For decades it’s been a garage for garbage trucks and snow plows, but one of Buffalo’s oldest buildings has a much deeper history. Did you know the Broadway DPW barn, just a short walk from downtown, was once a military armory in the 1800s and later became an auditorium that hosted all sorts of sports and events?
"If anything happened in terms of a civic scale, it happened at the Broadway Auditorium," said Tim Tielman, executive director of the preservation organization the Campaign for Greater Buffalo, History and Architecture.
Tielman knows the stories of this structure that dates back to the 1850s and he’s trying to preserve it for future generations.
"After the Civil War, the state turned it over to this national guard regiment and they built what was then the largest armory in Upstate New York," he said.
After its use as an armory and drill hall, the building was turned over to the city, becoming a public auditorium. In the early 20th century it hosted concerts, political conventions, circuses, boxing matches and the great champion fighter Joe Louis once fought here.
It was a central part of life in the neighborhood and the city as a whole.
"This is the oldest structure standing in the world where professional ice hockey was played," Tielman said.
Following use in the war effort during World War II and the construction of the Memorial Auditorium, the city had new plans for the building.
"And the city decided to make it a garage for the dump trucks and garbage trucks of the DPW," Tielman said.
That brings us to today, as parts of the historic structure have been lost to fire or covered up over the years. But the city wants to find a new home for its DPW equipment, and a group of developers has been chosen to turn the site into a sports complex with new affordable housing.
"This is a massive building, boy I tell you," said Arthur Hall of Hallmark Planning & Development.
Hall is a co-lead developer on the project, one he sees as a key component of the African-American Heritage Corridor and a connection point for neighborhoods across the city.
"To have it as a place where people can come and use have an indoor sporting, even facility, cultural facility and also the housing units are going to be huge for the community," Hall said.
His group plans to take feedback from the community about what’s best suited for the future of the former Broadway Auditorium.
"It’s important for us to bring buildings like this online. To take dark and make it light. What’s dead and make it alive," Hall said.
While there’s no timetable on the project as the developers await the city finding a new place for its DPW equipment, Hall says they will work to preserve pieces of the building’s original character.
In the meantime, there’s a push to have the Auditorium granted historic landmark status. Tielman would like to see it restored as a publicly-funded sports complex while exposing the original facade that’s been hidden for years and creating a public park on the south end of the property rather than new construction for housing units.
"The armory then becomes a source of pride again for the neighborhood, a foundation on which to build rather than something that is actually keeping the neighborhood down," he said.