What It Looked Like Wednesday: Main approaching Chippewa, 1950

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

A glistening nighttime shot of Buffalo’s “Great White Way,” better known now as the Main Street Theater District.

Buffalo News archives

The most famous lights of the strip would have been captured had the photographer turned around. Behind him are the neon and incandescent glows of Shea’s Buffalo, Laube’s Old Spain, the Hippodrome, the Town Casino and more.

All of the signs and most of the buildings visible near the corner of Main and Chippewa in this photo from 66 years ago were replaced by banking high rises in the ’80s and ’90s.

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Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.