1894 Atlas showing the location (of the Walden home, Music Halls and Teck Theater), the corner of Main and Edward Streets.
Site is shaded in green. Image: Buffalo City Atlas
1894 Atlas showing the location (of the Walden home, Music Halls and Teck Theater), the corner of Main and Edward Streets.
Site is shaded in green. Image: Buffalo City Atlas
Home of Judge Ebenezer Walden, mayor of Buffalo 1838-1839. Demolished in 1882 to make way for the first Music Hall.
Image source: Picture Book of Earlier Buffalo.
The first Music Hall constructed at Main and Edward, 1883, designed by August Esenwein (later of Esenwein & Johnson fame).
It formally opened in July 1883 during the North American Saengerfest. Erected by the German Young Men's Association,
also called the Saengerhalle, it burned in 1885. Image source: Picture Book of Earlier Buffalo.
The second Music Hall,
built on the same site as the first in 1887, designed by Richard Waite. Image source: private collection.
See the Interior here.
View downtown from the roof of this theater here.
The Teck Theater seated 3,350 in 2 separate halls
New Theater Has Plenty of Color Buffalo Evening News September 11, 1900 The opening of the new Teck Theater was the theatrical event of last evening in Buffalo. Shortly after 8 o'clock fully 2,000 people were waiting in the various lobbies to gain admission... The theater is commodious; the seats, leather-covered and broad, are as comfortable as library chairs, and the decorations are handsome and effective. There is a lavish amount of color everywhere, and the stage settings last night corresponded with the general color scheme. The carpets, furniture, rugs, etc., furnished by D.E. Morgan Son & Allen Co., are rich and show artistic selection. Many people were turned away last night, the advance sale last week having exhausted all space down stairs. Last night was not a responsive audience and it received the Shubert Stock Company with the calm indifference with which a Buffalo audience receives everything new. The work of the individual members of the company could scarcely be judged last evening. Tonight, when the flurry of the first night is over, and the company has settled down to real work, the discretion with which Mr. Shubert has selected his company will doubtless be shown.
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Buffalo reporter, critic and author, Marian de Forest, wrote a dramatization of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" in 1911; it was first
performed in 1912 at the Teck Theater. It was later produced in New York and in 1919 the play opened in London with
Katharine Cornell in the lead role. It continues to be performed to the present time.
Main Street view of the vacant site of the Teck Theater, 2007.
The theater closed in 1933. In 1945, it was reborn as a movie theater, the Teck, much changed both inside and outside.
Looking at the vacant lot from Main (Pearl St at right), 2007.
In the early 1980's, the NYS Department of Transportation engineered a "connector" whereby Pearl Street would be
connected to Main Street, permitting an exit from the Kensington Expressway. This would permit automobile traffic to
travel downtown after much of Main Street was closed to vehicles following completion of the rapid transit line. In order to
accomplish this angular linkage, much of the rear of the Teck was demolished.
The facade remained until 1992 when no viable re-use was found. Karl Josker has a photo of the facade on his site.
The lot has remained vacant since. In 2006, First Amherst Development Group announced an intention to develop
the site of the Teck Theater and the Vernor building into residential units.
The 1894 City Atlas and a Google view from 2006 showing how the Pearl Street Connector changed Main & Edward Streets.