Gusto 1980-1981

  Call it an uncanny coincidence, but right after that awful fire at Mulligan's Brick Bar, this commentary from 45 years ago cropped up in my time machine. Feb. 1, 1980 Preservation You want to have a peek at Buffalo’s future? It’s been hiding in plain sight.          For years, the abandoned Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad terminal at the foot of Main Street stood as the very model of ruin and dilapidation. Every window was smashed. Every fixture was stolen. The vandalism was so complete that there was nothing left to haul away. The building ultimately started taking its own revenge on trespassers, dropping chunks of ceiling on unwary interlopers. One was killed that way.          Nevertheless, there were few cheers last October when the Common Council was obliged to sign the place over to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority for $190,000. The NFTA offered the city no cho...

The box on Page 10. Feb. 1, 1980 Metcalfe Agonistes          If the ecstasies of the preservation movement derive from saving something like Shea’s Buffalo, then the agonies are being played out these days on a little plot of land behind the Butler Mansion at Delaware and North. There stands the Metcalfe House, a shambling, unassuming, dumbly altered former rooming house that suddenly is discovered to have a pedigree.          It was designed in 1882 and completed in 1884 for James S. Metcalfe, son of an early Buffalo parks commissioner, and his mother. It replaced their old house, which stood where the Butler Mansion is. Young Metcalfe went on to become one of the greatest drama critics of his day, writing for Life magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Actor Nat Goodwin once sued him for libel.          Architects were the noted firm of McKim, Mead and White, ...

  A guitar wizard conjures up his own path to follow. Feb. 29, 1980 Alyn Syms doesn’t mind being scarce …          For now, all Alyn Syms wants to do is play a date in March, then go into hiding for a while and write some new songs. For his band, ASG (Alyn Syms Group), there’ll be no overexposure.          “Having the record out,” he says, “would be like playing out,” he says. If we played out too much, I’d feel funny. We’d be like a glorified bar band with good material.”          ASG has made a career out of making itself scarce. Since the band first emerged last summer, it has played hardly more than half a dozen gigs. Starting at a corner tavern in its hometown Lackawanna, ASG has gone on to headline in Shea’s Buffalo in front of 2,000 kids.          The band has done it with good guitar, a good beat and that...