Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Architect Dave Flick says the Buffalo Trading Co. building isn't worth saving, but the Historic Preservation Committee isn't so sure.

Preservationists take up Buffalo Building July 31

By Clarence Cromwell

Dave Flick needs to show better reasons for tearing down the Buffalo Trading Company building at 37 E. Main St., members of the Historic Preservation Committee told him July 16.

The committee granted permission to restore two other buildings on Flick's property but delayed the Buffalo building decision to a July 31 meeting.

Flick wants to tear the old building down and replace it with a 12,878-square-foot retail center that will merely look old.

The Buffalo building, among the last of the western-style buildings that long ago lined Main Street, may be too important to destroy, committee member Len Pacheco said.

The committee wants more information about the structure and its place in history, preferably from an architect who specializes in historical preservation.

Before last week's meeting, Flick said the building isn't worth saving. It may never meet federal requirements for allowing access to disabled people. It may never meet seismic safety standards set by the state. It also suffers water damage inside because the roof leaks.

And it's ugly, Flick concluded.

The builder prefers to save the Puccinelli House and the Soda Works building, around the corner at 11 College Ave., because they'll be easier to restore. Those buildings stand on a parcel adjoining the Main Street property.

The Soda Works building could be called decrepit.

"It's going to fall into the street if we don't fix it." Flick said.

He wants take the rickety building apart, salvage the boards that aren't rotten and meticulously hammer them back together, this time with a few steel beams holding up the roof and walls. Flick said he'd like to preserve the building's historical Soda Works sign.

The Soda Works renovation would be easier than fixing the Buffalo building because the Soda Works is smaller and only one story, Flick said.

Flick hopes to rent the building to a scenery-conscious retail outlet or small restaurant.

The Puccinelli house, also at 11 College Ave., is in for a face lift and an interior remodeling that will transform the building into a restaurant but keep it looking like a historical residence.

Flick also plans to preserve an 86-year-old Italian masonry wall bordering the property on College Avenue.

The Soda Works building was a carriage house for the Los Gatos Hotel until Luigi Marrioti converted it into a soda factory during the 1920s. Marrioti lived in the Puccinelli house, which somehow acquired his married daughter's name, and operated the hotel on a now-vacant lot next to the Buffalo building.