Memorial Auditorium slowly disappears

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Piece by piece, Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium is gradually coming down. The former home of the Buffalo Sabres is slowly disappearing.

It's a step by step process, literally. One by one, demolition crews lifted out the concrete steps leading to Memorial Auditorium Thursday.

Matthew Davison from the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation said, "What our demolition team is doing is removing some of the key architecture pieces from the building, the crest from the front, the cornerstone, the eagles, the steps you see behind you. Those pieces will be eventually used for a monument to the Aud that the city's gonna build, so these'll be stored by the city for future use."

It is one of the more interesting jobs bricklayer Mike Fink has had.

Mike Fink of Highland Masonry said, "It's nice that we get to work on a historic landmark in Buffalo and we're able to take part in preserving it."

By next month we'll start to see the roof coming off, and by Memorial Day most of the Aud and its pieces will be gone.

Buffalo resident Annette LeVatte remembers fond memories of the Aud, "Oh we did ice skating. We loved it here as kids."

"But this place will always be in my heart, like my brother. It's a memory I'll never forget, growing up and going here."

Buffalo resident Kevin Hays said, "Yeah, I remember growing up and having a lotta childhood memories of the Sabres, blue and gold, great times, but it's been sitting vacant for while and it's great to see new use going on with it."

A Bass Pro Shop is still expected to be built there.

In the next couple of weeks, Mayor Byron Brown will present a time capsule from 1939 that was pulled from behind the Aud cornerstone just last week.