Newsletter of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County (Home Page)
June 1996
Table Of Contents
Parking lagoon: Sabres want Baltimore St. tossed in dump
by Tim Tielman
The Buffalo Sabres just do not want to give up on their idea of destroying Baltimore Street, part of the locally designated Cobblestone Historic District. The hockey club owns land from Michigan Ave. on the east to Mississippi on the west, which it wants to turn into one continuous asphalt field of almost 1000 spaces. Saplings would be planted only along the perimeter, leaving Columbia and Baltimore streets, both landmarks running between the Sabresí properties, visually part of a private asphalt lagoon. Baltimore Street is especially vulnerable, as it is not defined at any point by existing buildings. It is also the only granite street in the city and was built on top of the filled-in Clark & Skinner Canal and wharf which serviced it. The Clark & Skinner connected an extension of the Erie Canal with the Buffalo River. The Sabres want to convert Baltimore Street into narrow driveway at the same level as the adjacent lots.
The Sabres' latest gambit was to advance a scheme whereby Baltimore Streetís granite blocks would be torn up and stored for a 1997 repaving of Illinois Street. The remaining sandstone blocks of Illinois, as far as can be determined the oldest existing paving in the city, would presumably be dumped.
At an April meeting with the city, the Preservation Coalition and Cobblestone property owner John McKendry voiced opposition to that plan. The Coalition supports rehabilitation, leaving the maximum amount of original material in place on each street. It also recommended, and seemed to win support for, a series of simple ěroad projectî signs explaining the purpose and timetable of the cobblestone street repairs in the area, to enlighten Marine Midland Arena visitors and others.
The Coalition also reiterated its desire to have the public rights-of-way adjacent to open lots defined by low brick, stone, or concrete walls. This would act to reduce the otherwise forbidding scale and bleakness of the parking lots, emphasize the streets, and provide incidental seating in the neighborhood. Examples of seating walls include those in Cathedral Park and at Erie Basin.
As the authentic streets define the tone of the entire neighborhood and give economic value to adjacent buildings, owners are understandably intent on having repairs completed as soon as possible. Illinois and Mississippi streets are slated for work in 1997, Baltimore and Columbia in 1998.