Western New York historical background of railways & architecture:

1883: New York Central Belt Line around city opened (5-cent fare)

1888: Grade Crossing Commission established by NY State Legislature.

1900: Buffalo, population 300,000, is regarded as having greatest railroad yard facilities in the world.

1901: Addition to Exchange St. Station (in time for Pan American Exposition at which President William McKinley was assassinated)

1911: Buffalo Railway Terminal Station Commission (to choose new union station site) formed. Doesn't choose Buffalo Central Terminal (BCT) site.

1917: Delaware Lackawanna & Western station opens (on Buffalo River south of downtown)

1919: Lehigh Valley station (located Main & Scott streets) opens.

1921: Alfred Fellheimer-Steward Wagner Architects founded

1923: Five rail-passenger terminals serve fourteen lines. Buffalo is at its height as a rail center with more than 20,000 railroad employees

1925: French design exposition initiates American Modern movement, which decades later came to be called "Art Deco" movement.

Planning and environmental preparation stage:

1924: Buffalo Central Terminal (BCT) design contract awarded to Fellheimer & Wagner

1 March 1926: Construction starts: first site preparation: sewerage and drainage systems, 30 miles of track laid, Lindbergh Drive -- later Paderewski, and now Memorial Drive -- built

29 March 1926: Groundbreaking for underpass south of terminal allowing William St. (most direct connection to downtown) to cross under New York Central main line.

Construction stage:

3 August 1927: Station work starts at Mile Post 435.9

Jan -Dec. 1928: Steelwork raised throughout year; last rivet driven in December.

Jan. -June 1929: Interior work completed.

22 June 1929: Inaugural banquet; 2,200 guests

24 June 1929: Moving-in of about 1,500 N Y.C. personnel, out of Buffalo total of 7,895, begins.

1929-'79: Passenger operations of various railroads (including NY Central, Pennsylvania, Michigan Central, and others - which initially supplied 200 trains per day; then the already reduced 80 arrivals and 76 departures on a typical weekday in January 1930); later Penn Central, Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo, Conrail (carrying railfan excursions), and Amtrak -- finally 2 per day on 27 October 1979, the last day of passenger service before transition to a small replacement station six miles east in Depew.

29 October 1929: Wall Street stock market crash.

1956: B.CT. complex offered for sale by N.Y.C.

7 August 1959: "Buffprop Enterprises" signs 25-year lease; passenger facilities reconfigured within east end of passenger concourse.

October 1960: "Buffprop Enterprises" defaults; terminal ownership reverts to N.Y.C. - later Owasco River Railway

c. 1966: Pullman service building, coach shop, ice house, and power house demolished (to reduce taxes and maintenance).

1 Feb. 1968: New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads merge into the short-lived Penn Central Railroad.

June 1970: Penn Central declared bankrupt.

1 April 1976: Penn Central, Lehigh Valley, Erie-Lackawanna, Lehigh & Hudson River, et al. merge into Conrail.

July 1979: Buffalo Central Terminal complex purchased by A. T. Fedele & Galesi Realty for $75,000.

1981: Train concourse bridge from terminal removed to allow passage of high freight cars on "Belt Line"

May 1982: Landmark Society of Niagara Frontier awards Tony Fedele "Preservation Plate" for his $1.2 million cleanup.

3 August 1984: B.C.T. nominated to National Register of Historic Places by Julia S. Stokes, NY Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation;ll) then.

12 Sept. 1984: B.C.T listed on State and National Registers, by letter from Orin Lehman, Commissioner, NY State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and State Historic Preservation Officer, to James D Griffin, Buffalo Mayor.

July & October 1985: NY State Energy Office "EASI" & "WEASI" energy surveys are requested by the owner Tony Fedele for remaining five buildings of Central Terminal Plaza complex and are carried out by J.M. Hague III, P.E. -- leading to this article, twelve years later ...

28 October 1986: (1) US. Bankruptcy Court, Judge John W Creahan, orders foreclosure sale. (2) Tax sale for $60,000 to Tom Telesco (though Tony Fedele still owns and occupies Railway Express Agency [R.E.A.] Bldg., built 1917)

1990: Tom Telesco sells complex to Bernie Tuchman.

24 May 1995: Tony Fedele dies of lymphoma at Veterans' Hospital, Buffalo (see obituary from Buffalo News.)

1996-1997: Polish Community Center of Buffalo, of 1081 Broadway, Buffalo NY 14212-phone (716) 893-7222-begins lengthy process of purchasing Buffalo Central Terminal Complex.

25 October 1996: Buffalo Central Terminal Existing Conditions Engineering Study Footnote 20, published by Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects, P.C. and four other consultants, describes current conditions and estimates costs of demolition and replacement ($53,241,000), mothballing and weatherization for possible future reuse ($4,511,000), and full restoration and adaptation for reuse ($54,054,000). For "higher-level purchased improvements for use as a research-and-development facility" restoration costs in the $74-to-77 million range are projected.

NOTE: Signal Stations, or Towers, 48 & 49 were all-electric interlocking towers to operate switches & signals (312 & 382 levers, respectively). 1,400 train movements per day; 8 men per shift. Speakerphones connected to other three Buffalo towers. (1929 to c.1980).

NOTE: Amtrak Station with ticket agents off train concourse (with passenger concourse and ladies' waiting room closed off) from 5-1-'71 through 10-28-'79; then Amtrak moves Water Level Route service out to its new station at 55 Dick Road, Depew, NY from 11-'79 to present. Downtown Amtrak station at Exchange St. has continuously served trains to Canada (but not lines west to Chicago) throughout Amtrak era.