pj3000
Dec 16, 2007, 10:05 PM
Why don't they just sink this thing? It would make a fine fish habitat. There is nothing the least bit appealing about its nautical design or history... it's just an old railroad barge. Cleveland and Erie have each had it moored for years at their waterfronts, and now Buffalo gets it back for the 2nd time. The California company that owns it just must love to pay monthly dockspace fees, as it has for well over a decade. I wonder if company representatives have ever actually seen it... if they had, they would realize that it wouldn't even make a good floating restaurant.
Buffalo's behemoth
Lurking Lansdowne now another city's eyesore, another city's problem
BY KEVIN FLOWERS
Published: December 16. 2007 6:00AM
http://geimg.sv.publicus.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=GE&Date=20071216&Category=NEWS02&ArtNo=712160461&Ref=AR&MaxW=240
Photographed on Dec. 3, the skeletal remains of the lake barge Lansdowne are moored at South End Marina along Fuhrmann Boulevard in Buffalo on Dec. 3. In 1999, a developer planned to make the 123-year-old, iron-hulled barge, which is the size of a football field, into a floating restaurant on Presque Isle Bay, but the deal unravelled. Its paddle wheel and pilot house were removed decades ago, and only its massive iron hull and the framework of its superstructure remain, giving the historic vessel a skeletonlike appearance. (SHARON CANTILLON/The Buffalo News)
One of Erie's most infamous waterfront eyesores -- the Lansdowne -- is gaining a similar reputation in Buffalo.
The Buffalo News reported on Dec. 4 that the skeletal, 123-year-old ferry barge is now moored at South End Marina along Fuhrmann Boulevard, a highly visible spot in Buffalo's Outer Harbor, which is along Lake Erie.
The Lansdowne, which was moored along Erie's west bayfront for seven years, recently lost its former, less-conspicuous docking site on the Buffalo River because of a change in property ownership. The vessel was towed to the Buffalo location, near HSBC Arena and Dunn Tire Park, in late November, according to the newspaper.
The barge, which has been stripped to its iron hull and the framework of its superstructure, has been kicked out of waterfronts in Erie, Cleveland and Buffalo since the mid-1990s.
Now it is back in Buffalo.
"Last thing I heard, I thought they were taking it to Toronto," said Raymond Schreckengost, executive director of the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority. "The fact that it was in Buffalo before, then sat in Erie all those years, and now is back in Buffalo, that's pretty weird."
Schreckengost was quoted in 2000 as saying that the dilapidated barge "looks fine to me." He has since changed his mind about the vessel.
"Someone's got to shoot that thing and put it out of its misery," Schreckengost said Friday.
The Lansdowne is owned by Anaheim, Calif.-based Specialty Restaurants Inc. and was brought to Erie in 1999.
Specialty officials had said it would be revamped as a floating restaurant, and stripped the barge to its shell. But the development never happened.
For years, many people called for the barge's skeletal remains to be removed from the waterfront. On Christmas Day 2005, the vessel partially sank.
Specialty had the Lansdowne towed by tugboat to Buffalo in July 2006. The company had been paying the Port Authority $1,000 a month to keep the Lansdowne in Erie, but the vessel had to be moved when construction of the Bayfront Convention Center began.
When contacted by the Buffalo News recently, a Specialty Restaurants representative declined to reveal the company's long-term plans for the Lansdowne. The Times-News could not reach representatives of the company on Friday.
Buffalo's behemoth
Lurking Lansdowne now another city's eyesore, another city's problem
BY KEVIN FLOWERS
Published: December 16. 2007 6:00AM
http://geimg.sv.publicus.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=GE&Date=20071216&Category=NEWS02&ArtNo=712160461&Ref=AR&MaxW=240
Photographed on Dec. 3, the skeletal remains of the lake barge Lansdowne are moored at South End Marina along Fuhrmann Boulevard in Buffalo on Dec. 3. In 1999, a developer planned to make the 123-year-old, iron-hulled barge, which is the size of a football field, into a floating restaurant on Presque Isle Bay, but the deal unravelled. Its paddle wheel and pilot house were removed decades ago, and only its massive iron hull and the framework of its superstructure remain, giving the historic vessel a skeletonlike appearance. (SHARON CANTILLON/The Buffalo News)
One of Erie's most infamous waterfront eyesores -- the Lansdowne -- is gaining a similar reputation in Buffalo.
The Buffalo News reported on Dec. 4 that the skeletal, 123-year-old ferry barge is now moored at South End Marina along Fuhrmann Boulevard, a highly visible spot in Buffalo's Outer Harbor, which is along Lake Erie.
The Lansdowne, which was moored along Erie's west bayfront for seven years, recently lost its former, less-conspicuous docking site on the Buffalo River because of a change in property ownership. The vessel was towed to the Buffalo location, near HSBC Arena and Dunn Tire Park, in late November, according to the newspaper.
The barge, which has been stripped to its iron hull and the framework of its superstructure, has been kicked out of waterfronts in Erie, Cleveland and Buffalo since the mid-1990s.
Now it is back in Buffalo.
"Last thing I heard, I thought they were taking it to Toronto," said Raymond Schreckengost, executive director of the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority. "The fact that it was in Buffalo before, then sat in Erie all those years, and now is back in Buffalo, that's pretty weird."
Schreckengost was quoted in 2000 as saying that the dilapidated barge "looks fine to me." He has since changed his mind about the vessel.
"Someone's got to shoot that thing and put it out of its misery," Schreckengost said Friday.
The Lansdowne is owned by Anaheim, Calif.-based Specialty Restaurants Inc. and was brought to Erie in 1999.
Specialty officials had said it would be revamped as a floating restaurant, and stripped the barge to its shell. But the development never happened.
For years, many people called for the barge's skeletal remains to be removed from the waterfront. On Christmas Day 2005, the vessel partially sank.
Specialty had the Lansdowne towed by tugboat to Buffalo in July 2006. The company had been paying the Port Authority $1,000 a month to keep the Lansdowne in Erie, but the vessel had to be moved when construction of the Bayfront Convention Center began.
When contacted by the Buffalo News recently, a Specialty Restaurants representative declined to reveal the company's long-term plans for the Lansdowne. The Times-News could not reach representatives of the company on Friday.
