***UPDATED***

(click on image for full view) (click on image for full view)

Update: Second image comes courtesy of Marty Biniasz…it is located on a UB Library site.

As I was surfing around the internet today, I was looking through some of the Western New York Heritage Magazine’s online photos of old Buffalo.

I clicked into their “Poles in Buffalo” pages and made what I think is an awesome discovery.  The picture above shows what I believe is Lipowicz’s Wholesale Grocery Store at 1201 Broadway in 1910.  I added a recent picture I took of the building.  You can see the similarities…5 windows on second and third floors…cornice looks the same….door on left of building.

The building was designed by Wladyslaw H. Zawadzki and built in 1906.

The 1910 picture appeared in the Buffalo Express, February 19, 1910.

The building is now part of the Francis John Apartment complex and was a Burnham’s Furniture for many years.

Great stuff!!!

(click on image for full view)

So…there I was flipping through Saint Stanislaus’ Golden Jubilee book and he was staring at me from page 259…Wladyslaw H. Zawadzki.  I had never seen a picture of him.

Zawadzki was a neighborhood architect responsible for many of B-F’s more prominent buildings.

A couple of years ago I did a couple of slide shows featuring his B-F work after discovering

About Zawadzki from from the “Intensive Level Historic Resources Survey of Broadway-Fillmore Neigborhood” completed by Clinton Brown Company Architecture in August 2004.”

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. Read More →

The Lt. Col. Matt Urban Human Services Center at 1081 Broadway is one of my favorite buildings in B-F.  After a meeting there yesterday, I snapped a few photos.

It was designed by B-F’s own Wladyslaw Zawadzki who also was the architect of a lot of different building throughout the neighborhood.

From Lt. Col. Matt Urban Human Services Center’s website on the buildings history…

The Polish Community Center’s site at 1081 Broadway was built in 1905 as a Dom Polski (Polish Home) Club. Throughout the years the building saw many changes including retail space on the first floor, while maintaining the social club’s presence above.

In 1976 The Polish Community Center of Buffalo was incorporated as a cultural/service organization. In the last 32 years, the Center has grown into the multi faceted human service organization that exists today . It now operates five sites and employs nearly 40 people. On November 11, 2000, the PCCB officially changed its name to the “Lt. Col. Matt Urban Human Services Center of Western New York” (the Matt Urban Center) and rededicated its mission to serve the needs of the diverse surrounding community under a new corporate identity.  By taking the name of Lt. Col. Matt Urban, the PCCB paid honor to the most decorated war veteran in American history, who was born and raised in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood.

I love how the building dominates the corner of Broadway and Playter.  It has the familiar Zawadzki cornice, peak and brick work that makes the building stand out and interesting.

The Matt Urban Center also has one of B-F’s best lyceums…a lot of B-F’s churches have these and were the social hubs of the neighborhood back in the day…plays, concerts, lectures, dances, weddings, etc.

It also houses the Joseph C. Mazur Gallery…

A side story…I worked at the Polish Community Center back in 1984 with the Mayor’s Summer Youth Program.

No other post on BFA has drawn as much attention from a descendant(s) of B-F’s past then the Finding Zawadzki post I did last summer.  The internet is a very cool tool to connect people and has literally changed the way we live and exchange info like nothing else has.

Mike Miller (RIP) and I used to talk about how BFA has changed the way people look at the neighborhood and given folks a window they never had into B-F.  To this day, I am amazed by the number of people who visit the site the daily.

Back to Zawadzki…here is the video slideshow I did on original post.

[click here for hi res Windows Media version]

Out of all the comments on the post, I absolutely love this one…

(From Joshua Alexander) Wladyslaw Zawadzki is my great, great uncle. My grandfather, Vince Watson (shortened version of Zawadzki), was Wladyslaw’s nephew. Grandpa owned Auburn Watson and designed many beautiful kitchens in Buffalo for 50 years. Architecture and building run in the family. I am only 13 years old but I want to be an architect like my great, great uncle. I love building, designing and construction. I spend hours daily drawing and designing buildings. I did not know that my uncle was an architect until this Thanksgiving. Thank you for posting this video. It inspires me to become an architect even more!

Very cool stuff…

Auburn Watson is still a prominent local business as well…

http://www.auburnwatson.com/

Alive…

This is the second “Finding Zawadzki” slideshow…the next one will be in a few weeks.

The most interesting shots for me were of the Zawadzki House on Fillmore.

Yuri Hreshchyshyn of too many things to mention fame, pointed out last week in first slideshow that the Zawadzki House is on the demo list. Sad…

I will post more photos of this building later.

Click here for higher res Windows Media version…

[related posts: Finding Zawadzki Part One]

[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.

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