchists bullet, his mortal remains and grieving widow made the somber trip to Washington D.C. from here. Tens of thousand of Western New York's young men left from this depot to fight in both the Civil War and World War I, many paying the ultimate sacrifice.

"During the years when the Exchange Street Station was in its hey-day, handling thousands of passengers daily, a frightful tragedy occurred.

On the morning of a cold February 8th, 1881 the older part of the train shed collapsed under a great weight of snow. The trainshed was 120 feet wide and perhaps 450 feet long, supported by arched wooden trusses which rested on two rather frail brick walls only 13 inches in thickness. One of these walls was part of the first station.

The entire shed crashed to the ground, burying trains and human beings. The accident occurred at an hour when most of the people about the station on that bitter day, were seeking the warmth of the waiting room. Four were killed, among them Henry Waters, confidential secretary of General Superintendent James Tillinghast of the Central. Two others killed were railroad employees and the fourth a passenger, a lake cap- tain on his way to Erie to fit out his tug for the season."¹

A fire occurred in the West Tower on February 3, 1917 bringing the cupola crashing down to the trainshed. "The Exchange Street tragedy marked the beginning of real outrage and demand for a new railroad station in Buffalo--agitation that went on for more than 40 years until Central Terminal was opened in 1929. After the shed roof crash, Buffalo newspaper printed pictures of what was supposed to be a new railroad station. But New York Central authorities came to the city, looked over the debris, and decided that it would be repaired and made to last. Meanwhile, Buffalo citizens were clamoring that a new station be built, and for a time it seemed that their hopes were to be realized.

At one time work was actually started on a new station on Michigan Street between Exchange and Carroll Streets. It started as a reasonably modest enterprise, but promoters gazed upon it after the flamboyant fashion of the times and decided that it had to have a clock tower and a porte-cochere. It was to have a trainshed some 600 feet in length and with eight platform tracks.

The station was never finished. When the contractors brought in their estimates, it was found that in- stead of costing $200,000 as it had been hoped, it would cost twice that figure."¹

"Between 1890 and 1900, there were spasmodic movements concerning better station and terminal facilities, all having the idea of a union terminal. Indianapolis and St. Louis had union terminals and why not Buffalo. During those early stages, Chief Engineer William Wilgus of the New York Central seems to have made a study and prepared a suggestion of a union station built about on the site where Buffalo Central Terminal would later stand. It evoked protests, whirls of them with the result that for the next 10 years no one dared as much as seriously propose an East Buffalo location.

During the Pan-American Exposition year of 1901 as might be expected, stations and terminals again came to the forefront. Afterwards the first definite program for a union station deemed in keeping with the city and its needs was launched by Architect George Cary during the administration of Mayor Erastus Knight. The plan was dazzling, but its enemies got busy and attacked it along the lines of what it would cost the city. The Cary plan called for the station located in the area of The Terrace and Niagara Square, the development of a Civic Center and the square and piers for passenger boats in the vicinity of Georgia Street.

Businessmen on lower Main Street and Seneca Street who wished passenger terminals to remain in their Exchange Street location, got busy. Plans were evolved and hearings held all directed towards instead obtaining a first class station at the Exchange Street location. To these demands the railroads countered with the claim there was not the space!

They then organized what was known as the Joint Terminal Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations. It had little if any clout in dealing with the railroads. It sought interviews with railroad officials and at one notable meeting in New York City they conferred with the executives of all the railroads entering Buffalo to try to push its agenda. That meeting seemed to finally convince the committee that it couldn't get anywhere if it lacked authority.

Along about 1908 the New York State Public Service Commission began to function. The Joint Terminal Committee proceeded to again try its luck. It filed a complaint against the New York Central, charging it with having inadequate station facilities. This effort was to compel the Central to improve its station and of course the object was the bringing about of the building of a new station on Exchange Street. The railroad still contended there was not sufficient ground for a station to meet their future needs.

The Public Service Commission determined that the Joint Terminal Committee engage an architectural engineer to make a downtown station layout. George H. Kimball was chosen. The Kimball plans were the center of controversy for several years. They met the requirements providing for a station along Exchange Street between Michigan Street and Main Street and tracks for the handling of passenger coaches in the vicinity of Georgia Street.

Before the Kimball plans went any further, President Underwood of the Erie Railroad had declared that his road would not join in a union station and President Truesdale of the Lackawanna Railroad took the same position for his road. The Lehigh Valley Railroad had obtained possession of the old Hamburg Canal strip and seemed to go ahead with its own plans. There were hearings in the Buf- falo Common Council chamber, and efforts in many directions by the Joint Terminal Committee and citizens, all got nowhere in particular.

In 1911, Democrats got control of Albany and John A. Dix was Governor. Members of the Joint Terminal Committee conceived the idea of enlisting the service of William H. Fitzpatrick, prominent local Democratic leader, and getting through in Albany a bill creating a body with powers to deal with the terminal and station situation in Buffalo. There was opposition, but the movement was successful and the Buffalo Terminal Commission was created. The commission had its difficulties and had to go through a period of litigation before the validity of the act creating it was established.

The unwillingness of the railroads to unite on a common passenger terminal caused the commission to deal with them individually. The popularity of the union station idea was on the wane.

The first agreement put through by the commission was with the Lackawanna Railroad which resulted in the Lackawanna Station and docks at the foot of Main Street. Then followed the Lehigh Valley Railroad Station at Main, Washington, Scott and Quay Streets. The Erie Railroad had built a large brick station on Exchange Street and Michigan Street in 1875 which it used until 1935.

A Third agreement brought about new freight terminals for the Pennsylvania Railroad. A new railroad station at Black Rock for the Canadian railroads entering Buffalo also resulted from the commissions efforts.

Negotiations with the New York Central were well underway when the country entered the World War and control of the railroads was taken over by the Federal Government (U.S. Railroad Administration). Not much could be done until the government relinquished control and the railroads began to recover their financial footing."

(To be concluded...)

FOOTNOTES

1. Hornaday, Hilton,"Terrace Tradition," Buffalo Evening News Saturdav Magazine, August 21, 1938, p. 1.
2. "A Landmark Gone," Buffalo Morning Express, November 8, 1903, p. 5.
3 . "Wreckers To Begin Razing Old Central Station Today," Buffalo Courier Express, Nov. 13, 1935, p. 1, 10
4. "New Central Station Now Center Of City, Buffalo Courier Express, June 23, 1929. p. 19
5. Doyle, James F.,"Agitation For Finer Station Began In 1879," Buffalo Courier Express, June 23, 1929, p.-1.

Web Site Hosting by TRAIN WEB

The WNYRHS, Inc. P.O. Box 416, Buffalo, NY. 14231-0416 is an independent organization and has no affiliation with any other local or national group. The Society is a fully qualified organization under 501 (C) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and all donations to the Society are tax deductible. This page last updated on March 14th, 2004 Copyright (C)1999-2004 WNYRHS Inc. all rights reserved

Web Design & Hosting by - Scott H.