The Boston Store

Erie, Pennsylvania

Circa 1950s

Meet Me Under the Clock

"Meet me under the clock", inside the store on the first floor .. a phrase that is sure to stir up fond memories of a longtime Erie landmark .. The Boston Store.  

Black and white wooden road sign mile markers told motorists every 15 miles how far they were from this downtown Erie department store, the shopping destination before plazas and malls changed the landscape, forever!  Many former Erie residents requested a mile marker that read the distance from their own home.  The Boston Store was happy to oblige with perhaps the farthest being in St. Paul, Minnesota which read 932 miles to the Boston Store in Erie.  In the 1930s the Boston Store placed these black and white signs every few miles on fifteen major roads leading to Erie.  They were first made of cypress, then redwood and alumnium.  In 1971, the Boston Store was required to remove all the signs as the result of the Highway Beautification Act which prohibited their placement near the roads though people wanted to remove the signs themselves and keep them as souvenirs! As a result, there are more than likely many throughout Erie area in resident homes being displayed, today!  Do you know anyone with one of these nostalgic sign?

Boston Store Shoppers

Circa 1930s

The Boston Store, originally known as the Erie Dry Goods store, opened in 1884 located at 1604 Peach Street.  The Erie Dry Goods failed in 1885 and a New York Company Sibley, Lindsay & Curr, owners of Sibley's Department Store in Rochester, New York purchased the Erie store.  Locals in Rochester called Sibley's "The Boston Store" which was apparently the reason for the name change. 

In 1887, the store moved to 718 State Street, site of the old Warner Brothers Theater.  By the late 1920s, the Boston Store expanded in size to have frontage on the four surrounding streets .. 7th and 8th, State and Peach. Renovations in 1931 and again from 1949 to 1953 increased the size of the store from three stories to five and eventually six. In 1953, modern escalators were installed and by 1966, air conditioning and sprinklers on every floor.  The building's landmark clock tower topped off the structure.

Clock Tower

 Boston Store on Right

Christmas on State Street

Circa 1960s

Erie Pennyslvania

Erie Dry Goods Co. During the Holiday Season

Notice the Large Street Level Window Displays

Ad in City Directory

Circa 1968

The Boston Store is a former department store located on State Street in downtown Erie, PA.  The store was found in 1885 with the building being constructed in 1929.  At its peak, two other Boston Stores were opened in addition to the downtown store.  The Boston Store closed in 1979 and the building remained abandoned until 1988 when it was renovated into a combination of 125 apartments on the upper five floors and a commercial building.  It was then renamed Boston Store Place.  On September 22, 2016 a casual pub and eatery opened on the ground floor.  

The Boston Store was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 24, 1996.  The Boston Store was bought by Associated Dry Goods in 1959.  Management of the Boston Store was assumed by Horne's Department Store of Pittsburgh in December 1975.  

Due to the loss of sales caused by competition from the Millcreek mall in nearby Millcreek Township, the Boston Store was closed on July 7, 1979 though the Boston Store did open branches at the West Erie Plaza in 1968 and at the Millcreek Mall in 1974.

A Friendly Cashier Waiting to Assist Customers

The Easel facing the Women indicates a Store Contest was being held.

It was a gentleman by the name of Elisha H. Mark who bought the bankrupt Erie Dry Goods Store.  Mack renamed the store after Boston, Massachusetts, then the "perceived center of fashion and culture".  The store was moved from its original location on Peach Street to the 700 block of State Street in 1886.

The Boston Store had a cafeteria in the basement and a dining room on the 6th floor which many shoppers recall to this day!

Cafeteria 

Dining Room

A Boston Store Luncheon Menu

Providence, Rhode Island

Circa 1929

Beauty Shop

One of Several Decorative Tile and Porcelain Fountains 

throughout the Boston Store

Revolving Charge Account 

issued to

Mrs. Frank Alonge

 

Wurlitzer 1015

One of the most coveted jukebox models is the Wurlitzer 1015.  Introduced in 1946, this iconic machine became an instant sensation with its vibrant colors and elegant design.  The 1015 was forward-thinking and the perfect machine for a war-weary nation that wanted to .. dance into the future!

Wurlitzer in North Tonawanda, NY famous for organ production also made jukeboxes.  The 1015 sold to distributors for $750 and the demand was enormous.  In 1946 and 1947, a time when the average manufacturing production run for a new jukebox was 10,000, Wurlitzer shipped 56, 246 of the 1015.  The company stoked the public's appetite with the largest promotional campaign.  The success of the 1015 ushered in a great postwar boom in the jukebox business.  The number of jukeboxes soared from four hundred thousand just after the war to a high of about seven hundred thousand in the fifties.  

What happened then is a sad, familiar story.  The interstate highway system drove countless little roadhouses out of business.  Portable radios got smaller and cheaper. Home phonographs got better and cheaper.  Top 40 radio took over as the arbiter of the hits.  Wurlitzer saw the writing on the wall and diversified.  By 1973, jukeboxes which had once accounted for 80 percent of its revenues made up just 15 percent.  In 1974, as the strains of the polka "Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye" played, the company shut down its jukebox production line in North Tonawanda.  Today there are only about 225,000 jukeboxes operating in America.

The 1015, though, has survived its time.  It is the single most sought-after piece among jukebox collectors.  A reconditioned 1015 may fetch as much as thirteen thousands dollars, today!  Scholars of pop culture may see in it the perfect expression of a precise moment in twentieth-century history, a confluence of trends in economics, entertainment and material technology.  The 1015 is just that!  To collectors, it is something else!  A gaudy, romantic, beautiful thing that stands five feet high, glows in the dark and plays great music. *

*My high school had a 1015 that was wheeled out into the gymnasium after basketball games from nearby Coach Wally Johnson's office for after-the-game dances.  It is one of my favorite high school memories because it stood five feet high, glowed in the dark and played great music. 

Charleston Chew Vanilla is a candy bar consisting of marshmallow flavored nougat covered in a chocolate flavored coating.  It was created in 1922 by the Fox-Cross Candy Company and founded by stage actor, Donley Cross and his friend Charlie Fox.  The candy was named after the Charleston, a popular dance at the time. 

The company was purchased in 1957 by Nathan Sloane. Although Sloane did not invent the Charleston Chew, he did change original chocolate-covered vanilla nougat's original form.  In the 1970s, he introduced such new flavors as chocolate and strawberry.  Warner-Lambert purchased Charleston Chew from RJR Nabisco in 1988, then Tootsie Roll Industries purchased the brand in 1993.  "Mini Charleston Chews" are a bit-sized, similarly-shaped version of the candy bar introduced in 1998.

 

The Heath bar is a candy bar made of toffee, almonds and milk chocolate.  It was first manufactured by the Heath Brothers Confectionery in 1928.  The Heath bar has been manufactured and distributed by Hershey since its acquisition of the Leaf International North American confectionery operations late in 1996.

In 1913, school teacher L.S. Heath bought a confectionery shop in Robinson, Illinois as a likely business opportunity for his oldest sons, Bayard and Everett.  In 1914, the brothers opened a combined candy story, ice cream parlor and manufacturing operation there.  With the success of the business, the elder Heath became interested in manufacturing ice cream and opened a small dairy factory in 1915.  His sons worked on expanding their confectionery business.  At some point, they reportedly acquired a toffee recipe, via a traveling salesman, from Vriner's Greek Confectionery in Champaign, Illinois.  In 1928, they began marketing the toffee confection locally as "Heath English Toffee" proclaiming it "America's Finest".

In 1931, Bayard and Everett were persuaded by their father to sell their confectionery shop and work at his dairy.  They brought their candy-making equipment with them and established a retail business there.  The Heaths came up with the marketing idea of including their toffee confection on the dairy products order form taken around by the Heath dairy trucks.  Customers could then order Heath bars to be delivered along with milk and cottage cheese.  

Early ads promoted Heath as a virtual health bar .. only the best milk chocolate and almonds, creamery butter and "pure sugar cane".  The motto at the bottom of one ad read "Heath for better health!"  The motto was surrounded by illustrations of milk, cream, butter, cheese, ice cream and in a corner of the ad .. a Heath bar and a bottle of soda.  The soda may have been Pepsi as the Heath Co. bottled the drink for a number of years. 

The Heath bar grew in national popularity during the Depression, despite its one-ounce size and the 5-cent price, equal to larger bars.

In 1940, family members invested in one of the few available oil leases near Newton, Illinois which had been overlooked by major oil companies.  In July 1940, the lease struck oil eventually pumping 2,700 barrels per day and earning over $1 million for the family.  Two years later in 1942, the U.S. Army placed an order for $175,000 of Heath Bars to be included in soldiers' rations.  The size of this order led the family to modernize the plant equipment.  The candy was manufactured consistently on a major commercial scale thereafter.  

Popularity of the Heath Bars grew after the war.  In 1946, L.S. Heath, his four sons, two daughters and grandchildren incorporated L.S. Heath & Sons, Inc.  The manufacturing process remained largely a hands-on, family-run operation.  In the 1950s, the Heath Toffee Ice Cream Bar was developed and was eventually franchised to other dairies.   By 1955, the operation had grown to produce at 69,000 candy bar centers at one time.  The automatic wrapping machines turned out 1,600 candy bars per minute.  The company had 35 candy salesen who called on appproximately 7,200 wholesale distributors in the United States along with thousands of other outlets such as theatres, vending machines, supermarkets and chain stores.

In the 1960s the huge national success of the Heath Bar lead to disagreements within the family with at least one grandchild, Richard J. Heath being expelled from the business in 1969.  He eventually published a book in 1995  .. Bittersweet:  The Story of the Heath Candy Co.  The book tells the inspiring story of how L.S. Heath rose above the deprivations and humiliations of early poverty.

Bittersweet details one of the sweetest success stories in American business, the Heath family and the complex relationships among family members.  It shows how the Heath family business grew from a small-town ice cream parlor and confectionery to a successful national company, spanning the early pioneer days to the present and gives some insight into America's national psyche.  

Co-Author, Ray Elliott grew up in a small Southern Illinois town and longed to see the world. Throughout his travels, he's been a novelist, a Marine, an English and journalism teacher, an oilfield roughneck and a newspaper columnist.  He's been many things and visited many places, but his passion has been constant: to tell stories that touch people's lives and truthfully explore the effects of war, the power of family and the resiliency of the human spirit.  

hersheyland.com/heathbar

oldtimecandy.com

Cracker Jack's mascots were Sailor Jack and his dog, Bingo.  They were introduced as early as 1916 and registered as a trademark in 1919.  

Cracker Jack is an American brand of snack food that consists of molasses-flavored, caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts, well-known for being packaged with a prize of trivial value inside.  The Cracker Jack name and slogan, "The More You Eat the More You Want" were registered in 1896.  Food author, Andrew F. Smith has called it the first junk food.  Cracker Jack was once owned by The Cracker Jack Company/Borden.  Today, the owner is PepsiCo (via Frito-Lay).  

Cracker Jack is famous for its connection to baseball lore.  The Cracker Jack brand has been owned and marketed by Frito-Lay since 1997.  Frito-Lay announced in 2016 the toy gift would no longer be provided having been replaced with a QR code which can be used to download a baseball-themed game.  Cracker Jack originally included a small "mystery" novelty item referred to as a "Toy Surprise" in each box.  The tagline for Cracker Jack was originally "Candy-coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize", but has since become "Caramel-coated popcorn & peanuts" under Frito-Lay. 

Prizes were included in every box of Cracker Jack beginning in 1912.  One of the first prizes was in 1914 when the company produced the first of two Cracker Jack baseball card issues which featured players from both major leagues.  C. Carey Cloud and his company called Cloudcrest was best known as a designer and producer of hundreds of different prizes for Cracker Jack from the 1930s through the 1960s. It is estimated that Cloud created, produced and delivered to the Cracker Jack Company 700 million toys!  Early "toy surprises" included rings, plastic figurines, booklets, stickers and decoder rings.  Books have been written cataloging the prizes and a substantial collector's market exists. 

Until 1937, Cracker Jack toy prizes were made in Japan.  Many metal toys were also made by Tootsie Toy who also made Monopoly game markers.  During WWII, the prizes were made of paper.  

In the 1961 movie Breakfast at TIffany's, the lead couple played by Audrey Hepburn and George goes to Tiffany and Co. where they have a ring from a box of Cracker Jack engraved.  

Each July from 1982 to 1985, Cracker Jack sponsored an Old-Timers Classic game featuring former MLB players, held at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.  On June 16, 1993 the 100th anniversary of Cracker Jack was celebrated at Wrigley Field during the game between the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins.  Before the game Sailor Jack, the company's mascot threw out the ceremonial first pitch.  

In 2004, the New York Yankees baseball team replaced Cracker jack with the milder, sweet butter toffee-flavored Crunch'n Munch at home games.  After public outcry, the club switched back to Cracker Jack.  

Cracker Jack is known for being commonly sold at baseball games and is mentioned in the American standard, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". 

Similar popcorn coated products were Fiddle Faddle and Poppycock. The history of Poppycock is uncertain.  According to Lincoln Snacks, Poppycock was invented by Howard Vair in the 1950s as a snack to accompany him on road trips.  In 1960, Wander, a Swiss company bought the rights to Poppycock and moved production to their Villa Park, Illinois facility.  In 1969, a snack matching the description of Poppycock was patented by Arnold Rebane, who workd for the Wander Company.  In 1991, Lincoln Snacks Company acquired Poppycock and on September 7, 2007 Lincoln Snacks was purchased by ConAgra Foods.  The product is also now cross-branded with the Orville Redenbacher's brand of popcorn.

Fiddle Faddle is a candy-coated popcorn produced by ConAgra Foods.  Introduced in 1967, the snack is commonly found in US discount and drug stores.  It consists of popped popcorn covered with either caramel or better toffee and mixed with peanuts.  

fritolay.com/crackerjack

 

The Legendary Busby Berkeley 

Busby's real name was Berkeley William Enos (1895-1976) though known professionally as Busby Berkeley, an American film director and musical choreographer noted for  elaborate dancing-girl extravaganzas. Berkeley devised elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns.  Berkeley's works used large numbers of showgirls and props as fantasy elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances.  

During the 1920s, Berkeley was a dance instructor for nearly two dozen Broadway musicals including hits such as A Connecticut Yankee (1927) and No, No, Nanette (1971).  As a choreographer, Berkeley was less concerned with the dancing skills of his chorus girls as he was with their ability to form themselves into attractive geometric patterns.  His musical numbers were among the larger and better-regimented on Broadway.  His earliest film work was in Samuel Goldwyn's Eddie Cantor musicals where he began developing such techniques as a "parade of faces" (individualizing each chorus girl with a loving close-up) and moving his dancers all over the stage (and often beyond) in as many kaleidoscopic patterns as possible and often times shot from overhead.  

'By a Waterfall"

Production Number from the film, Footlight Parade 

Circa 1933

One of the largest soundstages ever built and specially constructed

by

Warner Bros. to film Berkeley's creations.

Berkeley's popularity with an entertainment-hungry Depression audience was secured when he choreographed five musicals back-to-back for Warner Bros that included 42nd Street. 

Una Merkel, Ruby Keeler and Ginger Rogers

Movie Stars in 42nd Street

 

 

June 14

Flag Day

The flag of the United States is a symbol of freedom before which Americans recite the pledge of allegiance.  The flag's 13 red and white stripes represent the 13 original colonies.  Its 50 white stars on a blue background represent the 50 states.  The last two states to join the Union were Alaska (49th) and Hawaii (50th).  Both joined in 1959.

It is believed Betsy Ross made the first American flag.  As legend goes, it was George Washington and two other members of the Continental Congress who asked Ross to sew the first American flag sometime in the late spring of 1776.  The young widow was only in her early 20s when she completed the first flag with thirteen stars arranged in a circle.  

On June 14, 1777 Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the official flag for the United States of America.

Since then, Americans have fought and died to preserve the ideals of democracy represented by our flag.  In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson officially established June 14th as Flag Day.  

Why red, white and blue?  Red stands for hardiness and courage, white for purity and innocence and blue for vigilance and justice.  

 The History of Route 66

Route 66 was one of the original highways in the United States numbered highway system.  It was established on November 11, 1926 with road signs erected the following year.  The highway which became one of the most famous roads in the United States ran from Chicago, Illinois through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona before terminating in Santa Monica, California covering a total of 2,448 miles!

It was recognized in popular culture by both the 1946 hit song, Get Your Kicks on Route 66 and the Route 66 television series which aired on CBS from 1960-1964.  Route 66 starred Martin Milner (1931-2015) as Tod and George Maharis (1928-2023) as Buz.  

These two young men full of adventure took to America's highways in their Chevrolet Corvette for 116 episodes which aired over four seasons from October 7, 1960 to March 20, 1964.  It was broadcast in black and white appearing on Friday nights on CBS.  Despite the name of the series, most episodes didn't take place on the historic road, but in 25 different U.S. states, all on location.  Television viewers were treated to episodes filmed in Carson City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Santa Fe, Reno, Tucson, Dallas and many more filming locales.  Numerous sites were used for filming such as an offshore oil ring, shrimp boats, a logging camp, an old ferry, Riverside Raceway and the Glen Canyon Dam none of which were actually on Route 66.  After appearing in 82 episodes, Maharis left the series during the third season citing health issues.  He was replaced by American actor, Glen Corbett (1933-1993).

A long list of well-known actors and actresses appeared on the series including Ed Asner, Peter Lorre, Barbara Eden, Jack Lord, Cloris Leachman, Tuesday Weld, William Shatner, Joan Crawford, Julie Newmar, Martin Sheen, James Caan and Lee Marvin. The television series featured an instrumental theme song written by Nelson Riddle (1921-1985). Riddle was an American arranger, composer and bandleader whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s.  He also wrote the theme song for such shows as The Andy Griffth Show, Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, The Steve Allen Show, Sing Along with Mitch, My Three Sons and The Untouchables. 

Route 66 is one of the most popular highways in the country, if not the most-popular especially for car enthusiasts. Despite its popularity, there are a number of neat bits of information that not many people know about regarding The Mother Road .. 

Route 66 was constructed as an efficient way to travel between Chicago and Los Angeles.  By the end of the 1920s, car ownership grew to 23 million vehicles.  This mounting mobility by the American driving public resulted in increased traffic with people wishing to traverse the country.  The problem was that there was no easy-to-follow road between Chicago and Los Angeles.  The newly-formed U.S. Route 66 Association described the road as the "shortest, best and most scenic route from Chiaco through St. Louis to Los Angeles".

The "father" of Route 66 was a Tulsa businessman.  Cyrus Avery came to Indian Territory from Missouri in 1904 to work as an insurance agent.  He later expanded into real estate lending and invested in the oil and gas industry.  He moved to Tulsa in 1907 and in 1908 bought a farm near Tulsa.  Avery soon realized that a system of interstate highways would help Tulsa and was impressed with the Good Roads Movement in Missouri and in Oklahoma.  After working tirelessly for better roads,  he was elected president of the Highway Associations of America.  Eventually, Avery joined with businessman, John Woodruff to promote a single road that would link the Midwest to the West.  While he envisioned a highway spanning half the nation, his motives were actually more local.  By building a highway through Oklahoma, he surmised he could siphon traffic and traveler's money away from cities like Denver and Kansas City.  In 1925, the United States Secretary of Agriculture appointed him to the Joint Board of Interstate Highways which was tasked with disignating and marking federal highways.  In 1926, the Federal Highway System was approved by Congress, setting in motion the creation of  Route 66.

Roosevelt's New Deal helped complete Route 66.  Although Route 66 officially opened in 1926, it was not even close to being finished.  The Great Depression which started in 1929 put thousands of young men out of work.  As part of the New Deal, many of these men went ot work on roads.  Thanks to the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Project Administration, Route 66 was fully paved by 1938.

John Steinbeck coined the term "Mother Road".  In his iconic Great Depression-era novel The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck weaves a tale of a poor family who flees Oklahoma for California during the Dust Bowl.  The group travels west on Route 66 along with fellow migrants.  Steinbeck wrote 66 is the path of people in flight.  66 is the mother road, the road of flight.

Route 66 was almost Route 62.  During the numbering of routes regarding U.S. 62 and U.S. 60 and Kentucky threatening to leave the new highway system, Kentucky offered a compromise connecting their highway system with Avery's in Illinois and assign the number 60.  Avery could have his Chicago to Los Angeles highway if he would accept the number 62 which was originally assigned.  For some reason, Avery detested the number 62 and found out 66 was not being used.  He then designated the Chicago to Los Angeles higway as U.S. 66.

Black Americans were barred from many businesses on Route 66.  Most white-owned businesses along Route 66 refused to serve black people and half the counties along the route were white.  There were communities called "sundown towns" that erected signs warning Black Americans they had to leave the city liits before dark.  The few businesses that served black customers were listed in publications like "The Negro Motorist Green Book" which informed black travelers where they could safely stop.*  

*This disturbing information is not one that I wanted to include though felt it should be mentioned as it is part of Route 66's history.

Route 66 is sometimes called the "Will Rogers Highway".  Oklahoma's favorite son set out on Route 66 to pursue a career in Hollywood and he often wrote about it in his syndicated columns.  After Rogers' untimely death in a plane crash, a congressional resolution was introduced to name the highway in his honor.

Southern Illinois

Route 66

..it all started with a dream to bring skiing to the region..

The story of Peek'n Peak begins in 1963 when a gentleman by the name of Phil Gravin shared his dream to bring skiing to the southwest corner of New York State.  On paper, it seemed like the perfect as the area lies in the snowbelt just above the Lake Erie ridge where warm, moist air is carried from the lake to meet the cooler inland air.  The natural mixture of hot and cold air brings more than 200 inches of snow, on average, to the region.

Gravink, who skied in college at Cornell University, discussed his plan with George Boozel who owned some land on Pekin Hill.  Myrl Babcock, Jim Caflisch and Jack Dean pooled their money and landed some investors to create Western Chautauqua Recreation, Inc. 

The partners acquired 400 acres of property in 1964/1965 and started to think of names for their idea.  Since the ski slopes are located on what was known as Pekin Hill which was the homestead of the Pekin family the name Peek'n Peak was chosen for the name of the ski resort. 

Otto Schneibs came from Lake Placid to design the trail layouts knowing the 400' vertical drop would provide enjoyment for future generations.  

An Old English theme was adopted naming the first slopes and trails Robin Hood's Retreat, Long Bow, Scarlet's Secret, Friar Tuck's Trek and Little John's Jaunt.  Olde Road was moved to accommodate the ski areas.  The offices and ticket sales were housed in an old school bus.  With the property in place, the name chosen and with high hopes of attracting not only area skiers, but skiers from Ohio and Pennsylvania as well Peek'n Peak opened in the winter of 1964-1965.

The resort featured two ski lifts (J-Bar and T-Bar), six slopes/trails and lift tickets priced at $4.50 on weekends, $3.00 for the beginner area and a 50 cent discount for weekday tickets.  Because there were no lights on the slopes, the lifts were operated only during the day.  The main lodge was soon built, but was less than half the size of the ski lodge, today. 

The Scott family (Scott Enterprises) from Erie, Pennsylvania fell in love with Peek'n Peak's charm and potential purchasing the property in 2011.  Today, Peek'n Peak is a four-season resort offering year-round fun for families, couples, friends and groups.  Snow groomers and snow guns make snow throughout the winter season.  Skiers and snowboarders enjoy 27 illuminated ski slopes and trails, state-of-the-art lifts which are available for every skill level.  The resort features a championship golf course, a luxury day spa, indoor and outdoor pools and the restaurant/lounge in the lodge (Bistro 210).

The Bistro 210 Sign on the Left in the Photo Reads..

Snow, it's what we're famous for and we sure do get a lot.  Named after the 210 inches of average snowfall, Bistro 210 celebrates the heart, soul and nostalgia of the first 50 years at Peek'n Peak Resort.

After a long day on the slopes or golf course, the atmosphere at Bistro 210 allows you to kick back and relax. 

The 108-room Inn at the Peak offers luxury accommodations.  Condominium rentals are also available for guests and large groups.  

Shea's Performing Arts Center

Shea's Buffalo broke ground January 15, 1925 and opened January 16, 1926 taking only a year and a day to build the entire theatre. When it opened it featured silent movies.  Construction cost $1.8 million ..  $31.6 million in 2023 dollars.   The architects were Rapp Brothers.  Shea's Buffalo was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1975.  The theater's Mighty Wurlitzer was a custom design built by the Wurlitzer Company and was one of the only 5 in the world that had tonal finishing, provided directly from the Wurlitzer factory after it had been installed in the theater.  

The organ was used as a demonstrator by the Wurlitzer factory in nearby North Tonawanda whenever a visiting customer wanted to hear an example of a 4 manual (keyboard) organ. Built originally to provide silent film accompaniment like many of the thousands of instruments like it, fell into disrepair, rarely being heard in the 1940s and 1950s. It was made operational by the American Theatre Organ Enthusiasts for a series of memorable concerts.  

Shea's Buffalo Theatre, opened under the moniker of "The Wonder Theatre" and was the dream of Michael Shea.  Originally serving as a movie house under Paramount Pictures iwht "an acre of seats", it would later stage vaudeville shows and play host to the likes of the Marx Brothers, Frank Sinatra, George Burns, Bob Hope and others in the 1930s.  Later in the 1970s to save the theatre from demolition, a group of concerned people formed The Friends of Buffalo Theatre.  This not-for-profit organization worked to bring about a preliminary restoration and was responsible for getting Shea's placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1975.  Over the past 20 years, there has been over $30 million in restoration completed, all by volunteers, at Shea's which allows Buffalo to keep the only surviving Tiffany designed theatre in magnificent condition for their patrons and the community. 

The Shea's Buffalo was the jewel in Michael Shea's theatre crown.  Shea's entertainment empire began with a single Buffalo music hall in 1882 and eventually included theatres as far away as Toronto, Canada. Seating almost 3,500 people and with an architectural design by eminent theatre architects Cornelius Ward Rapp & George L. Rapp the Tiffany Studios interior scheme is a baroque design of rich colors and textures in which light dances off the gilding, stenciled silver and prisms that hang from the chandeliers.  Louis C. Tiffany designs for Shea's Buffalo were carried out and were recently restored as part of Shea's Performing Arts Center. 

The theatre located at 646 Main Street was opened to first show silent movies. Present day seat capacity is 3,019. The general contractor firm was John Gill & Sons. Shea's boasts one of the few theatre organs in the United States that is still in operation in the theatre for which it was designed.  

The theatre's "Mighty Wurlitzer" was a custom design by the Wurlitzer Company and was one of only 5 in the world that had *tonal finishing, provided directly from the Wurlitzer factory, after it had been installed in the theatre.  The organ was used as a demonstrator by the Wurlitzer factory, in nearby North Tonawanda, whenever a visiting customer wanted to hear an example of a 4 manual (keyboard) organ installed in a theatre.  (The demonstrator for a 3 manual (keyboard) organ was the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda, New York.

In 2006, to commemorate the theater's 80th birthday, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of conductor, JoAnn Falletta played a concert with Anthony Newman playing the organ.  Highlights of the program included selections from The Phantom of the Opera.  

*The final step in any organ project is tonal finishing. It is the painstaking on-site voicing or regulating that matches each pipe and stop to the room.  This two-person process can take weeks to months to complete and requires careful listening from different places throughout the building.  An organ cannot be properly regulated at the factory.  The effects of the size of the organ, the resonance of the chambers, the size of the venue and the acoustics of the building all come into play. 

The organ is set to be ready in time for the center's 100th anniversary in January 2026.  The nearly $400,000 renovation of Shea's Mighty Wurlitzer is well underway and should be completed on schedule.  The renovation consisted of seven stages which started in 2020.  The organ is one of the top Wurlitzers in North America.

Shea's Wurlitzer organ is a global asset and a unique part of our city that needs to be recognized. It's a legacy of Buffalo's Golden Age, but its excellence remains evident today

Robert Brunschmid, Shea's Director of Operations 

The project has been funded by a $20,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo as well as $25,000 from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Legacy Funds at the Community Foundation.  The organ was built in North Tonawanda by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. and was installed in December 1925 for $72,500 or about $1.15 million today.  This organ is one of 12 in the world that is still in the building that it was originally installed.  After a concert given as part of the American Theatre Organ Society annual conference at Shea's in July 2019, Ken Double of ATOS gave the following quote.

I cannot emphasize to you in any stronger terms the 'gold standard' of the theatre pipe organ that sits in those chamber at Shea's Buffalo.  It is not simple hyperbole, but fact.  If one were ranking or awarding top honors for the finest sounding theatre organ in the world, Shea's Buffalo could be arguably No. 1 and most certainly top three."

sheas.org