Local preservationist, artist and house historian Dana Saylor recently found this picture of 557 East Utica. It's from the mid 1950's and depicts a gorgeous City residence.
The negotiated 30 day demolition stay with City officials expires next Friday. 557 East Utica has one week left before it's trucked to a landfill.
Please take a moment to circulate this post about 557 East Utica to individuals and groups in your networks. There's a Buffalo Rising post and comment stream that appeared shortly after the announcement was made to halt the demolition. Two other local preservationist bloggers picked up the story. Kevin posted at Unbreakmyhouse and Mike Puma posted at Views of Buffalo.
Please email me if you're interested in purchasing the house and presenting a qualified purchase offer. Terry Robinson - Preservation Buffalo Niagara Board member - lives around the corner and has agreed to help a prospective buyer better understand the neighborhood. You can reach Terry via email.
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I can only speak for myself when I look at the unique façade of this house and think if only I were handier and had a spare $100,000 to spend on renovating this home.
Alas, I fear the contractor with his pay loader and demolition crew is already preparing for the eventual demise of this building and I give the man credit for granting the 30-day “stay-of-execution” with nary a comment from a potential resurrection attempt.
I suspect the negatives may outweigh the positives from the demographics, school system to whatever but regardless, I believe this building’s eventual fate was already cast in concrete and a shame that the history of this building has also been lost or buried as the design must have been inspired by the owner’s profession…does not the finial at the front gable resemble a quill pen or is that my over-wrought imagination working overtime (again)?