"At 600,000 square feet, it’s the third largest building in Buffalo, and its name is nearly synonymous with the city’s industrial glory days. Trico Plant #1 stretches for two blocks along Ellicott Street on one side and Washington on the other. This was once one of Buffalo’s manufacturing giants, but only a small section of the nearly empty complex is currently being used.

The story goes that theatrical manager John R. Oishei was driving along Delaware Avenue on a rainy night in 1916 and struck a bicyclist near the Virginia Street intersection. Although the cyclist was not injured, Oishei became obsessed with devising a better way to keep his windshield clear (he even tried cutting a hole in it). Then he discovered engineer John W. Jepson’s hand-operated squeegee wiper, and proposed to the inventor that a company be formed to market this device to a larger consumer base. Oishei founded Trico Products Corporation in 1917 and continued to make improvements on the windshield wiper, as well as developing other automotive equipment. The adoption of his wiper by Pierce-Arrow, Cadillac, Packard, and Lincoln greatly helped Oishei’s early success, as did a loan from M&T. The young company’s administrative operations were initially located in the Sidway building at Main and Goodell, with manufacturing at 2665 Main." 

Read the full article by Elizabeth Licata, here.

Trico Redevelopment Project - Construction Drone Walkthrough September 2022 from Architectural Resources on Vimeo.

Video footage courtesy of Architectural Resources