Demolition crews continue to pull apart the Erie Freight House along Ohio Street, exposing the building’s timber construction and wood cladding. The Freight House is being replaced by Buffalo River Landing, a new 78 unit luxury apartment building to be constructed by Sam Savarino and Frontier Group of Companies, LLC.
The circa-1868 Erie Freight House is a two-story heavy timber frame structure with 550 feet of Buffalo River frontage in the growing Ohio Street corridor. The building was used as an exchange point between the waterfront and rail lines, connecting the Midwest/Upper Great Lakes to the eastern seaboard.
Freight houses once dominated the banks of the Buffalo River was the last one standing but was in deplorable condition. Engineers determined the building condition to be “very poor” with several minor collapses as well as areas of major collapse. The City had condemned the building as unsafe to occupy. The center third of the building was deemed to be “beyond repair” and the historical integrity of the south and north sections were compromised by recent renovations.
Photos by RhaChaCha