A place that was once bustling with foot and rail traffic is about to get a major facelift.
Toronto-based Stinson Development plans to invest close to $100 million to transform the Buffalo Central Terminal into a community staple. Townhomes, office space and a shuttle between the connecting travelers to the medical corridor are all in the works. Hollywood filmmakers from the movie Marshall already pumped $70,000 into the historic landmark.
Workers finished construction on the Buffalo Central Terminal in 1929. As luck would have it, the stock market would crash two months after the grand opening. The station was built to handle more than 10,000 passengers and over 200 trains a day. As you can imagine, the terminal suffered during The Great Depression, as revenue from the railroads decreased by an astonishing amount.
The station was heavily used during the 1930s and 1940s, especially during Word War II. The decline of the Buffalo Central Terminal happened just after the war ended, where people opted to travel by automobiles and airplanes.
Amtrak took over operations in 1971. The last train to depart Buffalo Central Terminal was in 1979. The Central Terminal was abandened, sitting there waiting for it's next passenger for decades.
Buffalo Central Terminal has been used for festivals such as Oktoberfest. It's also had its 15 minutes of fame in the movie classic The Natural.
For more information on the history of the Buffalo Central Terminal, visit BuffaloCentralTerminal.org.
