Grain Elevators - Table of Contents

Long Live the Great Northern Elevator

By David Granville

February 3, 2022

In 1990, noted local artist Dr. V. Roger “Doc” Lalli (1922 - 2010) paints the “Great Northern Elevator:  Ganson Street and Michigan Avenue,” as part of a series he names “Buffalo, My City” and later published as “The Buffalo Architectural Watercolors.”  This work becomes number 12 of 42 watercolors Lalli paints between 1989 and 1999 – a monumental endeavor and a loving tribute to our city’s architectural and historic treasury.

In this piece, the artist so effectively illustrates the chiaroscuro effect (shadow and light), presenting a view of the 1897 building that portends the sort of drama we experience today:  a winter view from the north, with blue sky above and piercing western light from a late-afternoon sun.  The Great Northern casts a shadow almost as distant from the brick façade as the building is high.

Historian David Mott Rote provides narratives to each of Lalli’s remarkable paintings. 

The Great Northern Elevator “was not only the world’s largest at the time, with a nearly 3,000,000-bushel capacity, but also the most modern such structure anywhere.”  Rote goes on, “Designed by Max Toltz, an engineer with the parent Great Northern Railroad, it served as a transitional model between the older wooden elevators and the concrete ones that were to standardize elevator construction.”

In the spring of 1992, the Great Northern Elevator painting is part of a stunning six-week one man exhibit at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, which is so successful it leads to the creation of signed limited edition prints.  Today, these prints continue to sell in galleries across the U.S., attracting national and international buyers who wish to bring home a glimpse of Buffalo’s architectural and cultural heritage.

As these notes are written, the fate of the Great Northern Elevator is uncertain.  Here’s hoping that this notable piece of Buffalo’s heritage does not succumb to corporate or communal indifference.  “If we forget the past, we have no future,” says Douglas Jemal, president and founder of Douglas Development Corporation.  “The past and the industry that the Great Northern served is an important part of what defined Buffalo as one of the greatest and wealthiest cities in the country in the late 19th Century.  The Buffalo of today cannot afford to lose this priceless historic treasure which stands as a testament to the city’s storied past.”

Long may this building stand as a tribute to Buffalo’s desired destination, so magnificently captured by artists like Lalli.  May these works continue to serve as an invitation to the world to experience what beauty and industrial majesty still reside on the shores of Buffalo, and not to an epithet to history lost.

Beginning on February 1, 2022, Lalli’s “Great Northern Elevator: Ganson Street and Michigan Avenue” and all of his works from the same series will be on exhibit at the Italian Cultural Center of Buffalo, located at the corner of Delaware and Hertel Avenues.


Photos and their arrangement © 2022 Chuck LaChiusa
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