Calumet Building

The Calumet Building boasts what is perhaps the most striking example of glazed terra cotta in Buffalo. Prominent businessman Robert Keating Root built it in 1906. The building is named after the ornamental terra cotta that depicts "calumus," the Latin word that roughly translates into reeds in English ("calumet" is the Canadian French word for reed). The reed motif is seen throughout the front facade and in parts on the east and west sides of the building as stems, leaves and flowers. The building is also notable for housing a business operated as a "front" by the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1920s. Today the Calumet is owned by a law firm and houses a restaurant on the first floor. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

Robert Keating Root was born in 1866. His father, Robert Keating, was a successful businessman who, at the time Robert was born, co-owned a leather manufacturing company. Keating's wife, Caroline Root, died in the same year Robert was born. Her father, Francis Root, adopted Robert as a his grandson, who was thereafter known as Robert Keating Root. As an adult, Robert became a businessman as well, working in banking and in real estate.

Robert built the Calumet as part of an effort to encourage commercial development on Chippewa Street which, at the time, was primarily residential. He hired local architects August Carl Ensenwein and James Addison Johnson to design it. Egenswein was born in Germany in 1856. He studied architecture in Germany and Paris then immigrated to the United States in the 1880s and settled in Buffalo. Johnson was born in Syracuse, New York in 1865. He worked as an architect in a number of firms before establishing a practice with Esenwein in 1897. They earned a reputation for incorporating glazed terra cotta into their designs.

Robert's decision to build the Calumet was a wise one as commercial and retail activity increased quickly on Chippewa Street in the early 1900s. The first floor was usually occupied by high-end jewelers, furriers and tailors. Various professionals including dentists and artists occupied the second floor. The Ku Klux Klan's business, which was called Kay-Bee Adsign Company, was located on the third floor. The Klan emerged in Buffalo during the contentious mayoral campaign of 1921, which was won by Frances X. Schwab, whose parents were Catholic immigrants from Germany (his opponent was a Protestant lawyer named George S. Buck). On October 25, 1922, the Klan chapter held its first public ceremony during which 800 new recruits were initiated. It is unclear when the adsign business opened but at some point an undercover officer infiltrated it. Thanks to his work, on July 3, 1924, the police raided the business and seized the membership list of the Klan chapter members and put it on public display.

In the mid-1950s, the Calumet began to decline as people moved to the suburbs. There were only three tenants in the building by 1955 and in 1975 a tailor business was the only business left. It closed by 1980, leaving the building entirely vacant. Other buildings on Chippewa suffered the same fate. The Calumet remained vacant until 1990 when Buffalo historian Mark Goldman bought it and opened a restaurant. This started the revival of Chippewa Street. It is unclear when the law firm acquired the building.

"The Calumet Building / Bacchus Restaurant." Buffalo as an Architectural Gem. Accessed July 4, 2022. https://buffaloah.com/a/chipp/46/index.html#3.

Traynor, Kerry L. "The Calumet." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. November 29, 2010. https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/10000958.pdf.