Wrecking Buffalo: Carr Buildings on Fire

The same week we lost the Old Pink monument in Allentown to a fire, a historic complex in the Cobblestone neighborhood is on fire. City fire crews are on the scene of a fire at 110 and 118 South Park Avenue, the historic blacksmith complex. The rear portions of the complex are engulfed and firefighters report the fire has now spread to the roof of the four-story portion of the complex located at South Park and Illinois Street.

The incompetent city has been pushing (and begging) owner Darryl Carr to fix the properties for over a decade. Despite these efforts, buildings continued to deteriorate, causing health, welfare and safety concerns for residents and visitors to the area.

Efforts to acquire the buildings via eminent domain were launched earlier this year. Much too late.

The properties are the most iconic and historically significant structures remaining in the Cobblestone Historic District, established in 1993 by the Buffalo Preservation Board and certified by the Secretary of the Interior as meeting federal standards of registration in the National Register of Historic Places. 110 South Park was originally home to Muggeridge’s Steam Bakery, which manufactured hard materials for the Union Army during the Civil War. In the mid-1990s, 118 South Park was home to Rudnicki’s blacksmith shop.