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From the Gowanda PennySaver News "Reflections" series compiled by Mary Pankow. issue date - February 25, 2001

The Grand Central Hotel (cont.) - After the fire that swept away the top two floors of the Grand Central Hotel in the 1920's, including a tea room and dance hall on the third floor, the building is converted into a supermarket and apartments. In the 1946 photo, this is how the "Superette" looks when Mike and Phil Ragona purchase the property. Under its new name, "Gowanda Food Store" goes through another transition as it is newly decorated and enlarged. Mike Ragona holds a grand opening celebration. Ragona goes on to build a new supermarket, Bell's IGA, on Buffalo Street. Crowell Auto Supply then occupies the former hotel until a devastating blaze in 1996 levels the building. Today, the site is now a parking lot for the Municipal Building. (Crowell Auto Supply relocated to a new building on Aldrich Street.) (Photographs courtesy of the Gowanda Historical Society.)