BONUS: Mafia Ties

Road traffic to the Central Terminal, when not using a private vehicle or a bus, was provided by 125 cabs from the Van Dyke Taxi Cab Co. and 70 from the Yellow Cab Company. The Entry Plaza had spaces reserved for the taxis, and some of that signage is still visible today. 

Below the Entry Plaza, designers Fellheimer & Wagner had planned for the various ways the Central Terminal could be used. The massive one-story street-level structure housed a parking garage, baggage facilities, and a trucking center. Finally, the architects also planned for passengers to access the Main Terminal Building via streetcar, or trolley. In fact, a streetcar lobby was completed, and accessible from the Exit Lobby.

However, the proposed streetcar rail loop to the Central Terminal was never built, and there was a reason for that. The taxi companies that serviced the rail station were owned by Giovanni “John” Montana, a businessman and a powerful political figure. He was also a powerful underboss in Buffalo’s organized crime scene. 

He used his influence to ensure that the planned streetcar service was never launched at the Central Terminal. Decades later, Montana would be arrested in a 1957 raid by New York State Police on a national mafia meeting in Apalachin, New York.

Photo courtesy of the Joseph M. Cascio Collection.