Demolition OKd, Construction Delayed at Delaware-Virginia

The city Preservation Board voted Sept. 2 to authorize demolition of the former Cloister restaurant at 468 Delaware Ave. but put off a decision on a developer's plan for a 20,000-square foot project on the site. The board voted to table for two weeks to permit discussions to continue on further revisions of the plans to make them more acceptable to the board and Preservation Buffalo Niagara, a non-profit, non-governmental preservation organization. Representatives of the Preservation Board and Preservation Buffalo Niagara have been meeting with Matthew Moscati, architect for the project, to try to reach agreement on the plans. Scott S. Croce, proposes to build a three-story office building to house his chiropractic office and lease space to other medical providers on the Delaware Ave. side of the property at the northwest corner of Virginia St. He also plans three town houses on the Virginia St.side of the property.

The board voted eight to none to authorize demolition of the Cloister structure, built in the 1960s on the site of a house in which Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) lived with his bride Elvira from 1870 to 1871. The house was destroyed by fire in 1962. The board set conditions for the demolition to protect the 1865 carriage house, once owned by Mark Twain, at the rear of the property. The developer has pledged to save the carriage house whose reuse is to be determined later. A motion to approve the construction plan failed by a vote of five in favor, four against. Six votes are needed for passage. The plan voted on was presented in August and was a revision of the first proposal presented in April when it was met by sharply differing reactions, some in favor, but many critical that it was inappropriate in a historic preservation district. The developer said the demolition of the former restaurant will not occur until construction is ready to start.