![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.003_0.jpg)
The Lackawanna Steel Plant was once one of the world’s largest, with 20,000 employees in the 1940s.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.004_0.jpg)
The plant opened in 1902, and closed in 1982.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.005_0.jpg)
It is a landscape of piles of different kinds of post-industrial earth and partially demolished ruins.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.006_0.jpg)
It officially became a Superfund site in 1988 and a Brownfield in 2003.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.007_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.008_0.jpg)
One of the principal tenants is Buffalo Crushed Stone, which grinds up concrete and sorts aggregate at the site.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.009_0.jpg)
The Gateway Trade Center is the redevelopment company working with the Port of Buffalo to develop the site.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.010_0.jpg)
The Gateway Trade Center company is owned by Buffalo Crushed Stone.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.002_0.jpg)
The windmills at the site represent the transition from energy consumer, to energy producer.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.011_0.jpg)
The windmills, installed in 2007, generate 25 megawatts, enough for 6,000 homes (the same number of workers that lost their jobs when the plant closed).
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.012_0.jpg)
The coke battery, often the dirtiest part of an integrated steel mill, is the principal ruin left on site.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.013_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.014_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.015_0.jpg)
The old company headquarters was built in 1901, before the plant opened.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.016_0.jpg)
Inside were offices, a library, billiard room, and a private suite with a bathtub. It is slated to be torn down.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.017_0.jpg)
A former Republic Steel finishing plant remains closed nearby.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.018_0.jpg)
Some scrap metal shredding takes place there.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.019_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.020_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.021_0.jpg)
Ford still makes car parts nearby.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.022_0.jpg)
Most of the other steel mills around town have been torn down completely.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.023_0.jpg)
Though their soils linger.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-08/Buffalo.024_1.jpg)
A local museum and historical collection has been active since 1984.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.025_0.jpg)
The museum is located in a former steel company administration building in the inner harbor.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.026_0.jpg)
The Steel Plant Museum is open three days a week.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.027_0.jpg)
It shares the space with a regional heritage organization and a railway history group.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.028_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.029_0.jpg)
Inside are displays and relics, principally from the Lackawanna Plant, the largest in the region, which was bought by Bethlehem Steel in 1922.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.030_0.jpg)
The museum hopes to renovate and occupy a much larger currently abandoned building next door.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.031_0.jpg)
There are plans to develop the site into a large heritage center and park.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.032_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.033_0.jpg)
In the meantime the museum is a modest and poignant reliquary for Old Steel.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.034_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.035_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.036_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.037_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.038_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.039_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.040_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.041_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Buffalo.042_0.jpg)
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