Silo City - Table of Contents ........... Grain Elevators - Table of Contents
Marine "A" Elevator
105 Childs Street in the First Ward in Buffalo, NY
Part of Silo City
Watercolor By Carol Case Siracuse
Industrial Heritage Trail Photo, Map, History
Maps
Original owner: | The
Buffalo-based Abell family built the original Marine Elevator about
1870 beside the Hatch Slip at its junction with the Buffalo River
downstream of the Michigan Street Bridge. There was little space for expansion, so Harold L. Abell acquired the undeveloped site at 105 Childs. Upon completion of the building at 105 Childs, the old elevating complex was known as "Marine B." Marine "A", built as a transfer elevator, had a very short active life. It was constructed in 1925 and because it didn't have a mill associated with it (although one had been planned) , the elevator fell victim to the demise of the industry during the 1960s when the transshipment business that was prevalent in Buffalo collapsed. |
Construction cost: |
$250,000 in 1925 ($3,238,505 in 2012 dollars) |
Features: |
1.
Rather than raising the bins on a full bin slab above basement columns
which bore the weight of the structure, the design carried the bin
walls down to the foundation slab. Within each bin, a full width conical
hopper is supported on pilasters In this design, the hopper bottom only has to support the weight of the grain in the hopper. The weight of the grain above the hopper is transfered to the side wall of the bin. 2. This is an early example of all concrete slip formed workhouse construction. |
Rail shipment
Though the Marine Elevator Co. did not anticipate unloading substantial amounts of grain shipped by rail, facilities were provided to transfer from cars to the new elevator. Four tracks entered the car shed vat the southwest corner of the elevator and between each pair of tracks a carpuller was installed for spotting boxcars over the receiving hoppers or under the car loading spouts. Two pairs of manually-guided Clark automatic power shovels scraped the grain out of the cars and into the 1,000-bushel receiving pits located under the two tracks nearest the elevator.
- HABS, p. 18 (online March 2013)
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