Detail of 1863 Charles Mangus Birdseye map of Buffalo.Main Street is at left. Image source: BECHS
Detail of 1863 Charles Mangus Birdseye map of Buffalo.Main Street is at left. Image source: BECHS
The strip of waterfront known today as the Central Wharf has been the focus of much debate and planning in the last twenty years. But the waterfront business district continued west of Main Street. The entire wharf frontage along the north side of Buffalo River was referred to as "The Dock." Until the 1880s, when businesses began to construct their own buildings up Main Street and away from Front Street, all major entrepreneurs were headquartered in the neighborhood of Front Street. J.N. Larned, in his history of Buffalo, suggested that Buffalo's prosperity was delayed because the men of "The Dock," focused on canal shipping, resisted the railroads' efforts to secure wharfside access. |
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Harper's Weekly 1888 detail of the foot of Main Street which divided the wharf. Image source: private collection
But, by 1888, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroad had secured ownership of much of the Central Wharf east of Main Street for use as freight sheds. It had also constructed a passenger terminal on Main at the corner of Prime Street (center left). It had not yet purchased waterfront lands along Front Street west of Main. |
Use slider bar to move back and forth across this 1888 Buffalo Express engraving of the waterfront between the Commerical Slip and Washington street.
Image source: Heritage Press
1891 Photo of the Central Wharf from Main Street to Washington St (at right). Demolished 1912. Image source: Chamber of Commerce
The boardwalk above is Front Street, a public thoroughfare from the beginning of Buffalo. The D. L. & W. would change that when it completed purchase of all the Front Street property for its freight facilities and, in the early 20th century, the parcel above and more, for expansive new passenger and freight terminals. Front Street essentially ceased to exist; public access to the waterfront from the Commercial Slip to Michigan Avenue also ceased, without city approval. |
The D L & W Terminal complex in its last days (1979). Image source: Library of Congress HAERS
In 1917, the D L & W railroad left its 1885 station at Prime and Main, opening a handsome passenger terminal with an attached two-story passenger/freight building. See details here. In 1962, the railroad abandoned the facilities and the City of Buffalo subsequently acquired 6.5 acres through non-payment of taxes; Conrail acquired the rest of the 8.1 acre plot. The city attempted to find developers for the entire complex without success and the passenger terminal in particular suffered deterioration from weather and vandalism. The advent of Light Rail Rapid Transit rendered the two-story train shed facility attractive to the NFTA in 1977 for car maintenance and storage. To facilitate car switching, the passenger terminal was demolished in 1982. |
Modern Bing aerial map showing the original footprint of the D L & W passenger/freight facilties.
The former D L & W Train Sheds, used today by the NFTA as Metro Rail barns.