The Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park, located on Buffalo's downtown waterfront, is the largest inland naval park in the country. Founded in 1976 opened to the public in 1979, the museum features several military ships, equipment and artifacts. The ships at the museum are: the destroyer USS Sullivan (a National Historic Landmark), the guided missile cruiser the USS Little Rock, and the submarine USS Croaker (all were built during WWII). Equipment includes fighter jets and helicopters. The museum features exhibits on military history and contains various artifacts and memorabilia.
Buffalo Gas Light Company Works opened in 1848 on what was then the shores of the Erie Canal and Lake Erie prior to dredging and land reclamation that has changed the shape of the city. The plant turned coal into illuminating light used for lighting city streets, homes, and businesses. The plant's long history speaks to an era when coal and industry went hand-in-hand with commercial development as the nation urbanized and industrialized as it transitioned from the Civil War into the Gilded Age. Though the building was demolished in 2000, the West Genesee Street facade was preserved and the stone structure stands in the foreground against the modern HealthNow New York building, a physical manifestation of the transition from coal to health science as an economic driver.
Constructed between 1871 and 1875 and formally dedicated in 1876, this former city and county government building is now home only to offices of Erie County officials. The building is located on land that proved significant during the War of 1812 and subsequent "burning of Buffalo." The land eventually became a cemetery before the bodies were exhumed to make way for this government building after the Civil War. The structure served both the city and county until 1931 when the city moved to the thirty-two-story Art Deco skyscraper in Niagara Square.
The Guaranty Building, or Prudential Building, opened in 1896 during a time of population, construction, and economic expansion as the city grew to become the nation's eighth largest city. Chicago-school architects such as Louis Sullivan and Daniel Burnham headed many architectural projects in Buffalo, with the Prudential Building serving as one of Sullivan's last skyscraper projects. Its emphasis on ornamentation -- a staple of Sullivan's work -- included several natural-world features such as flowers and tree branches. Work such as the Prudential Building influenced Frank Lloyd Wright, a Sullivan's protégé as they both developed the Prairie School movement.
Construction of this Buffalo cathedral began in 1749 and serves a congregation that was established in 1817. The congregation secured its first permanent structure in 1820, and despite the grandeur of this Gothic cathedral, financial woes plagued the church during its first few years until Buffalo experienced a population and economic boom in the mid-nineteenth century. Designed by achitect Richard Upjohn with features inspired by European cathedrals of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth century, St. Paul's was built in stages owing to the cost of the under taking. The massive tower was completed in 1871. Richard Upjohn was also the architect of New York City’s Trinity Church. A devastating fire in 1888 forced the members to re-build its interior. Robert W. Gibson managed the renovation and the church re-opened early in 1890.
Two adjacent city block buildings constructed in 1896 and 1901 mainly stood as the home to two flourishing companies, the Sibley & Holmwood Candy Factory and Witkop and Holmes Grocers. Louise Bethune, the first nationally-recognized female architect, designed the Witkop and Holmes Grocers building. Though both buildings now serve as residential and retail spaces, they survive today as one of the few remaining structures of a once bustling industrial and commercial center of Buffalo. When constructed, the buildings marked a change for Buffalo as electricity and railways allowed factories to operate in locations away from Lake Erie and the Erie Canal.
The Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum preserves the history of automobiles made in Western New York, particularly those made by the Pierce-Arrows company. Displays include Pierce-Arrow and Thomas Flyer cars from 1903 to 1960s. Guided tours highlight the transportation history of Western New York as told through the museum’s collection, the museum itself and how pieces were acquired. The museum was the dream of Buffalo-native James Sandoro, who started to have an interest in antique cars beginning at a young age. Over the years he collected many of the cars that are housed at the museum.
This local history museum is dedicated to the experiences of African Americans in upstate New York. Reverend Edward Nash was a leading member of Buffalo's African American community and pastor of the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church. As a leading member of the Urban League, NAACP, and the Western New York Association, Nash worked with African American leaders and helped to establish several NAACP chapters throughout the region. The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 and serves as a local history museum. The museum displays books, manuscripts, microfilm, and other items related to Nash's life.
Standing as a monument to both jazz and Black history, the 1934 building has served musicians of color (mainly jazz musicians) since it opened. The 1917 formation of an African American musician union, necessary because all music unions functioned as "Whites-only," provided a place for the Black community to congregate, and for Black musicians to gain employment. Some of the biggest names in Jazz stopped in Buffalo during the club's heyday. The end of legal segregation in 1969 forced unions to merged, but the white-only attitudes remained in place, thus resulting in many musicians of color struggling again to find music-based jobs. Today, the building serves as both a museum and a jazz hall; it's the oldest such place still in operation in the U.S.
Construction on the E.M. Hager & Sons Co. Building occurred in three staged with the main building finished in 1878 followed by additions in 1880 and 1920. The building represents a period for Buffalo where factories and warehouses dotted its urban landscape. Buffalo stood as the eighth largest city in the U.S by 1900 and served as a manufacturing hub. The historic building survives as a symbol of the type of commercial architecture common for the era. The changing nature of the business, focused first on timber-frame construction and then shifting to wood carvings and interior finishing (with wood) speaks to the city's building boom and transition away from wood framing to steel and concrete.
Louise Bethune, perhaps the first full-time professional female architect in the United States, designed the Hotel Lafayette in 1902. Five years earlier, the city harnessed Niagara Falls as a source of electricity and this hotel became the first in the city to provide electricity to its guests along with hot and cold running water and a telephone in each room. Buffalo's most luxurious hotel until the mid-twentieth century, Hotel Lafayette hotel experienced a substantial decline during after the 1960s as hotels along the interstate eclipsed those near rail stations and downtown business districts. An extensive renovation project after 2010 restored the hotel to its former status as a high-end hotel, a reflection of the returned growth of downtown Buffalo as a destination for travelers and business.
Buffalo's Tishman Building was completed in 1959 and the building replaced an 81-year old landmark structure that had been erected in 1876. The building ended a thirty-year drought in downtown construction in Buffalo and set in motion a string of new projects for the city's commercial center. The building was constructed by a company founded in the 19th century by Polish immigrant Julis Tishman who arrived in Buffalo in 1890 and turned the profit of his dry goods store into a multi-generational family-owned real estate and construction firm. The company continues to build new structures including One World Trade Center in New York City. Today, this building is home to office space, apartments, and a hotel.
When the eight-story H.A. Meldrum Company Building opened in 1909, the building was home to the local company's second store in Buffalo. Herbert Alexander Meldrum opened his first store in 1897, and in so doing, built upon the dry goods and retail legacy led by his father, Alexander, who opened the locally renowned Adam, Meldrum & Anderson (AM&A) in 1867. Meldrum enjoyed exceptional success for decades until troubles forced the sale of the company in 1922 to E.W. Edwards & Sons Co, another retailer who occupied the building until 1952. Today, the building serves as a luxury apartment complex known as The Antonio.
Planning for this historic civic building occurred during the late 1920s and construction started roughly a month before the 1929 stock market crash. The building is notable for its Art Deco style that grew exceptionally popular during the 1920s. The building opened in 1931, but the official commemoration took place in 1932 during Buffalo's centennial celebration. The interior and exterior are adorned with artwork that details much of the city's history and culture. Visitors can view the city and surrounding areas from its 28th-floor observation deck, located 300 feet above the city.
The ornate, Colonial Style Karnak Flats apartment building arose in 1898 at a time when Buffalonians increasingly enjoyed the use of electricity and the city grew into the nation's eighth largest. Apartment living increasingly grew popular as the nation urbanized and space for land decreased. The middle and upper classes sought apartments that included amenities, luxuries, and plenty of space -- the Karnak offered that. But, by the 1920s, a booming economy allowed for a surge in apartment building leaving the Karnak to look old and out of date in comparison. By the Great Depression of the 1930s, the apartment sizes were cut in half and the renters transitioned from wealthy to laborers, and eventually the building functioned as public housing during the 1970s. Today, it again stands as a middle-class apartment building.
Buffalo attorney Harlow Curtiss funded the construction of this building, which was completed in 1913. The era saw continued expansion of Buffalo's economy and downtown district as businesses took advantage of the city's location along the Erie Canal, Great Lakes, and the potential of nearby Niagra Falls as a source of electrical power. Curtiss not only proved to be a prominent attorney and real estate investor in Buffalo, but he was also a close associate of President Grover Cleveland. Following extensive renovation and restoration efforts, the building is now home to the Curtiss Hotel.
The Electric Building, or General Electric Building, opened in 1912 and has survived as one of Buffalo's most recognizable buildings. The design resembles the Pan-American Exposition’s Tower of Light, which in turn drew its inspiration from the Pharos Lighthouse in Alexandria, which for centuries stood as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.The Electric Tower had one primary purpose: promote the use of electricity. Buffalo served as one of the leading urban centers when it came to electrical use, having harnessed the power of Niagara Falls during the late 1890s, but plenty remained without electricity even as late as 1920.
Founded in 1974, the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts (CEPA) is one of the oldest and largest non-profit photography and visual arts organizations of its kind in the country. It offers changing exhibits, numerous education programs for people of all ages, and darkroom and digital labs that are open to the public. It's photography collection includes pictures by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Patricia Layman Bazelon. The museum also invites photographers from the community to submit their work (using a single-use Kodak camera) to the Visions of Greater Buffalo program; the best pictures are on display on the museum's website. The museum merged with the Big Orbit Gallery in 2013 and has worked with the Just Buffalo Literary Center since 2005 to better promote the arts in Buffalo.
Built in 1926, Shea's Buffalo Theatre opened at a time when the movie industry was booming and hundreds of movie palaces opened in cities across the U.S. While many of the downtown movie palaces built in the 1920s were elegant, the nearly $2 million Buffalo Theatre was one of the most opulent theaters of the era. The architects, C.W and George L Rapp, also designed New York's Paramount Theatre and Chicago's Oriental Theatre. They designed the Buffalo Theatre to resemble seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European opera houses. Unlike the vast majority of movie palaces that did not survive the twentieth century, Shea's remains a vibrant part of the Buffalo entertainment and social scene.
Buffalo native Ani DiFranco was a singer-songwriter who created Babeville – a multi-use facility devoted to the arts. She saved and then converted a historic church into this performing arts space. DiFranco also created an indie label, Righteous Babe Records. Buffalo’s chapter of the LGBT movement spans back long before DiFranco. During the 1950s, the city’s gay scene flourished, but the following decade ushered in a new political landscape, and a need for the community to organize became apparent. Buffalo helped fashion the idea of an LGBT community center in the ’60s. The grassroots effort operated seven days a week and published a gay newspaper called “5th Freedom.”
This four-story row townhouse was constructed in 1895 alongside many others on Delaware Street at this time when numerous millionaires and people of influence called this neighborhood home. The Birge-Horton home enjoyed an elegant design and plenty of modern amenities and the home's owners and neighboring residents were among many leading Buffalo citizens tied to community activism, social events, politics, and business. The home's second owner, Katharine Pratt Horton, represented Buffalo at World's Fairs and other expositions across the country. She also founded the local chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution (DAR). When she died, Katherine Horton left her house and money to the DAR. The organization remains in the historic home and operates today as the Katherine Pratt Horton Buffalo Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.
Though acclaimed author F. Scott Fitzgerald is most associated with St. Paul, Minnesota, where he spent most of his early life, and Manhattan, where much of fiction took place, the writer lived for a time as a child in Buffalo. Fitzgerald’s father was employed by Proctor & Gamble in Buffalo, and their one-time residence at 29 Irving Place was a short distance away from the company. The house is now part of the Allentown Historic District.
Established in 1894, the Twentieth Century Club in Buffalo, New York, was the first private social club for women by women. With the motto Facta Probant - "Let deeds tell" - the women of the Twentieth Century Club focused on education, literature, and art. The clubhouse was rebuilt in the early 20th century in an Italian Renaissance style. Still in operation today, the Twentieth Century Club is the oldest women's social club in Buffalo, and the second oldest in the country.
The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site (also the Ansley Wilcox House) is the historic home in Buffalo, New York where, on September 14, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the nation's 26th president. The home is one of the few sites where a presidential inauguration occurred outside of Washington D.C. The home opened as a museum in 1971. The museum offers an immersive experience, taking visitors back in time to the turn of the century Buffalo, which hosted the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. Exhibits describe the exposition and the assassination of President William McKinley, who was shot there and died a few days later on September 14. Visitors can also learn about Ansley Wilcox, owner of the house and a good friend of Roosevelt. The house was saved from demolition in the 1960s and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The Kleinhans Music Hall, built in the late 1930s at the behest of Edward and Mary Kleinhans, is a historic music hall in Buffalo, New York. Somewhat disappointed with the music accommodations of the city of Buffalo, the Kleinhans placed in their wills that much of their fortune was to be put forth to building a music hall that would be “suitable” for true performances. Today, the Kleinhans Music Hall continues to serve this purpose and is the home of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Zink Block was completed in 1896, a time when Buffalo's west side was flourishing and home to a growing middle-class community. The residential building boom came with a need for home furnishings, and the Zink building stood as the area's most successful furniture store and repair shop. The Italian Renaissance design also speaks to the neighborhood's middle class culture. The architect, Charles Swan, designed numerous commercial and residential buildings in Buffalo, and enjoyed national acclaim for his work. The building is currently home to retailers on the first level with apartments on the upper four floors.
This Tour is a Driving or Biking Tour.
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Crisscrossing the heart of Buffalo in a mostly north to south pattern, this tour aims for efficiency as it takes the user to over two dozen landmark buildings, monuments, museums, and other sites that collectively help to tell the story of Buffalo.
