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Finding Zawadzki Part One
By Christopher Byrd | July 22, 2008
[click here for hi res Windows Media version]
Finding Zawadzki…
I have become fascinated with the Broadway-Fillmore work of architect Wladyslaw H. Zawadzki. His designs represent some of the most beautiful and significant buildings in the neighborhood.
After looking into more of what he had done, I decided to start photographing his buildings and put together a series of slideshows to highlight the various B-F structures he created.
His legacy touches many different parts of B-F and Polonia…it is amazing…the variety of buildings is amazing as well.
Some of the buildings in the slideshow definitely need some TLC, but nonetheless, are representative of his body of work.
Please share your thoughts.
The following biography on Zawadzki was extracted from the ”Intensive Level Historic Resources Survey of Broadway-Fillmore Neigborhood” completed by Clinton Brown Company Architecture in August 2004.”
Architect W. H. Zawadzki (1872-1926) was the most important Polish-American architect in Buffalo. 11 He designed a number of buildings in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood that as a group constitutes his best work. The current survey identified 18 buildings attributed to Zawadzki in the neighborhood; the largest concentrated collection of his work, known to date. He designed a variety of buildings for a wide range of uses such as religious, residential, social, commercial, and industrial. During his career, Zawadski employed different materials and styles of the period for his designs. Born in Poznan, Poland in 1872, he immigrated to Buffalo with his parents as a young man. His education background included private study with Mr. Schmidehuazena. He later attended architectural school in Buffalo. Before opening his own practice in the neighborhood, he worked for the American Bridge Company and then at Lackawanna Steel Company for six years. In 1898, he married Stanów Zjednoczonych. Zawadzki served in World War I. The prominent East Side architect purchased the house at 798 Fillmore Avenue (1895) for his own residence and office, where he remained until his death in 1926.
Zawadski’s first major commission was for the Dom Polski building at 1081 Broadway. His largest commissions in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood were for religious and social buildings. He designed the Transfiguration R.C. School (1915, 34 Stanislaus Street), a classical-inspired building, and Transfiguration Rectory (1925, 144 Mills Street), one of his latest works. He was commissioned for Queen of the Most Holy Rosary R. C. Church, a combined church and school building, at 1040 Sycamore Street (1916-1917). For St. Stanislaus parish he executed plans for a convent (1916-1917, 562 Fillmore Avenue) in a modified Georgian Revival style to give an air of comfortable domesticity to the large multiple dwelling.
He also designed for the parish a garage with living quarters (1919, 123 Townsend Street). Zawadzki drew plans for the three of the most important Polish-American neighborhood social and cultural centers: the Renaissance style Dom Polski Building (1905-1906, an institution modeled on the YMCA) at 1081 Broadway, the Polish Singing Circle Building (1907) at 1170 Broadway, and impressive, three-story Polish Union Hall (1914) at 761 Fillmore Avenue.
Zawadzki is attributed to a number of commercial buildings. Among his commercial buildings on Broadway are the former Polonia Hotel (1906; later remodeled as a bank) at 1067 Broadway, diminutive Romanesque style Hodkiewicz-Cohen Bakery (1906) at 1132 Broadway, and the Renaissance style Lipowicz’s wholesale grocery store (1912; an earlier section by an unknown architect was built ca. 1900 at 1201 Broadway). Other works include a building for the A. Schreiber Brewing Company to house the company offices and the bottling works (1909, 662 Fillmore Avenue) and three residences.
Other buildings attributed to Zawadski include: St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Byzantine-Church (1906) in Black Rock; St. Nicholas Ukrainian-Byzantine Catholic Church (1917-1919, Fillmore Avenue and Oneida Street); St. Luke’s Church and School (1908-1919, Sycamore Street and Miller Avenue); St. Casimir Church and School (1906, Weimar and Casimir Sts.); Public School No. 3 in Buffalo; St. John Gualbert (1917) in Cheektowaga; Church Rectory and Home of Sisters of St. Augustine in Depew. Sts. Peter & Paul in Depew, St. Trójcy in Niagara Falls; St. Stanislaus Kostki in Niagara Falls; St. Trójcy in Erie, PA; and the Polish Church in Batavia.
More to follow…
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July 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Excellent slideshow, Chris! Zawadzki is one of my favorite architects. His decorative brickwork is absolutely beautiful! My second favorite (Polish Union Hall being the first) Zawadzki building is Transfiguration School. His style was decorative yet very masculine.
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
As I have really started to pay attention to his buildings, I notice so many different things that are uniquely him…the chimneys for example…if you look at 470 Sweet and then the Polish Union or vica versa, what attention to every last detail…
I was surprised that Sweet still had originals…
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Another unique feature of many of his buildings is the use of different color bricks and different surface heights to accentuate the detail. He was a master of detail!
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:16 am
As I watched the video of Broadway FIlmore, I was awe swept. The childhood memories which I thought were tucked away in a place long forgotten, became real and alive as if they occured yesterday. The times of walking and playing safely in a place where you knew everyone and everyone knew you wafted through my head bringing a smile to my face. You knew that the Koniarczeks always lived there and probably always would….that the Woskowicz family was there to stay, that the bar on the corner had been owned by the same family for years. No one was unfamiliar, not belonging…A stranger was someone that came from distant places, danger never came from those living a block away from you , it was something that came from far away. The greatest danger we faced as children was from acts of our own niavity. Homes were taken care of, pride on an every inch of the area. Women cleaning steps and sidewalks, using knives to cut away weeds growing in the cracks of the sidewalks and making the lawn edges even and pristine. Trash was never something you found on the street, maybe a cigarette butt or 2, but not what we see today.
I wept to see the neglect and the boarded up buildings which we would go to, but rejoiced at the rehab being done to some. I often pray that there be restoration of the old Polonia. I often would love to go back to the days of my youth, though reality dictates otherwise. We can help restore, we can help revitalize, but we can never go back….cannot rebuild what we neglected to take care of and tend to. Maybe we can make it something else more beautiful, I don’t know, but there is always hope, if there is a breath in us and a drive, there is hope.
To those working on this renewing of the old Broadway FIlmore area….May your vision be seen in this generation and your work be done with pride and vigor. May all that you do bear good fruit and be multiplied a thousand fold.
Wanda
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Wanda…THANK YOU for your comments…we can never go back…but…what we can do is help preserve what we can and capture the beauty of the neighborhood’s past…as the photos show, there is plenty of beauty left to save…that is what I and many others are working for…
July 25th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
798 Fillmore is slated for demolition.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:32 am
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