The lonely block of buildings at 136-142 Seneca Street are being reviewed for listing on the State and Federal Registers. David Robida’s DRGK Properties LLC is converting 138-142 Seneca Street into 16 apartments and commercial space. Sixteen parking spaces and a 3,876 sq.ft. addition are being constructed at the rear of the buildings. 136 Seneca is not part of the project. OTS Seneca LLC with an East Aurora mailing address purchased the building on March 25 for $550,000.
From the trove information on the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form prepared by KTA Preservation Specialists:
The Commercial Buildings at 136-142 Seneca Street Historic District is comprised of three contiguous brick buildings on Seneca Street in the City of Buffalo. The three- to four-story two-part commercial blocks were built ca. 1865 (the First Barker Store Building at 136 Seneca and the Boarding House Restaurant at 140-142 Seneca) and ca. 1878 (the Second Barker Store Building at 138 Seneca) during a period of rapid growth in the area east of downtown Buffalo. The Boarding House Restaurant at 140-142 Seneca Street was designated a local landmark in 1989.
Seneca Street was once densely lined with a mixture of commercial, manufacturing, retail, and residential properties. This density no longer exists, and the street is now characterized by an expanse of vacant lots. The three buildings are representative of the once typical nineteenth-century two-part commercial blocks with retail space on the ground floor and residential space above, once common on Seneca Street. The buildings’ intact characteristic details include solid brick walls, cast iron storefronts, arched windows ornamented with stone keystones, and decorative wood and brick cornices.
The other brick buildings which once stood on the north side of Seneca Street between Centre Street and Berrick Alley were all demolished in the late 1950s to make room for the construction of the Niagara Section of the New York State Thruway (I-190). The three remaining buildings remained in use with businesses on the ground floor and residences above for several decades. The pawn shop at 138 Seneca has been closed since the early 1980s; the Boarding House Restaurant at 140-142 Seneca closed in 1993; and the United Loan and Jewelry Company, the oldest pawn shop in Buffalo, closed in 2008, leaving the entire block vacant.
136 Seneca Street – First Barker Store Building, c-1865…