32 Grand Old Railway Hotels Left Vacant Along Forgotten Routes

7. Buffalo Central Terminal (Hotel Plans), Buffalo, NY, USA: Art Deco Giant's Unwoken Dream

Buffalo Central Terminal, an Art Deco behemoth opened in 1929, was designed to be a city within a city, including plans for hotel accommodations within its towering structure to serve the bustling New York Central Railroad. While some office spaces might have briefly served transient needs, a full-scale, lasting hotel never truly materialized or was quickly overshadowed by the Great Depression and later decline. The station’s closure in 1979 left the entire complex, including its potential hotel spaces, vacant for decades, a monumental ghost of railway ambition.