By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
This photo of Main Street was snapped just before a handful of 1980s projects would change the thoroughfare’s look and feel forever.
Buffalo News archives
Absent are the MetroRail, the Hyatt, the TGI Friday’s/Comfort Suites building, the former KeyTower and the former Goldome Headquarters (now used by M&T).
Buffalo News archives
In the very foreground of this section of the larger photo, there’s the two-floor Burger King at Main and Mohawk, and the Century Theatre next door. You can also see some of the storefronts in the ground level of what is now the Hyatt.
Buffalo News archives
This photo shows more of what is now the Hyatt and the beginning of the clearing of buildings for Fountain Plaza on the west side of Main. On the east side, the buildings soon to be cleared for the Goldome headquarters are still intact, as are the buildings which would make way for TGI Friday’s north of Chippewa Street.
Buffalo News archives
The area known for a generation now as the Theater District was a block more or less in disrepair.