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This grain elevator is a favorite photo subject of mine. At times I intentionally go there, other times, it is a great spot on the way to or from somewhere. It's in a perfect location on the Outer Harbor of Buffalo, NY, right on Lake Erie. And since it is the eastern side it is the place to watch sunsets over the lake.

For this photo, I arrived after sunset to take advantage of the blue hour light and also of the still frozen lake for a different take on this location. While neither the grain elevator nor the shoreline is illuminated the streetlights from the Fuhrman Boulevard and from Route 5 throw enough light over the structure and the shore to provide that classic blue hour blue and gold, or blue and red as here, light pattern during a long exposure like this one.

The South End Marina Cargill Pool Elevator (previously Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator) was built in 1925 in Buffalo, New York. It is the only grain elevator on the lake itself, which allowed a service of deeper draft ships. On June 5, 2013, the elevator was up for sale in an auction and sold for just under half a million dollars to an unknown bidder.

Grain elevators are among Buffalo's signature industrial buildings. The operating principles of a grain elevator were invented by Joseph Dart in Buffalo in 1842 and the Evans Elevator became the world's first grain elevator. However, none of the original wooden structures exist any more. The grain elevator as we know it today with series of concrete cylinders came form Minneapolis after 1900.

© Daniel Novak Photo - Buffalo Location Photography - Landscapes, Architecture, Cityscapes

Sources:

- Buffalo Architecture: A Guide
- Cargill Pool Elevator, Wikipedia
- Grain elevator, Wikipedia