Former King Sewing Machine/King Radio/Colonial Radio/Sylvania Radio Factory (Buffalo, New York)

 abandoned / shut down, factory building

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Built in 1909 with a $150,000 loan from the Sears, Roebuck, & Co. to house the primary production facilities for King Sewing Machines, this sprawling factory, machine shop and distribution warehouse covered 8 acres alongside the Lackawanna Railroad's Belt Line. Totally devoted to the mass production of sewing machines, the entirely electric-powered factory employed between 500-600 full-time employees and by 1912 the facility was expanded as Sears, Roebuck & Co. contracted for the facilities entire output for their stores.

Acquired by the White Sewing Machine company in 1924, the factory was expanded its output to include radio sets which were sold through Sears under the "Silvertone" brand name through the end of the 1920's, eventually producing over 40,000 radio sets per year before the Great Depression cut into the market. Subsequently sold by Sears in 1930 and idle for the next year, the factory was purchased by the Colonial Radio Company and resumed operations, though at this time all production was directed towards radio sets which were used by General Motors and Chrysler as well as numerous other brands in addition to being sold under the Colonial name. Continuing to produce radios and employ nearly 900 workers through the 1930's, the outbreak of the Second World War saw the plant's entire output shift to supporting the Allied war effort. Colonial would go on to produce aircraft radio transmission sets for the RAF, USAAC, US Navy and US Army during the conflict, ending the war with pioneering work on the first proximity-fused anti-aircraft artillery shell.

The facility again changed hands in 1944 when it was sold by Colonial to the Sylvania Electric Products Company, which saw the facility through the end of the war and immediate postwar recession before retooling the entire facility in 1948 for the production of modern radios and some of the first television sets, which were produced under the Slyvania label and sold to Sears, Roebuck & Co. Within a short time of the factory resuming production, it was named the headquarters of Slyvania's Radio and Television Division and employed roughly 700 full-time workers. This new role was not to be long-lived, as by 1953 Sylvania had completed a brand-new facility in Batavia, NY and began to transfer production out of this factory to the new location. By 1954 Sylvania had completely idled the facility and either laid off or relocated the majority of the workforce.

Remaining in Sylvania's ownership for the next decade and seeing little use, the factory building was sold in the 1960's to the first of a string of owners and caretakers who could not succeed in luring new manufacturers to the urban facility in the economically hostile climate of the late 1960's and early 1970's and 1980's. Decades past with little interest or upkeep in the sprawling factory and its numerous outbuildings and by the turn of the century the former factory had succumbed to the ravages of weather, vandals and neglect and has been left as little more than an empty shell.

Though a historically significant building in many concerns, the present material condition of the former factory is considered by many to be too far gone to permit its total rehabilitation and reuse. As of 2014 the current property owner has acknowledged that much of the facility has been stripped of reusable materials and will be demolished to clear the land for redevelopment, though there is an intention to preserve the 5-Storey main entrance tower which fronts Crowley Avenue.

preservationready.org/Buildings/308CrowleyAvenue
wnyheritagepress.org/photos_week_2012/king_sewing_radio...
wnyheritagepress.org/photos_week_2012/king_sewing_radio...