The handsome three-story commercial structure at 738 Seneca, now vacant but secured, was the longtime home of the Hydraulics branch of the Marine Trust Bank, which occupied the building in 1919. The building, constructed in 1900 to house Henry Schaefer’s grocery, was designed by architect Joseph J. W. Bradney. Architecture firm Mann & Cook headed up the building’s expansion in 1919 when Marine Trust moved to into its first story, and in 1954 the storefront was re-clad in polished stone and a bay window on the second story was removed. For years, a billboard Marine Trust installed in 1927 on top of the building was a landmark of its own accord.
The branch’s establishment at 738 Seneca in 1919 was no coincidence. John D. Larkin, president and founder of the Larkin Company, was also on the board of Marine Trust Bank and almost certainly had a hand in this choice of location to provide an amenity for factory workers and shoppers at the famed Larkin Store. The bank was a fixture in the neighborhood into the 1990s, though under different names. Marine Trust became Marine Midland in the 1960s and then became HSBC in the 1990s.
The former bank branch, no longer serving a large factory and residential base in the neighborhood, was one of the last remaining community amenities to disappear in the 1990s. Forty years earlier the four-block strip of Seneca was filled with taverns, restaurants, groceries, barber shops, drug stores, even a movie theater and a bowling alley. Though not one remains, many of the character buildings that housed them do – establishing conditions for a future revival.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
March 29th, 2010 at 12:36 am
[...] Warehouse, 500 feet away, shattered misconceptions about the potential marriage of preservation and economic development in Buffalo’s “near [...]
May 8th, 2010 at 12:54 am
Joseph J. W. Bradney was my paternal Grandfather. This website is a wonderful tribute to his memory. My family and I thank you!