Downtown Tonawanda Before--and During--Urban Renewal (1967 + 1973)
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- Опубликовано: 20 авг 2024
- Two sets of photographs depicting the businesses that lined the south sides of Young and Niagara streets in Tonawanda, New York, before their demolition by urban renewal.
![[TF2] The Russian Bear Trap](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YFNSwz2_rOA/mqdefault.jpg)
This is making me sad. They may not look it, but those stores were gems.
So many memories for me as a young child here. This video shows you at one point there was alot of small business people here and it was thriving. To me the city of Tonawanda is destroyed compared to what it once was. Makes me sad miss this Tonawanda very much. Talk about historic that Bridge that use to go up and down all gone now. Thank you so much for posting this.
Awesome video. I love history. Thank you for taking the time to share this. I'm from here, born in 95.
blast from the past for me...used to shop at Twin Tons , Grants, Norbans Murphy's.....growing up in NT..we used to shop around there weekly...sure do remember the old Star Theater....surprised that the Riviera survived...loved this little tidbit...thank you for posting...
Terrible is an understatement. Tore it down with no idea about how to get it going afterward. I grew up here in the 50s and 60s. We had everything pre-destruction...movie theater, bars, restaurants, drug stores soda fountain, Grants, Twin Ton, hardware store, 5&10 stores, clothing store, shoe store, toy store and more. Didn't need a mall. It was all here. Should have redecorated downtown as an 1890 canal town with wooden sidewalks/gravel roads/costumed people, pushed tourism, canal festivals, canal boat rides, and more. The stores already looked old. We visited a small town in Ohio who went to an old time theme, and they're doing quite well with the old stuff.
In retrospect....looks like a fuck-up of epic proportions....cool vid.....brings up many memories of growing up Tonawandas style.
Every big government program in retrospect looks like a --- of epic proportions.....but we keep doing them like a junkie.............
I'm a big fan of RUclips, and when this video popped up on the way to something else, I got so excited! It was like finding gold. Thank you so, so much for posting this!
lived in NT , graduated in 73 , then joined Navy moved away..moved back in 77, moved to California in 78, moved back to NT in 95, moved to Vegas in 2007....still miss it but taxes are too high....love Platters Chocolates, miss eating Sahlens hotdogs, going to Canalfest, and the Bills..miss the seasons, but the taxes are too, too high...
Ken East 73 here.We grew up a block from the line with the City by Ellicot Creek and we used to hang out at the Riv and the Star theater all the time. Those were great days. Thanks for posting. Go Bills.
Great on your video!!!!! Love seeing the old sights.
That was awesome ! Loved the music too! In the 1973 section there is an orange VW van next to the Texaco station,I’m pretty sure I was in the back trippin balls when that photo was taken.Perhaps that will provide chuckbflo a clear sense of what happened. Also very little of what was torn down was even remotely worth saving. I’m sure my lifelong phobia of public restrooms started in the Star Theatre.
I grew up around a lot of these old places! At the Star Theater, I saw the premier of "Let It Be". We use to eat at Zefffry's, Later Music, Jenn's Twin-Ton ....... Lots of memories
I remember Cooks drug store on main st. , four jokers magic shop. Haun’s and streakers bar. I grew up on Young and Ellicott creek.
I live here currently and This is amazing
Great Job Dennis!
This kind of destruction happened everywhere in the nation, courtesy of misguided federal policy and incompetent local leadership. This particular m series of images doesn't provide a very clear sense of what happened. And I had to turn-down that incessant soundtrack.
My Grandfather Kohler operated the Bascle Bridge in its hey-day!!
Remember the old bus terminal? It was just over the bridge and sat where McDonalds is now (I've been gone 20 yrs so McD might not be there anymore). Anyway, I remember taking the Wurlitzer bus "uptown" to go to Murphys and getting a burger and fries at the lunch counter inside. That bus terminal always smelled of pee and PinSol and I remember it was painted the most hideous green color on the inside.
That McDonald’s just closed down I think a year or two ago. Building might still be there, can’t remember if they put anything in there yet.
If you went to Murphys did you get the sub sandwiches? Still remember how good they were and its 55 years later! The toy department downstairs was amazing! We never ate at the lunch counter but I do remember it.
I remember when they got rid of the draw bridge that ran between NT and Tonawanda. Great video!
Lived in NT. So remember that area. Graduated '68.
Town of T for me, born there 64-71 & to East Amherst until 77. I was there last week from Chicago burbs by NFB & Maple/ Brighton what an explosion of stores/retail..Deltasonic Maybacks & McDonalds still there...They did a nice job on Boulevard mall.
Tonawanda native, lived in Gastown- was a kid at the time Urban Renewal was taking place so regrettably had no recollections of the buildings and businesses lost on Young and Niagara Street (except the Star Theater- vague memory of seeing my first movie there- Snow White- also riding an elevator in Jenss). As a general rule, Urban Renewal was a disaster wherever it occurred (currently live in Asheville, NC and their version took out an African American neighborhood- mostly spared its downtown as they had just as many boarded up buildings as most cities at that time and the city was still paying off Depression era debt so could not afford to rip anymore down). To be honest, most of these buildings were not architecturally or historically significant- coupled with the flight of folk to the Town of Tonawanda and Amherst, years of inflation plus closing of the factories, these mom-and-pop businesses were doomed to close. I played in the Tonawanda High School marching band that was present at the grand opening of the McDonald's- the first new business on the block at Main and Niagara in what was a vacant lot for 10 years, and as of the summer of 2022 up for sale (sure wish a developer would rip it down and all the 1980's crap buildings on the block and build some mixed-use- you need people to LIVE downtown i(and not just folk in the Senior Citizen tower-f you want it to thrive).
Twin Cities, keep hope alive- the West is running out of water, people in the South are tired of an A-C existence with brutal summer weather, and rising oceans coupled with climate change is making for tenuous living on the coasts. People will be moving back to the Rust Belt- so it snows and is cold...who cares when you have Internet if you don't want to venture out into it. Sure taxes are high- they are also high where people will be moving from (or in the case of Florida, they cannot afford the home insurance with the hurricane threat). The Tonawandas remain a very livable, walkable community- you have so much going for yourselves you don't realize it.
I still live here and a lot of stuff still looks the same. Great vid.
Pizza at La Nova's on Saturday night, haircuts at Twin City Barbers on Young St., Sunday movies at the Star.
I would have loved to see Dan Lazitche's candy and cig store (the blind gentleman). We went there all the time.
I remember all of this growing up in Tonawanda including the replacement of the old Bascule Bridge for the Renaissance Bridge
I remember riding over it on my bicycle, grated road deck.
Cool bass line my man!
My cousin worked at Jenns for years.
@3:56 The Train Robbers and Man In the Wilderness.
at 2:18 you can see the royal fort spent many a night there {topless bar}
Urban Renewal killed this city man
I forgot about the old Ford dealership on Niagara st. When I was a kid.
My maiden name was Anne Toporek, THS Class of '68, and I remember that dealership. It was Colonial Ford. There was also Millian Buick, on Delaware St. next to Delaware Lanes bowling.
What a shame it is just like smashing art work
An awful decision under poor leadership and never completed . Should be titled, “the making of a ghost town”
Urban Renewal: We're going to punish the physical landscape because federal dollars
Thanks to careless haphazard urban renewal, Tonawanda has hardly any downtown core left.
Some of those shots look like a train set town
So urban renewal is all about paving over the traffic circle with the country's coolest musical traffic indicators? Rot in hell urban renewal authority.
The only thing of value in Tonawanda was the musical traffic light and Twin-Ton.
And now its an attempt at gentrification by the Hipster crowd and their EXPENSIVE generic looking shops, but doesn't seem to be working out. This place has no soul. When this first started happening a couple years ago, I started to worry a lot about rent increases. But, by the way things are going now, I don't think I need to worry anymore! Downtown is a total fail, really! :)