OVER 2.5 YEARS AGO SINATRA & COMPANY HASTILY DEMOLISHED 184 WEST UTICA, A HOME DEEMED A LOCAL LANDMARK. THE HOME WAS OCCUPIED FOR OVER 100 YEARS PRIOR (1907 - 2008). THE “PARKHURST TOWNHOMES” PROJECT NEVER HAPPENED. THE RESIDENTS ARE LEFT WITH AN EMPTY OVER GROWN LOT, WHILE SINATRA & COMPANY REDUCES ITS TAX BILL. SINATRA & COMPANY CONTINUES TO OVER PROMISE AND UNDER DELIVER. THE BEST PREDICTOR OF FUTURE BEHAVIOR IS PAST BEHAVIOR.
184 West Utica Buffalo, NY - July 2022
Sinatra & Company began demolishing the house at 184 West Utica Buffalo, NY 14222 on February 27, 2020. This is within 48 hours of the Buffalo Preservation Board recommending it be designated a local landmark and roughly 24 hours of receiving the demolition permit.
FEB. 27, 2020: After owning the home for 6 years, Sinatra & Company has begun demolishing the house at 184 West Utica Buffalo, NY 14222. This is within 48 hours of the Buffalo Preservation Board recommending it be designated a local landmark and roughly 24 hours after receiving the demolition permit from Mayor Byron Brown’s Department of Permit and Inspection Services. Learn More here.
WHO’S FRANKS?
A Flemish Revival style house occupied for over 100 years (1907-2008) and neglected for the past 10 years. Learn more here.
184 West Utica Buffalo, NY 14222
THE GIST
The developers of the Elmwood Crossing project want to demolish the historic houses located at 180 and 184 West Utica Street in order to combine those two parcels with 188 West Utica, which is currently a surface parking lot. They propose building twenty townhouses on the three-parcel property. The house at 184 West Utica is historically noteworthy for its Flemish Revival style architecture and also its social history. Want to learn more? Keep reading.
Arist Rodney Taylor (1966-2019) was the last owner-occupant of the Ernest Franks House. (Don Nieman photo)
The house designed and built by Fruit Belt residents venturing out into the wider world came full circle in 2004, when another son of the Fruit Belt, artist Rodney Taylor, and his wife Annette Daniels-Taylor, bought the house. Taylor had been out in the world and was coming home. Taylor’s parents lived two doors away at 176 West Utica, the same house they had bought when Urban Renewal and expressway building caused them to leave the Fruit Belt in 1974. His mother was a member of the church across the street. Taylor died in December 2019, but not before he knew his work would be central to the first show installed at the Albright Knox Northland art gallery, Open House: Domestic Thresholds. The show opened on January 17, 2020, the same day the demolition request for 184 West Utica Street was made public.
184 West Utica Ownership Infographic
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