Image Source: Historic American Engineering Record. Jet Lowe, photographer, 1994. The Wheeler Elevator, designed by H.R. Wait, was built in 1909 by the Monarch Engineering Company. The elevator had several unique features. It was the first elevator in Buffalo, and one of the first in America, to feature outer space "pocket bins", which utilized the pockets of space between the outside bins. It was also the only "modern" elevator that had open top bins, saving on construction costs and slightly increasing storage capacity, but increasing the likelihood of grain dust explosion. The elevator had a stationary marine leg and was designed to have an unloading capacity of 50,000 bushels per hour, the largest of all the Buffalo elevators. The site was extensively developed after 1929, when the Cooperative Grange League Federation (GLF) purchased the elevator. A large animal feed mill was added to the site in 1930. A six bin, 300,000 bushel elevator and two story warehouse was added in 1936. The 1,000,000 bushel GLF "A" elevator was added in 1941. All the additions were designed by Allan H. Baxter, son of A.E. Baxter. At one point, the mil was large enough to load over 100 rail cars per day with cattle, hog, and poultry feed.
Comments 0 comments