Every morning at 5 a.m., Steve Eoannou travels into the past.
Hours before his day job begins and long before the sun rises, he climbs a steep narrow wooden staircase to enter his cozy writer’s retreat.
It’s a room befitting a historical novelist. Housed in the home’s third-story turret with one tall, arching window overlooking the Niagara River and another facing the Connecticut Street Armory, it’s stuffed with antique furniture, framed art, playbills and photographs. The only real nod to present day is Eoannou’s computer.
Here, for hours each day, seven days a week, he spins tales set in mid-century Buffalo. If that isn’t enough history for one person, he’s also restoring every corner of his 3,000+-square-foot home—situated on Columbus Avenue on Buffalo’s West Side—to reflect its 1860s origins.
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Despite a decidedly modern job as a software consultant, it’s clear that Eoannou is more at home in the past.
Custom red velvet and gold-roped drapes adorn the entranceway and windows. Stairways, floors and plaster moldings have been restored to their former glory. A working Victrola, powered by a crank and cued to the Andrews Sisters’ “Rum & Coca Cola,” floods the dining room with rich, crackly sound.
The sheer volume of historic ephemera that fills the home’s every nook and cranny is a marvel. Much of it belonged to his parents, grandparents and namesake uncle. In the vestibule alone, his grandfather’s wall clock hangs above a display of antique books, each signed by his mother in classic cursive loops. Across that sits his grandmother’s mahogany hat rack, with vintage chapeaux worn by Eoannous past. Sepia ancestral portraits in Victorian frames line the walls.
Also passed down to Eoannou: his Greek immigrant father’s love of storytelling, inspired by boyhood tales of the colorful patrons of the New Genesee Restaurant. His father owned the establishment from the 1930s through the ’60s.
“It’s why most of my novels are fixated on that time period,” says Eoannou, whose published novels, “Rook” and “Yesteryear,” are set in the Queen City. (Find Eannou’s books at Talking Leaves bookstore and at booksellers online.)
He’s currently working on two more novels, both set in the 1940s. He loves writing about historic Buffalo for many reasons, the main one being access to local architecture that inspires him.
“If I want to write about the Statler, I can go and sit there and daydream,” he says.
Writing success came to him later, in his 50s, after finishing his MFA in creative writing. His first book, “Muscle Cars,” is a collection of 17 short stories published in 2015.
Today, the 60-something sees the influence of having parents who were so much older than those of his friends.
“I was surrounded by their books and their candlesticks and all their great stories,” says Eoannou.
Not a lot has changed in the decades since.
