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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 →

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…

And I am not talking about Ryan Miller…

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I’ll tell you…I read about the Broadway Market auction and was outraged, but then my whole mood changed when I saw this in the Buffalo News.

The Zawadzki residence and office @ 798 Fillmore Ave. have been SAVED…I was really worried about this building…it was on the city’s demo list, but got a reprieve by being put on the auction block.

From the Buffalo News…

When an East Amherst couple told friends they planned to buy a decaying Fillmore Avenue building and spend up to $90,000 turning it into their new home, they faced dumbfounded stares.

“A lot of people think we’re crazy,” said Paul V. Harris, a mechanical engineer at Praxair Inc.

He and his wife, Anna J. Harris, grew up Clarence.

“We’re died-in-the-wool suburbanites,” she said. “But I’ve always liked the idea of living in the city. I don’t mind living in nitty-gritty surroundings.”

A L I V E ! ! !

[read the full story in the Buffalo News...]

As we reported last week, the roof on the Polish Union building @ 761 Fillmore is being replaced.

This photo shows the progress of the work this week.

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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As Mike Miller wrote about last week, the Polish Union Hall on Fillmore (notice Zawadzkiesque chimneys) is getting a new roof…amen.

The below video is from the original fire in 2006…very lucky the whole building didn’t go.  THANK YOU BFD!!!