National Gypsum Building

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Photo credit: WNY Heritage Press, National Gypsum, Mid-Century Mundane

Location

325 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202
SBL: 111.30-7-2.1
Ellicott Council District
Google Bird's Eye View
Erie County Property Info
County Tax Map (loads GIS page)
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Next to: Asbury Hall and Chez Ami

Owner

BENCHMARK 325 DELAWARE ASSOCIATES LTD PARTNERSHI per City of Buffalo Property Information
NYS Corporation and Business Entity Database

Physical Description

Three story office building, with a facade of limestone and red granite with bronze ornamentation

Current Condition

The building is in use by various other companies. The stone facade is intact, but the windows have changed and the ornamentation is missing.

History

  • 1862 - Calvary Presbyterian Church is built at what was then 285 Delaware
  • 1925 - National Gypsum Company was founded in Clarence Center, NY by Melvin Baker, Joseph F. Hagerty, and Clarence Williams
  • December 1940 - The church, uptown when built, was now downtown based on growth of the city around it. The dwindling membership, faced with a large mortgage and financial troubles, voted to surrender the church to Buffalo Savings Bank. The church was immediately demolished.
  • 1941 - National Gypsum Building built, with further additions made in 1953 and 1960
    • The architects were Backus, Crane & Love, and the builder was George W. Walker Inc.
  • 1975 - "60 top executives were moved to a new headquarters in Dallas, Texas, a state where there was no personal income tax. The company saw the move as a way to give its top executives a 17% raise without additional expenditure." WNY Heritage Press
  • 1978 - Gold Bond (the Delaware Ave. headquarters) was relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, closing the plant and 325 Delaware Avenue.
  • 1981 - The company donated a vacant 1.3 acre plot to the south, now known as 285 Delaware, to the Boy Scouts
    • 2007 - Uniland built an M&T office building on this parcel
  • 1982 - The Clarence Center plant closed
History courtesy WNY Heritage Press

Recent Events and Actions Taken

  • 2009 - Fluent Energy, an energy consultant firm, joins Verizon as tenants in the building.
  • 2014 - ColoCrossing, a tech data-center, moves its administrative center and staff from Williamsville.

Other Pertinent Facts

  • August, 1975 - Months before the firm began to abandon the region it came from, the Buffalo Evening News reported that National Gypsum was "Buffalo's biggest industrial firm."
    • The company once had an advertising distribution center in Cheektowaga and a research center in Tonawanda, in addition to 460 employees at its headquarters in Buffalo, and 650 employees at the plant in Clarence Center.

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Added 2014-06-06 • Last changed 2018-02-15

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