Erie Basin served a port function long before it was refashioned as a suburban residential enclave in the early 1980s. Here is Erie Basin in a 1958 photograph taken by the Department of Urban Renewal from the Chamber of Commerce Building. A partially completed Niagara Thruway cuts across Erie Street and connects to the Skyway, completed in 1955. Three billboards top Erie Street buildings, advertising the Manufacturers & Traders Trust Company, Simon Pure beer, and Buffalo Savings Bank. In the upper right, lake freighters line the Erie Slip. Visible from left to right are Loegler & Ladd, wholesale dealers of farm implements; the George Irish Paper Company; and August Feine & Sons, manufacturers or ornamental iron works. Highwaymen and urban renewal planners took the ax to this waterfront section during and shortly after this photograph was taken.