By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
When Buffalo attorney John Nasca opened the first Twin Fair at the corner of Walden Avenue and Dick Road in 1956, the retailer became Western New York’s first discount department store.
Beyond discount retailing, Twin Fair made every attempt to offer all that a postwar suburban family could want at a single location. That first Twin Fair included a Kiddie Land parking lot amusement park, as well as the Twin Drive-In theater across Walden.
Aerial view of Walden Avenue, 1958. Decades before the building of the Walden Galleria, Cheektowaga High School might be the easiest landmark to identify. The on- and off-ramps of the Thruway at the bottom help situate the rest of the photo. Following along Walden, in the distance, both the Twin Drive-In and Twin Fair can be seen.
That’s the corner of a Fotomat in the Twin Fair parking lot in Tonawanda. In the distance is the late, beloved, Whale Car Wash. All three of these landmarks had vanished by the mid 80s.
The notion of suburban splendor continued at three more stores by 1959, including on Niagara Falls Boulevard at Sheridan Drive and Transit Road near Wehrle Drive. On Eggert Road in Tonawanda, Twin Fair operated at various times amidst the Fun & Games Amusement Park, He’s & She’s Disco Nightclub, the whale car wash and a Fotomat.
In 1971, Twin Fair reached more than $100 million in sales in stores in three states. By 1973, there were 13 Twin Fair stores in the Buffalo area and 11 in the Cincinnati area, with plans for another 15 stores on the drawing board.
While many of the former Twin Fair locations live on as Tops, Big Lots and other retail outlets, the former Twin Fair location probably remembered best by South Buffalonians was torn down only within recent memory.
Check-out at the Seneca Street Twin Fair location.
After serving as the home of Gold Circle, Hills and Ames, that South Buffalo/city line location had been eyed by different developers after years of vacancy. Plans for a Walmart on the site never materialized, but in 2014, the old Twin Fair was torn down, and a 100-unit building for those living with mental illness was built on the spot.
In 1960, Twin Fair opened a 70,000-square-foot, million-dollar store on the site of Mixer & Co. on Elmwood Avenue near the Kenmore line. The plans called for an 18-hole miniature golf course on the site as well.
A rendering of the Elmwood Avenue location with miniature golf course and Channel 4’s studios in the background.
Located next to the Channel 4 studios where Tops now stands — the Elmwood Avenue store was one of 16 Twin Fair locations up for sale around Western New York as West Seneca-based Twin Fair Inc. looked to pay off debts in 1981. Eight Hens & Kelly locations, bought by the Twin Fair parent company in 1978, also were put up for sale. The future of more than 4,000 Twin Fair employees were hanging in the balance.
Hens & Kelly locations closed the following year, while Twin Fair was bought by Federated Department Stores. Many of the Twin Fair locations then became Gold Circle stores, before they were sold off in 1988.
Elmwood Avenue Twin Fair, early 80s.
In 1991, this particular Twin Fair/Gold Circle building gave way for what was billed as a “Tops Super Center,” replacing a smaller Tops Market on Kenmore Avenue at Grove Street. That location became a Vix Pharmacy, and is now a Price Rite market.
