By Clarence Cromwell
It may not be a pretty sight, but the Buffalo Trading Co. building is a part of Los Gatos history and shouldn't be torn down, members of the Historic Preservation Committee said July 31.
The committee voted 2-3, with Len Pacheco and Greg Seidenberg dissenting, to recommend that the building be saved and somehow incorporated into Dave Flick's plans for the property.
After the meeting Flick vowed to cancel the project if he's forced to save the two-story, western-style shop at 34 E. Main St. Flick has said the building isn't worth the potential costs of meeting handicapped accessibility requirements, seismic safety standards and building codes.
The Buffalo structure is also right on the spot where he wants to put a 12,878-square-foot retail building, with room for three shops downstairs and four apartments upstairs.
"They're trying to make me save something I physically can't save," Flick said. "I hope the Planning Commission sees it differently."
His next stop is the Planning Commission after a traffic study and environmental review for his project are completed. The Historic Preservation Committee's vote is advisory only.
Pacheco and Seidenberg said they agreed that the building should be demolished
only because Carey & Co. architects, hired by Flick at the committee's request, reported that the building is historically and architecturally insignificant.
The building doesn't convey any particular architectural style, because it's been changed so much through the years, Carey & Co. stated. The firm found no noteworthy niche in Los Gatos history for the building to occupy.
The Buffalo building may have gone up in the 20th century. There was a single-story shop on the site as early as 1888, according to the report by Carey & Co. It's unclear whether that original building was torn down or if a second story was added to create the building that's there now. The current building has been on the site at least since 1928, according to a Sanborn Insurance Co. map made that year.
Three Historical Committee members said the building's modifications detail the growth of Main Street over the years. The building is clad with three kinds of ship-lap wooden siding, the second-story windows were cut out of another building, and the storefront isn't the original face of the building.
"It ain't pretty, but it's a real building--it's a part of our past," said Kathy Morgan, Historical Committee member and planning commissioner.
Pacheco said he's willing to let the Buffalo building go, but expects "a fabulous replacement."
He asked Chris Spaulding, Flick's architect, to polish plans for the building so that it will mirror the elegance of older buildings, such as the Beckwith Building across the street.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, August 7, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved