(rshsdepot) Orchard Park, NY (BR&P/B&O)

["J. Henry Priebe Jr." <root_@_bluemoon.net>]

See http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/buffaloerie/story/120276.html for
included photos

The depot was in great shape several years ago when I went out there to see
Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 261 steaming through the Buffalo area.

Henry

J. Henry Priebe Jr.    Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
www.bluemoon.net       Internet Access & Web Hosting
www.railfan.net        Railfan Network Services

History comes calling for WNY lighthouse, home and rail depot
Preservation board nominates 3 structures for inclusion on national and state
registers 

By Tom Buckham 
Updated: 07/16/07 8:20 AM 

Three local structures that never attracted much attention have been nominated
for the national and state registers of historic places. 

The Edgar W. Howell House at 52 Lexington Ave. in Buffalo; the former Buffalo,
Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway station in Orchard Park; and Buffalo Harbor.s
south entrance light were among 26 properties statewide recommended by the
state Historic Preservation Board. 

In its report to State Parks Commissioner Carol Ash, the board cited the
Howell House as .an outstanding example of eclectic domestic architecture.
located amid .one of the best preserved streetscapes of late 19th and early
20th century domestic architecture. in Buffalo. 

The original resident, Edgar W. Howell, was a partner in John Howell.s Sons,
which bottled flavored soda and mineral waters from the 1840s into the next
century. John Howell bought the property on what was originally Butler Street,
near Delaware Avenue on the Upper West Side, in 1874. His son.s
37-foot-by-60-foot house was built in 1889 in a Free Classic eclectic style
containing elements of American colonial architecture. 

The Orchard Park rail stop was built in 1911 .based largely on a plan designed
by Henry Hobson Richardson for the Auburndale, Mass., station. and retains .a
high level of architectural integrity and period craftsmanship,. the Historic
Preservation Board said. 

Located on South Lincoln Avenue near the South Buffalo Street railroad
overpass, it was a combined passenger and freight depot from 1911 to 1955, .an
important period of growth. in the Southtowns community. Now owned by the
Western New York Railway Historical Society, it remains .one of the finest and
best preserved suburban station complexes in Western New York,. the board
said. The Massachusetts depot was razed years ago. 

Erected in 1903, the south harbor light .has been an important guide for
commercial shipping and recreational watercraft. ever since, the group said.
The light on the breakwater near Lackawanna.s former Bethlehem Steel plant has
been unmanned since 1962, and its lighthouse and fog horn no longer operate,
replaced by an automated beacon. 

Although its .period of historic significance. ended 50 years ago, the light
is a worthy candidate for the registries because it represents federal
government efforts during the early 20th century to provide safe maritime
transport on the Great Lakes through an integrated system of navigational
aids, the board said. It also exemplifies the common practice at that time of
building castiron lighthouses on concrete piers and breakwaters. 

Buffalo State College art history professor Francis R. Kowsky acted as
consultant for the Howell House nomination. The south light was sponsored by
the Coast Guard; the Orchard Park depot, by the Western New York Railway
Historical Society. Ash is expected to approve the recommendations.

tbuckham_@_buffnews.com


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railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1575
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org