Main Street from Huron to Tupper streets—the center of the city’s theater life—could have been called Buffalo’s Great White Way. In this photograph by Hauser Bob, Main Street is viewed looking south from Chippewa Street in 1925.

In the distance, the Liberty Bank is seen under construction, not yet crowned with its Lady Liberties. In the foreground, from left to right, signs are visible for the Market Branch of the Marine Trust Co., Standard Show Repair Co., B&B Co. clothiers, Moskins Liberal Credit Clothing Co., the Corona Hotel, Shea’s Hippodrome Theatre, Harvey & Carey’s drug store, and Mary Lincoln’s candies. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus is advertised on an upper-level sidewall. A crude wooden streetcar platform is visible at Main and Chippewa streets. The scene was diverse and intense, and remained largely unchanged until 1980. That year, demolition began on the two blocks of Main Street from Huron to Chippewa streets.

Every building, with the exception of the gold-domed Buffalo Savings Bank, was razed in what could be called Buffalo’s final act of the urban renewal era. By 1982, the $125 million project dubbed Fountain Plaza—anchored by a Hyatt hotel and office buildings for Goldome Bank and Liberty National Bank—was well underway. The fine-grained urbanism of the block, with its few dozen narrow shopfronts, was replaced with a single-use office complex. In spite of a popular plaza with reflecting pool and ice rink, the block today struggles to attract street life.

Image courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum. Used by permission.