Lower Main Street in 1958 was forlorn, but intact. Buildings dating back to 1835 remained standing and in use, if not appreciated by contemporaries. In this 1958 photograph taken by the Department of Urban Renewal, Main Street is seen looking north from the Skyway. Visible, from left to right, are Memorial Auditorium, the Chamber of Commerce Building, the Marine Trust Building, the Lehigh Valley Terminal, and a few dozen mixed-use commercial buildings dating back to the Civil War and earlier. The Niagara Thruway would be constructed across Main Street one year later in 1959, the Waterfront Urban Renewal Project would ax hundreds of buildings starting in 1963, and the Marine Midland Center would flatten a few dozen more starting in 1968. The outcome of these and other projects would drastically alter the face of a place with unrecognized potential, so that by 1970 much of this former waterfront neighborhood would be composed solely of parking lots and anti-social buildings.