{"nrhp_refnum":"76001215","name":"Buffalo Gas Light Company Works","other_names":["Jackson Plant","National Fuel Gas Company"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"249 W. Genesee St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Buffalo","county":"Erie County","state":"NY","lat":42.88593055900003,"lon":-78.88300323699997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-09-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An industrial gas-manufacturing complex at 249 West Genesee Street in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, built in 1859 on the site of an 1848 plant and designed by John H. Selkirk. It includes a castle-like retort house and a three-story office building.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the works typifies the architectural and industrial heritage of nineteenth-century Buffalo. Its castle-like south facade, with towers, battlements and corbeling, makes it a recognizable downtown landmark and one of the city's most appealing industrial buildings. The company was also the first to supply illuminating gas to the city, and the site has been tied to the gas industry since the mid-1800s.","narrative":"Built in 1859 on West Genesee Street in Buffalo, this gas works replaced an earlier plant on the same site that had lit the city's streets with gas since November 1848. Architect John H. Selkirk gave the retort house a fortress-like south front of brick faced with random ashlar stone, with paired blind arches, an arcade of fourteen arches, buttresses rising into semi-engaged towers and a corbeled cornice. Visitors reportedly mistook it for an armory or prison. A datestone reading 1848 sits beneath the gable. The complex also holds a coal shed, stables, auxiliary buildings and a three-story office building, though many of these were altered in 1870, 1877 and 1898 and in the twentieth century. In the 1890s the plant made Pintsch gas for railroad cars and navigation buoys. It passed to Iroquois Gas in 1923 and now serves National Fuel Gas for offices, parking and storage, with the south facade largely intact.","period_of_significance":"1859, 1870, 1877 and 1898","architect_builder":"John H. Selkirk","architectural_style":"Norman style (as described in a 1859 press account); castle-like industrial design","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in active use by the National Fuel Gas Company as its Jackson Plant, providing offices, parking, warehouse storage and garage space. The retorts and manufacturing apparatus have been removed, and the two gasometers are gone.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.759897-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/76001215.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001215/b612db8d23-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001215/b612db8d23-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Pubdog (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buffalo_Gas_Light_Company_Works_Dec_09.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Pubdog (talk)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buffalo_Gas_Light_Company_Works_Dec_09.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75317558","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Gas_Light_Company_Works","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4985736"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/erie-county/buffalo-gas-light-company-works-76001215/"}