Tag Archives: retail history

Free Coloring Book! “Color Historic Buffalo” 

A coloring book of historic buildings in Buffalo New York. All illustrations in this coloring book were adapted from the book Buffalo Illustrated: Commerce, Trade and Industries of Buffalo, published in 1890 by Anderson & Gillette and the Courier Printing Company. The copy used to create this book as well as many other wonderful items can be found in the SUNY Buffalo State College Archives and Special Collections.

Source: “Color Historic Buffalo” by Josh Rakower M.E., M.L.S.

Download it here: 

 

 

Before I forget- NY Designer Fabrics is having a 15% sitewide sale! (affiliate link)

Easter Sale is ON. Use Code: EASTER15 at Checkout and Get 15% OFF Site Wide
Use Code: EASTER15
Easter Sale is ON. Use Code: EASTER15 at Checkout and Get 15% OFF Site Wide

 

 

Torn down Tuesday: Make way for the Main Place Mall – BN Chronicles

From the roof of AM&A’s in 1960, very few of the buildings seen here would still be standing a decade later. While the venerable Buffalo retailing names like Tanke and Ulbrich, which dated back to the 1850s and 1870s, would hold on until the 1980s, the buildings they’d called home for generations would not. Most of the block was torn…

Source: Torn down Tuesday: Make way for the Main Place Mall – BN Chronicles

Plum Jelly – vintage Loblaws recipe

Plum Jelly - vintage Loblaws recipe

Course: Side Dish
Servings: 42 oz.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups plum juice
  • 4 cups sugar
  • 1 box fruit pectin powdered
  • 3/4 cup cold water

Instructions

  • To Prepare the Juice: Crush fully ripe plums. (Do not peel or pit). Add 3/4 cup of water, bring to a boil, simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Place in jelly cloth or bag; squeeze out juice. Measure 3 cups into very large saucepan.
  • To make the jelly: Measure sugar; set aside. Place saucepan holding juice over high heat. Add powdered fruit pectin; stir until mixture comes to a hard boil. At once stir in sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil; boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly.
  • Remove from heat, skim, pour quickly into glasses. Seal at once.

Notes

*note recipe indicates using Paraffin to seal the jars. That is an outdated way of canning/ preserving. I have purposely left out processing time to make the jelly "shelf stable". Instead I would suggest storing the jelly in the refrigerator.
 

As always printer friendly copies:

Rainbow Centre Mall & more dead retail

I really hate falling into rabbit holes and today I blame the guys over at Forgotten Buffalo.com (and facebook) for today’s rabbit hole. The Rainbow Centre mall was part of the dystopian future envisioned by the proponents of Urban Renewal (aka tear down any interesting 19th century buildings and replace them with stuff designed by Brutalist style flunkies). I can’t fault the designers of the Rainbow Center too much- the inside was modern and very cool- the outside had all the stylings of a soviet era parking ramp (well considering that it was built inside of a parking ramp…)


Why yes, Google Street view comes in handy again…

This lovely view is what people coming from the falls itself would see- again so inviting:

The first view of the parking ramp err mall from Canada:

And people wondered why people think of the American side of the falls as being ugly…

A few newspaper clippings from 1982

Rainbow Center Mall article 1982
Rainbow Center Mall article 1982
Rainbow Centre Mall Opening Day ad, 1982
Rainbow Centre Mall Opening Day ad, 1982

List of stores opening day, July 2, 1982

BON APPETIT* Food Court

  • Fine Dining and Dancing at Scruples Restaurant
  • Great Hot Dog Experience
  • Haagen-Daz Ice Cream
  • Otto’s Carmel Corn
  • Hitching Post Too
  • It’s Greek To Me
  • Palis Hamburg
  • Rainbow Salad
  • Hagel Brothers
  • BoBo Chinese
  • Chez Chocolat
  • Funnel Cakery
  • Nellie’s 1900
  • Mi PI Pizza

FOR FASHION

  • Stella’s Tots to Teens
  • Casual Corner
  • DlSalvo Shoe
  • Bit and Spur Western Shop
  • Kinney Shoes
  • Pappagallo’s
  • Tres Bien
  • Matteo’s
  • The Gap
  • Beir’s Department Store

FOR GIFTS TO GIVE AND SOME TO KEEP

  • Green Onion Kitchen Shoppe
  • The Remembrance Shoppe
  • Cretonne Fabric Gallery
  • The Diamond Mine
  • Ports of the Orient
  • Embraceable Zoo
  • Morey’s Jewelers
  • Have a Heart
  • Self Reliance
  • Tourist Trap
  • Wild Tops

FOR FAMILIES AND FUN

  • Varsity Sporting Goods
  • Time Out Amusements
  • Lindsay Photo
  • Cavages Records
  • Waldenbooks
  • Radio Shack

FOR HEALTH AND BEAUTY

  • Rite Aid
  • General Nutrition
  • Lotions & Potions
  • Andrew’s Cosmetique
  • Your Father’s Mustache

A few other random ads I found in the rabbit hole

Elmwood Liquors
Elmwood Liquors
Lockport mall
Lockport mall- now the site of Walmart
Hills
Hills