(click on image for full view)
Love this building…it went on to be a Sears and to house the New York State Department of Labor…it now sits idle.
In a survey documenting the need for the preservation of the many important, yet unofficial East Side landmarks, The Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier had this to add regarding this building:
“Eckhardt’s/Kobacker’s Department Store at 950 Broadway (1940, Bley & Lyman, architects) is architecturally significant as an excellent example of a largely-intact, early Art Moderne commercial building. Designed by local firm Bley & Lyman for John H. Eckhardt, this sleek building is one of the most significant early Modern buildings surviving in Buffalo. A similar style department store building, the W. T. Grant department store (1939), once stood at Main and Huron Streets in downtown Buffalo (demolished 1980). The building’s curved façade stands out for its design and materials, which include granite, light cream terra cotta and stainless steel. Eckhardt had operated a store at the principal commercial intersection of the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood since the 1880’s. Former tenants of the building include Kobacker’s and Sears department stores. The building is now vacant.”
