(rshsdepot) The Light Returns to Buffalo Central Terminal

["James Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

-From John C. Dahl 

 The landmark Art Deco style 1929 Buffalo, NY  "Central Terminal"  is in
 the news. Here is an article from the Buffalo News, 5/12/2001:
 Here is a link to the full on-line article with photo.
 http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20010512/1036464.asp
 
 Let there be light 
 Central Terminal shines again
By HELEN JONES
News Staff Reporter
5/12/01

Dozens of supporters gathered Friday night at the old Central Terminal saw
part of the landmark bathed in lights for the first time in decades. 
As children counted down the seconds to the tower's illumination, many of
those on hand looked back to a grander time, when the magnificent art deco
structure was a crossroads, a place where journeys began and ended. 

"It was 1946," Regina Bierut of Lackawanna remembered, as she waited in
the darkness for the tower off Paderewski Drive to be lit. "The Empire
State Express was a very beautiful train, very clean, very luxurious." She
remembered friends and brothers who left for the service from the
terminal. 

"I'm really quite happy they're doing something about it," she said of the
restoration. "It's a great landmark. This is the beginning." 

The lighting of the upper tower of the 17-story structure is part of the
Central Terminal Restoration Corp.'s ongoing effort to rehabilitate the
1929 train station. 

On hand for the lighting were the Peglau brothers, Michael and Gerald, who
two years ago worked to replace the clocks on the tower. 
"I think tonight's event is wonderful," Michael Peglau said. "This
building can be saved, and it will be saved." 
 He said that, when they worked on the clocks, the building had no power
and they had to use the stairs. But the view from the top was worth the
effort. 

"You can see the mists of Niagara Falls," he said. 

 David A. Franczyk, a consultant with the Central Terminal Restoration
Corp. and former Fillmore Council member, referred to the newest phase of
the restoration as "Lights of Hope." 

"It's the beginning of the restoration of this great building," he said.
"One of the most beloved buildings in Western New York, it truly belongs
to everybody." 

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