Bison City Table Co / Wildroot Chemical

19 teens

1919

1920s

2013

2015


2016
Photo credit: Jan McClure, Wildroot Buffalo, Mark Paradowski, Chrissy Lincoln, Buffalo Rising

Location

1490 Jefferson Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14208
SBL: 100.33-5-6
Masten Council District
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Erie County Property Info
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Across from: 1491 Jefferson Avenue
Near: 1453 Jefferson Avenue

Owner

FOURTEEN NINETY ENTERPRISES INC per City of Buffalo Property Information
Search NYS Corporation Database for FOURTEEN NINETY ENTERPRISES

Physical Description

Two and one story brick industrial complex of buildings with 66,000 sq.ft.

Current Condition

Facade had been negatively covered with the use of dryvit and glass block where brick and arched windows were once used.
In 2015 it underwent a renovation that improved the look, but not to the standards of the original building.

History

• 1907 - Oliver Kreinheder, with brothers Robert and Arthur, incorporated the Bison City Table Co.
  • Oliver Kreinheder was manaager and treasurer. His brothers were owners of the Standard Hardwood Lumber Co, one of the area's largest wholesale lumber businesses.
  • The company manufactured dining room tables
• April 6, 1914 - Bison City Table suffers a fire with $1500 in damage. No one was hurt.
• August 5, 1914 - Bison City Table suffers another fire, this time with $25,000 in lost merchandise and $5,000 in damage to the building.
• 1916 - Residents resist a city plan to purchase the building as a storage area for garbage and street cleaning equipment
• October 1919 - Wildroot purchases the building from Bison City Table Co.
• 1919-1946 - Wildroot occupied the complex
  • The building is expanded upon to the south, as well as renovated, and some arch windows are changed to square ones
• October 1971 - The 1490 Jefferson Community Service Center opened, providing a base of operations for Model Cities programs in the city Mike Puma
• Once housed a bank branch, a 40-year-old community archive, and the local office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Recent Events and Actions Taken

• November 6, 2013 - Preservation Board receives application:

• November 14, 2013 - Preservation Board "Approves as presented"
• November 30, 2013 - Story written about City approval being sought (by developer David Pawlik’s Creative Structures Services, Belmont Housing Resources, and Herbert J. Bellamy Jr) to redevelop 1490 Jefferson Ave. into Bellamy Commons, a mixture of 30 low-income apartments, an office for the NAACP and a new museum dedicated to African-American success stories. However, plans call for tearing down 70 percent of the two-story building.
• April 2015 - The hideous dry-vit facade is being removed, exposing the original brick work hidden underneath.
• December 2015 - The original brick work has been unfortunately re-covered.
• April 2016 - 'Belmont Housing Resources of WNY (BHR) is close to completing a $7.5 million renovation/reconstruction. The project was in the hands of CSS Construction (General Contractor) and Silvestri Architects.' Buffalo Rising

Other Pertinent Facts

Links

• Wildroot Buffalo - Wildroot Expands to Jefferson
• Views of Buffalo - The History of Hamlin Park Part IX: Concentrated Code Enforcement and Model Cities Bring Positive Change
• Buffalo News, November 2013 - Developer seeks to redevelop 1490 Jefferson into museum, NAACP office and housing
• Buffalo Rising, April 2016 - Bellamy Commons

Newest Pages

Added 2013-11-26 • Last changed 2020-03-12