Trico Plant #1

Trico Plant #1 / Trico Building Apartments
817 Washington St., Buffalo NY
Photos below table

Style:	Daylight Factory Other daylight factory style buildings that have been adaptively reused in Buffalo: M. Wile Factory (kitty-corner from the Trico Building and part of the Medical Campus), Larkin Co. Terminal Warehouse, Alling and Cory Warehouse, Tri-Main Building
Status:	Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. See Elizabeth Licata, "Significant History Happened Here"
Trico history:	The Trico Plant #1 was the manufacturing facility for the first automobile windshield wipers. See Trico Products Corporation History (online Dec. 2024) In 2024, the first residents settled into the Trico Building Apartments. See Buffalo Rising article by WCPerspective (online Dec. 2024)
Brewery history:	Part of the building was used by Weyand Brewery for cold storage. The oldest continuously operating tavern in Buffalo, Ulrich's, is located at the northern end of the block. Around the corner from Ulrich's is the former Phoenix Brewery. See Peter Jablonski's Edifices of Buffalo Breweries
Building significance:	Outstanding local example of the Daylight Factory style. With the exception of a portion of the plant that incorporates an historic brewery building from the 1890's, Trico Plant #1 is constructed of reinforced concrete piers and floors and curtain walls of metal sash windows and brick spandrels. This type of manufacturing building superseded earlier factories that had been built with load bearing brick walls and wooden floors. The plant is also significant for its associations with significant contributions the company made to the progress of the automobile industry. Trico manufactured the first windshield wiper blades for automobiles. The building is significant for the association with the life of John R. Oishei (1888-1968), the founder in 1917 of Tri-Continental Products, which later became Trico Products Corporation. With the wealth Oishei accumulated from his business, he established what is today the John R. Oishei Foundation, the largest philanthropic organization in Western New York. Finally the Trico Plant #1 is significant in the history of manufacturing in Buffalo as one of the city's major employers during the Depression and post-Depression eras. - Source: Page 6 in the Trico National Register of Historic Places Nomination
See also:	Buffalo Spree, Elizabeth Licata, Preservation Ready: Trico Plant #1 (online Dec. 2024) Buffalo Rising, Eric Lander, Trico Plant #1 @ a Crossroads (online Dec. 2024) PBN, Stalled Trico Landmark Application Buffalo Rising, WCPerspective, "Inside Look: Trico Building Apartments (online Dec. 2024)

2006 photo.
For a detailed description of the building, see page 3 in the National Register of Historic Places Nomination. (online in 2012)

Photos below taken in 2012:

Left four bays: Daylight factory style.
Brick and Medina sandstone bay: Weyand Brewery cold storage area, built in the 1890s.
Far right: Loading area for Weyand Brewery.

Photo center: Loading area for Weyand Brewery.
Weyand Brewery building purchased by Trico in 1920 when Trico moved to this site from another location in Buffalo.

Two brick corbel tables Medina sandstone course

Medina sandstone

Image courtersy of Explore Buffalo, July 2022

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