The Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western Railroad Terminal
Despite the coverage surrounding the D.L.& W.’s former terminal on Buffalo’s waterfront, there is very little information on this unique station’s history. Prior to being considered a potential casino site or public market, the structure was a forgotten utilitarian maintenance building for the NFTA’s light rail system.
The structure’s name originated from the constructing railway: the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (also referred to as the D.L.& W. or Lackawanna Railroad).
Incorporated in the 1830’s, the D.L.& W.’s predecessors moved steadily westward from the port of New York at Hoboken eventually connecting to Buffalo. Although the railway was neither the most direct nor the fastest route in the highly competitive New York to Buffalo market, the Lackawanna fielded a number of passenger trains, including the premier train, the Phoebe Snow.
As passenger traffic increased, the need for a new terminal in Buffalo had become desperate. The old station had been built with platforms and tracks right in the street. Transfers to other railroads was a difficult multi-block haul. Carriages, horses, carts, and people jockeyed with locomotives and coaches for space on the crowded waterfront, sometimes with dire consequences.
Negotiations began in the hopes of constructing a joint Union Station for all of Buffalo’s passenger rail lines. However, in an oddly familiar course of events, talks with the city and other railroads failed to produce any concrete results after years of talks.
Deciding to act independently, the Lackawanna Railroad’s answer was unique and practical. Architect Kenneth Murchison created a state of the art waterfront facility that elevated the passenger rail platforms to the second floor, and connected passenger ship service on the lower level. An approaching train would climb a concrete viaduct along South Park Avenue to reach the second floor and pull in to the canopy that provided protection to travelers. Other railroads were also tenants at the terminal, and a traveler was able to easily transfer to a west bound train.
At the station’s opening 90 years ago, a passenger could arrive and transfer by rail, or complete their travel by ship or nearby streetcar. Clearly this facility was multimodal transportation center well before the term existed.
Unfortunately for the terminal, Postwar railroad passenger service continued to suffer from declining revenues due to increased (and government subsidized) air and highway competition. Eventually, the Lackawanna Railroad merged with the Erie Railroad in an effort to consolidate duplicate facilities. The station was closed in 1962 in an effort to further reduce soaring expenses. What little passenger service which remained on the line was moved east to an unremarkable railroad siding. The new Erie-Lackawanna Railroad continued intercity passenger service until 1969, two years before the creation of Amtrak.
Years of neglect and vandalism had led to massive deterioration of the structure’s the passenger waiting room and station office building. When the facility was converted into a maintenance facility for Metro Rail, these areas were demolished.
If anyone is interested, you can see the entire entry of Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record at American Memory Finder
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Post Script: Is the Terminal a development opportunity in the shadow of the casino, a potential multimodal transportion hub, a railroad museum in waiting, a convention center, or a future public market? All? None? Some?
Photos: Library of Congress
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zimmermann
Splendid article Al!
Loved your article yesterday too!
Welcome aboard BRO....got a feeling it's going to be great working with you! You're a partner in kicking up our good histiory dust...and realise the past shows exciting times ahead.
--Bill
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NBJOHN
Now we have the classy Exchange street station.... What a piece of shit.
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al-alo
thanks Bill! i just made it all up. kidding, kidding!
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bghahn
how much space is there? would it be enough to serve as a competitive convention center? if so, it would be perfect as a new convention center. waterfront access, metrorail, LOTS of nearby parking, etc. it would really help the cobblestone area as well.
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Zombo
I thought that the impetus for its demolition (aside from neglect and the metro) was that the building suffered substantial structural damage due to an impact of some sort (other than a wrecking ball). Also, if I’m not mistaken the shadow cutting across the large window is the skyway.
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stephenjames716
great article, nice information. thank you
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chris69
Ok lets think big picture 1) We have an expansion of the waterfront residential community with a new tower 2) we have a newly relocated air and naval park 3) we have the potential for a lift bridge at Erie Street to the outer harbor 4) we have plans to extend the Western Terminus of the Erie Canal all the way to Washington Street with Bass Pro right at the intersection of the Commercial Canal, the Erie Canal & the Main & Hamburg.
then just a short distance away we have....the location of the old DL&W concourse and office building.
5) and just after the former DL&W concourse is the new Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino.
NOW THINK BIG PICTURE FOR BUFFALO AND THE SENECAS. WHAT WOULD BIG PICTURE TRANSLATE TO:
A) a light rail extension to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, the Niagara Falls Airport and downtown Niagara Falls
B) a reconstructed DL&W concourse to serve GREAT LAKES CRUISE SHIPS that dock in Buffalo with excursions to sites in Buffalo and Niagara Falls and each cities casinos.
C) an extension of the light rail to the Ohio Basin and a new 400,000 sqft convention and conference center
D) a study on what it would it would take to bring rail back to the DL&W (though I think the Central Terminal is a better option.
E) a reconstructed DL&W concourse would in essence create one of the longest wharf districts stretching from the Erie Street all the way to the Michigan Street Bridge (and that doesnt include the waterfront along the City Ship Canal or the Outer Harbor).
slice it anyway you want but a reconstructed DL&W concourse should be a critical part of linking the Wharf District with the Cobblestone District if not then the DL&W train sheds remain isolated from both districts.
Think about it....the best way for a Great Lakes Cruise ship to visit Niagara Falls is to dock at the DL&W....it would spawn yet another tourism venue for our waterfront, our casino, our entertainment district anda whole host of other opportunities.
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al-alo
I too had hear about a rogue bulldozer doing some structual damage to the passenger area. unfortunately, i was unable to find any documentation, so i only included events that i could verify.
if anyone has more info on this, id love to hear about it.
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bradon
I spent a lot of time exploring and taking pictures of the DL&W as a teenager. I'll see if I can find and scan some of those pictures for you. I was in the terminal once in the early 80s when a huge section of the ceiling collapsed onto the main concourse, it scared the hell out of us.
There was a Buffalo at the base of the main staircase; I have heard that this Buffalo is now on the UB campus. Can anyone confirm or shed light onto what happened to that statue?
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georgethomasapfel
Outstanding work, Al! My grandfather worked there as Ticket Agent when it opened in February of 1917, passengers were serenaded by his trained songbirds which he displayed at the terminal and at businesses all through downtown Buffalo.
There is still quite an interest in this line, the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society's website has a page of links to DL&W resources ... their annual convention is coming up Oct. 12-14 near Elmira.
When I was on the Gold Medal on Foot tour during Buffalo Old Home Week this year, I took this picture showing where this grand terminal used to be::
-George Thomas Apfel
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RisingDamp666
Stabilize this structure, restore its shell and let people dream. There is another life for this rough gem and with some time it can be realized.
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JohnMarko
The passenger side of the terminal - the beautiful "station" in the pictures - waiting room, etc. - was in a very contentious scrap on whether to save it or demolish it.
The station had taken severe detrioiration - but not such that it could not have been renovated.
A construction company was handed an injunction to stop the beginning of any demolition work one weekend, but overnite, a bulldozer parked in the lobby was "accidentally" run amok and demolished much of the interior grand staircase, etc. - so much so that the injuncion was removed and the station promptly demolished.
I remember reading about it in the Courier Express and Buffalo Evening News back when I was a youngster.
I'm sure some enterprising individual could find the original stories. I'm sure the story received major airplay on the TV at the time, too.
It was only much AFTER the fact - after the city decided to build a light rail line instead of the original proposed "heavy rail" subway, and after the station had long been demolished, that the NFTA decided to incorporate the remaining structure for their light rail maintenance facility.
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JohnMarko
Opps - a few spelling errors - is there any way to edit a post afer it was posted?
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MeliQ
Al
Fascinating article! I had no idea there was another building there originally. As a kid, we used to take our boat down the canal there and all I ever thought it was is the building that still stands. Man, to think how right now, in our sort of mini-renaissance of reuse, what someone could be converting that building into right now. As for what's left, I truly believe it needs to be utilized in some capacity where we can get the most variety of people there, as in a market or art space, music venue, something. To make it into something where only a select group of people would go there everyday, such as an office building, would be a waste of a great river view/patio and its interesting past. Too bad this couldn't be incorporated into something like the South Street Sea Port in NYC where there could be a train/industrial grain mill/shipping type museum with some sort of food venue where people can sit outside on the second floor overlooking the water. There's a ton of potential there.
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potatogoat
This would be a perfect place to relocate the Broadway Market!!!
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