Joe Rusz said:I have several pictures of me on the Sattler's Santa's lap. I don't remember much about the store other than the name and the wonderful Christmas window displays complete with Lionel trains.
Hey Kevin, what about Sattler's?
Thanks for the info and kind words, guys.
Joe- I’d love to do a Sattler’s- 998 Broadway!!! My father took the old neon sign from the building before it was torn down. It needed a lot of restoration work. You should see the looks we got from the neighbors when they saw it in our yard.
Jon- I remember the Sattler’s Santa. I think he’s the guy that put the coal in my stocking- that’s what got me into this ‘train thing.’
-Kevin.
Sniff, sniff, you guys are turning me into a blubbering old fool with those recollections. I guess because I was a kid and didn’t know any better, those were good times and I miss Broadway-Fillmore, especially around Christmas, when it was fun to prowl the stores and dream about what Santa was gonna bring. BTW, the movie “A Christmas Story,” about the kid in Cleveland, who wants a Daisy air rifle, comes very close to depicting what our 'hood in Buffalo looked like back in the day. As well as Sattler’s, the old, art deco style Sears & Roebuck store on the corner of Broadway and Fillmore, was where I got hooked on model trains. Every year at the holidays, they’d have Lionels either in the window or in the toy department. I finally scored one in ??? 1950, after giving up on my first train, an American Flyer.
Kevin, Jon (sorry everybody else), here’s what Broadway-Fillmore looked like in the Twenties. This view is looking northwest (downtown Buffalo to the left), was probably shot from the corner of the two streets, because the family paper was one block west of the main intersection. The first building shot is the paper as founded, and later after my uncle and grandfather stepped up and built a serious structure (with my other uncle’s liquor store inside). Unfortunately, none of this exists today because progress being what it is, the city decided it needed another parking lot. Jon, after I posted this the first time, I remembered that your dad’s book has some great photos of old Buffalo in it. Yeah, but mine are different 
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Broadway.jpg)
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Everybodys1.jpg)
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/joerusz915/_forumfiles/Everybodys2.jpg)
A random thought:In looking at that street scene I realized how small a neighborhood was back in those days. From the corner to the big church is like a half-mile or so, but when I was a kid, that was a whole 'nuther 'hood, which seemed so far away. We lived on Fillmore about a half block from that intersection and it seemed like a trek to walk to Sattler’s or the Broadway Market. Today, my wife and I walk at least three miles a day and we wouldn’t even break a sweat doing a half mile. Maybe it’s because when you’re a kid, and smaller, distances seem greater than they really are. Just wondering…
Joe- Thanks for posting those pictures. They’re great! I just might have to model the ‘Polish Everybody’s Daily’ building. Man, I love all that art deco. Got any more?
-Kevin.
Kevin, before we have our Christmas Eve Day repast, but before our Christmas Eve Eve repast, I will dig through the family photo albums to see what I can find. Not that you’d wanna model it, but I know there’s a shot of my grandfather and uncle Frank, who started it all, looking very thoughtful over some page proofs or something. Man, I just love to wallow in nostalgia.
Very nice work. Thanks for sharing!
Nice build.
I worked for F.W.W. in the 1980s.