File:Prima Pizza & Pasta, Buffalo, New York - 20220226.jpg

English: Prima Pizza & Pasta, 396 Pearl Street at West Chippewa Street, Buffalo, New York, February 2022. One of the oldest extant buildings in downtown Buffalo, this three-story townhouse dates to c. 1845 (the first record of its existence was from December of that year and showed the property up for auction by the firm of Plimpton & Sprague) and is the only remaining of what was once a row of three that extended south along the west side of Pearl Street from the corner and that all sported more-or-less the same vernacular Federal styling that was common in this part of town in the years preceding the Civil War. The rough-textured limestone lintels, shallow-pitched side-gabled roof, and - above all - the prominent stepped parapet with chimneys on the building's north elevation all ably represent the aesthetic. On the Chippewa Street side, seen at right here, what was once a detached stable was in the mid-1890s expanded and connected to the rear of the main portion of the building, which by that point had already been converted for commercial purposes (details about its owners and occupants during its era of residential usage are extremely sparse). Its most recent owner - Louis Berrafato, a restaurateur who operated Prima Pizza & Pasta out of the building from 1977 until just a few days before this photo was taken - renovated the building extensively in 1986, sandblasting the exterior and restoring the storefront windows to their historic appearance.