Exactly how many buildings in downtown Buffalo can boast of having a dirigible mooring post sitting on its roof?
The answer is exactly one: The Rand Building - 29 story building that overlooks Lafayette Square.
Built in 1929 when the Rand Building was constructed, the 200-foot-tall steel tower never welcomed a passenger-carrying zeppelin - as it was first intended - but even today, nearly a century later, it makes for a conversation piece, says building owner Paul Kolkmeyer.
"It makes for a great story," Kolkmeyer said.
In a period between the 1920s and late 1930s, travel by dirigible airships was popular until the fatal Hindenburg disaster in 1937.
Buffalo was one of the few U.S. cities selected to be a dirigible destination but, according to records from the Niagara Aerospace Museum and Buffalo Historical Society, none ever landed in downtown.
"It does make a great myth but there are no pictures or news accounts of it ever happening," Kolkmeyer said.
Even it had, the mooring post was not exactly user-friendly.
Passengers would have go down (or up) a narrow steel ladder from the Rand Building roof to the zeppelin. And, then to get from the roof, passengers would have had to make their way down a series of winding staircases before getting the elevator on the Rand Building's 26th floor.
These days, the tower is used by media and communications companies for high end antennas that help with their signals.
"But, the view is great," Kolkmeyer said.