{"nrhp_refnum":"11000738","name":"Buffalo Smelting Works","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"23 Austin St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Buffalo","county":"Erie County","state":"NY","lat":42.938105724000025,"lon":-78.90579194599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2011-10-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A former copper smelting plant at 23 Austin Street in the Black Rock neighborhood of Buffalo, Erie County, New York, built in 1891 for the Michigan-based Calumet & Hecla Company. It is a brick, paired Romanesque Revival industrial building on the Niagara River waterfront.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is a rare surviving example of waterfront industrial architecture in Black Rock, with a steel truss roof, roof monitors and Romanesque Revival detailing (Criterion C). It is also significant for industry (Criterion A) through its link to the successful Calumet & Hecla Company and its Buffalo copper smelting and electrolytic refining operation. It is the only surviving part of a much larger complex.","narrative":"Built in 1891 at 23 Austin Street on the Niagara River in Buffalo's Black Rock neighborhood, this brick building was a copper smelting plant for the Michigan-based Calumet & Hecla Company. It consists of two joined structures, roughly two and a half stories tall, with steeply pitched metal roofs carried on steel trusses and topped with long roof monitors that provided light and ventilation. Romanesque Revival detailing includes brick pilasters, Roman and segmental arched windows, and a repeated pattern of round oculus windows. The interior is one large open space with thick brick walls suited to high-temperature smelting. The plant once formed part of a much larger complex, and its electrolytic refinery recovered more silver from the ore. Operations scaled back in 1914, and the company sold the property in 1920 to the American Radiator Company. Today the building is the only surviving piece of the works and is used as a marina, remaining a rare waterfront reminder of Buffalo's industrial past.","period_of_significance":"c. 1891-1920","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late Victorian / Romanesque Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Now used as a marina; many windows are damaged or filled, and five noncontributing late-twentieth-century one-story buildings stand on the parcel.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:48.753727-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/11000738.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000738/f3a4426a36-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000738/f3a4426a36-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Pubdog","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buffalo_Smelting_Works_Jul_11.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Pubdog</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buffalo_Smelting_Works_Jul_11.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75312805","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Smelting_Works","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4985845"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/erie-county/buffalo-smelting-works-11000738/"}