2005 photo - Demolished 2007
Vernor Building, erected
c. 1903 as a showroom for Pierce
autos (perhaps the first auto
showroom in the country)
2005 photo - Demolished 2007
In
1998, Buffalonian Scot
Fisher spotted the illegal removing of terra cotta decoration on the
Vernor Building. Further removal was prevented but much damage was done.
2005 photo - Demolished 2007
Vernor Building intentional terra cotta
removal result
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The Vernor Building at 752 Main Street was built in 1903 as a showroom
for Pierce-Arrow
automobiles. S. H. Woodruff is credited with designing
the showroom building. It was billed as “the largest automobile
salesroom in the world” when it opened.
After Pierce-Arrow moved [2421 Main Street],
the company sold its downtown building to the James Vernor Company,
which converted it to a bottling plant and retail store for Vernor’s
Ginger Ale. In 1951, Vernor sold its building to owners who began
renting space in the building to a succession of retail tenants.
In 1998, the city was about to demolish the Vernor by skirting around a
preservation ordinance before it got a temporary reprieve. In 2005,
City Court Judge Henry Nowak issued a $51,000 fine to Tech Associates,
headed by David Shifrin of Cleveland, on 35 counts. "It was a classic
case of demolition by neglect," Nowak said from the bench. The building
had been cited several times for code violations since the early 1990s,
but Tech Associates had avoided making a single improvement or paying a
fine. In May 2007, the Vernor Building was knocked down, 100 years
after it opened.
(courtesy Buffalo Spree and
BuffaloAH)
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EDITED 1981 photo
[Building across Edward Street to the right/north of the demolished
Teck is St. Louis
RC Church]
The west side
of Main Street, between Tupper and Edward, was until 1982 an intact
part of the Theater
Historic District. In 1981, when this photograph was taken, this
block was at risk but savable. Nearly every commercial space was
vacant, and only Schmidt’s Auto Service, the Little Club
restaurant,
and the Teck Theatre were still in operation.
The Schmidt Building, 736 Main Street, was razed in
2004
after City Court Judge Henry Nowak granted owner Alex Schmidt’s
demolition request.
The Vernor Building, 752 Main Street—originally
home to a George N. Pierce automobile showroom and later the James
Vernor Co., makers of Vernor’s Ginger Ale—was razed in 2007. Jack
Shifrin and his son, current property owner David Shifrin, are to blame
for decades of neglect of the Vernor Building and Teck Theatre.
Today, the nearly two acres of “shovel ready” land at Main and Edward
streets remain vacant, with no active plans for redevelopment.
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