BUFFALO, N.Y. — 10 years ago this week:
A fire damaged the abandoned E-and-B Holmes Machinery Company building on Chicago Street near Buffalo's Old First Ward. It would several more years, but the building would later be redeveloped into what is now known as Resurgence Brewing, and is now an anchor in the continued redevelopment of the Ohio Street Corridor.
Ground was broken where the barrel house once stood for William Simon Brewing for a new beer-making venture. Flying Bison Brewing was built in short order and continues to do business today as an important part of the growing Larkenville Neighborhood.
Upon vacant land where once stood Ted's Hot Dogs and the Peace Bridge Exhibition Center, the ground was broken for a new athletic complex for D'Youville College. 10 years later, Dobson Field continued to function as intended as the home field for several of the college's athletic programs.
20 years ago this week:
Inspired by a successful Hollywood film adult dodgeball leagues were coming into fashion, and the final episode of Frasier was being shot.
Meanwhile, developers from across the country came to tour Buffalo's barren Outer Harbor, invited by the NFTA which at the time owned most of the property there.
The transit authority was soliciting proposals for what it envisioned would be a large-scale complex of housing retail and entertainment venues.
Two decades later the state of New York now controls the land and none of those things mentioned have actually come to pass, not withstanding the public improvements that have been and continue to be made at the site, including Wilkeson Pointe Park and the soon to be opened amphitheater.
30 years ago this week:
Development in Niagara Falls largely centered on the answer to a single question. Would city fathers approve the sale of a large parcel of city-owned property to the Seneca Nation to construct a casino? The eventual answer would be "yes", and the Seneca Niagara Casino would open more than 8 years later in 2002.
Meanwhile, the city was still trying to exercise some ghosts from its industrial past about which a major legal decision came down.
A federal judge ruled that Occidental (formerly Hooker) Chemical would not be subject to $250 million in punitive damages sought by the state of New York for the chemicals dumped at Love Canal in the 1940s.
The ruling noted that the way the chemicals had been placed there during generations prior followed the accepted standards of the times and that Hooker and its successor "could not be judged for having taken those actions at that time against the standards and knowledge of today."
Put another way, the decision held that one could not be made to pay reparations for common and lawful customs and practices, or sins of the past, even if such practices would be unacceptable, or even abhorrent today.
40 years ago this week:
"Mr. Cub", Ernie Banks was among a group of baseball luminaries who came to Buffalo to announce that the city would be the host of “Buffalo’s Grand Old Game”, an old-timers contest featuring some of the greatest retired stars of Major League Baseball. The game would attract 29, 436 fans to War Memorial Stadium when it was played that June.
Meanwhile, some 6 months after it ceased operating as a hotel, the first of what would be several groups over ensuing years stepped forward to re-develop the Statler Hilton.
The proposal was for a shopping center and office complex which would be privately funded and cost between $8-10 million.
The plan fell through, as would several others in the following decades.
The building is currently being re-developed by Douglas Jamal who is the latest to try and restore the 1927 building to its former grandeur.
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