Cultural Itineraries
Why Architecture Buffs Love Buffalo:
A Tour of Buffalo's Great American Buildings
Buffalo is known to architecture buffs around the world as a treasure trove of great American buildings, and you can see many of the city's best buildings in a well-planned two or three day visit. A good place to start is the Buffalo Niagara Visitor Center in the classic Market Arcade building, 617 Main Street. This turn-of-the-century precursor to the malls of today has a beautiful atrium and wonderful exterior detail. At the first floor Visitor Center ask for the Walk Buffalo brochure, a self-guided walking tour of the downtown's buildings.
 One of the buildings you'll not want to miss include Buffalo's City Hall, 65 Niagara Square (left), one of the greatest Art Deco buildings in the world.
From there you'll head up Church Street for a look at a series of magnificent structures. At the corner of Pearl Street you'll find Louis Sullivan's Guaranty Building, 28 Church Street, one of the first skyscrapers and a masterpiece of world architecture. Its pristine terra cotta exterior and sharp horizontal lines are breathtaking to behold.
One block west, you'll find Richard Upjohn's St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral at the corner of Church and Pearl. This spectacular gothic revival building was built following the completion of Upjohn's Trinity Episcopal Church in New York and was the renowned architect's favorite church design. Just across Main Street is the Ellicott Square Building, 295 Main Street. This Italian Renaissance building was the world's largest office complex at the time of its completion in 1896 and has one of the city's most elegant interior spaces, with hand-made tile mosaic floor and grand staircases highlighting the courtyard.
Continuing along Church Street, you'll see the Old Post Office, 121 Ellicott Street, now the home of the Erie Community College City Campus. Built in the 1890s, it is marked by a soaring tower and imposing gargoyles.
Head north on Elm Street and into the city's historic Allentown district where you'll find an amazing array of beautiful 19th century homes, many of which remain in pristine condition. Throughout the city, the housing stock offers an impressive array of styles and designs.
Your next stop should be Symphony Circle at the intersection of North Street and Richmond Avenue. On one corner is the beautiful Birge Mansion, built for local wallpaper magnate George Birge in 1896. Inspired by a trip Birge took to the Riviera, the home has two pavilions that flank a center section distinguished by spectacular columns and faux balustrades. The building now serves as office space for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
 Right across the circle is one of the country's most acoustically perfect concert halls. Kleinhans Music Hall, 71 Symphony Circle (right), was built from 1938-40 and designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen, the famed Finnish-American father and son design team. It is a favorite of musicians throughout the classical world and home to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Next, drive down Delaware Avenue. Your first stop should be the Wilcox Mansion, now a National Historic Landmark known as the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, 641 Delaware Avenue. It was in this beautiful home that TR took the oath of office following the death of President William McKinley in Buffalo. The landmark preserves the turn-of-the-century ambience of the house as well as the history of that momentous occasion, one of the few times a President took the oath of office outside of Washington, D.C.
Just north of the Wilcox Mansion begins what is known as "Millionaire's Row". Several magnificent mansions remain from the city's gilded age at the start of the 20th century. The Jacobs Executive Development Center (originally the Williams-Butler Mansion), 672 Delaware Avenue, designed by the legendary firm of McKim, Mead and White is the first building you'll see. This palatial home is matched by the magnificent gardens that surround the site. As you continue on Delaware Avenue, you'll see mansion after mansion, most of which have been adapted for other uses while retaining their architectural integrity.
 A unique spin on architectural grace can be found at Forest Lawn Cemetery, at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Delavan Avenue. There are more than 700 obelisks and numerous ornate monuments and memorials that mark the graves of many prominent local citizens, including President Millard Fillmore (left).
From the cemetery, head past the spectacular private homes along Chapin Parkway, Soldier's Circle and Lincoln Parkway before coming to Forest Avenue. Go west and you'll come to the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, 400 Forest Avenue, designed by H.H. Richardson, still considered by many to be the greatest American architect. This Romanesque monument towers over the city's West Side and also features grounds designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.
Around the corner at 1285 Elmwood Avenue is the Albright-Knox Art Gallery designed by Buffalo's E.B. Green and reminiscent of classic Greek architecture. From there you can see the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 25 Nottingham Court, the only building remaining from the 1901 Pan-American Exposition and a classic Greek Revival building overlooking a lovely Japanese garden.
End your tour with what is perhaps the city's greatest architectural jewel. Take Nottingham Terrace around Delaware Park to Parkside Avenue and pass the Buffalo Zoo. At Jewett Parkway go left two blocks to the Darwin D. Martin Complex (125 Jewett Parkway). This is the best known of Frank Lloyd Wright's six residential designs in Buffalo and the most extensive "Prairie Style" house Wright ever designed. Currently undergoing a $35 million restoration, the house is available for tours.
For a schedule of Buffalo architecture tours, visit buffalotours.org.
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Genius at Work:
Frank Lloyd Wright in Buffalo
Frank Lloyd Wright, the man many historians consider to be the preeminent architect of the 20th century, is represented in Buffalo by six distinguished residences - one of the largest concentrations of Wright homes outside of Chicago - and a newly-constructed mausoleum. Ground will soon be broken for the construction of two previously unexecuted Wright designs: a filling station to be built on the campus of the Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum and a boathouse planned by the West Side Rowing Club.
 Foremost among the homes is the Darwin D. Martin House Complex (125 Jewett Parkway, right), Wright's most extensive Prairie House ever. The estate consists of the Darwin D. Martin House, the George Barton House and a modest two-story cottage known as the Gardener's Cottage. The estate is considered to be of extraordinary historical significance because it was designed not as a single residence but as a group of interrelated and connected buildings. Only once in his 72-year career did Wright have the opportunity to design a multi-structure residential complex and when Darwin and Isabelle Martin gave him the chance 100 years ago, he seized the moment and created a work of extraordinary significance and unparalleled refinement.
An ambitious reconstruction and restoration of the entire Martin House complex is underway that will see the site returned to its original symmetry in fall 2006. Visitors are invited to tour the house during the restoration process to witness the first ever reconstruction of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings.
Wright's Buffalo portfolio also consists of two sizable and charming residences: The Walter V. Davidson House on Tillinghast Place and the William R. Heath House on Bird Avenue at Soldier's Circle in the city's Delaware District.
You can also visit historic Forest Lawn Cemetery (corner of Delaware and Delavan Avenues) in the heart of Buffalo and experience the recently-constructed Blue Sky Mausoleum, commissioned in 1928 by Darwin D. Martin as the final resting place for the Martin family.
 Finally, Graycliff (6472 Old Lake Shore Road, Derby, left) - the summer residence of Darwin and Isabelle Martin - can be found in nearby Derby, a short drive south of Buffalo. Situated on a 70-foot cliff overlooking Lake Erie, the two-story, 6,500 square foot house represents a transitional point from Wright's Prairie Style to his later concrete designs that found their ultimate expression at the justly-famous Fallingwater. Elements from both periods are evident in the design of the house. Also undergoing an extensive restoration, Graycliff is open to visitors.
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From the Albright-Knox to Open Studios:
Exploring an Art-full City
 The main event takes place behind the classical façade of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1285 Elmwood Avenue). Here you'll find one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary art anywhere in the world, what Thomas Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has called "an overwhelming art experience." Marvel at Modigliani. Stare awestruck at Cezanne (Morning in Provence, 1900-06, right). Pass the time with Picasso. After you've had your fill of art, enjoy a refreshing repast at the Muse restaurant and the view of the always-changing sculpture garden.
Across the street you'll find the Burchfield-Penney Art Center (1300 Elmwood Avenue), a gallery devoted to the work of visionary watercolorist Charles Burchfield and other regional artists, on the campus of Buffalo State College. Burchfield made his home in the nearby hamlet of Gardenville and his scenes depicting local landscapes resonate with a deeply felt pride of place. Around the corner from the artist's home you'll find the Charles E. Burchfield Nature and Art Center at 2001 Union Road. The Center is a great spot to experience the landscapes that captured Burchfield's imagination and inspired his art. There are also art classes, exhibits and guided tours of the gallery and park.
Buffalo's art scene doesn't end there. You can visit artists at work in a former windshield wiper factory at the Buffalo Arts Studio (Tri-Main Center, 2495 Main Street, Suite 500). Potters, painters and photographers all call the Studio home and a walk through its spacious hallways can be a provocative introduction to new directions in contemporary art.
Art icons Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo and Charles Clough helped to found the legendary Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center while students in Buffalo in the mid-'70s. Today, the gallery has moved to an exciting new space in the former Asbury Delaware Church in downtown Buffalo (341 Delaware Avenue) and continues to push the envelope of style and subject matter.
 CEPA Gallery in the historic Market Arcade (617 Main Street) nurtures the next generation of photographers who are exploring the boundaries of their chosen medium in both digital and traditional formats, as well as in video and film. You can also explore thought-provoking installations at Big Orbit Gallery (33 Essex Street) on the city's West Side or take in an engaging series of exhibits at the University at Buffalo's Art Galleries on the college's North Campus (201A Center for the Arts) in nearby Amherst and at the Anderson Gallery (Martha Jackson Place off Englewood Avenue) in North Buffalo, an innovative re-use of a former elementary school of real imagination and charm. (Harvey Breverman, Small Interior Studio Group II, left)
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A Real Page Turner:
A Tour of Literary Buffalo
Start your tour of literary Buffalo with a cup of coffee at Caffe Aroma, 957 Elmwood Avenue at Bidwell Parkway, and spend some time next door browsing at Talking Leaves, Buffalo's oldest independent bookseller, with branches in the Elmwood Village and University Heights.
 Next, visit the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum (right), with locations at 453 Porter Avenue and 220 North Street, part of the largest private document collection in the world. Buffalo is one of only eight U.S. cities to house a Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. Special exhibits of rare documents complement a permanent collection of more than one million items.
Nearby, you'll find the 472 Delaware site of the home of Mark Twain where he lived with his wife Olivia and son Langdon from August 1869 to January 1871. Although the home itself - a wedding gift from Olivia's father - burned down in the 1960s, the two-story carriage house is still standing on the property. Heading west on North Street, you'll pass the former Lenox Apartments at 140 North Street. As a very young child, F. Scott Fitzgerald lived here with his family for a brief time.
Make your way downtown with stops at Rust Belt Books, 202 Allen Street, in the heart of Allentown. Here you'll find an eclectic array of everything from cookbooks to comic books. Your next stop should be Old Editions Book Shop, 74 E. Huron Street at the corner of Oak. Old Editions is home to a vast collection of rare, out-of-print and hard-to-find books.
 From Old Editions it's a short walk up Oak Street to the Central branch of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library at Lafayette Square. Here you'll find the Mark Twain Room (left), home to the original handwritten manuscript of Huckleberry Finn. Across the hall, visit the Rare Book Room and its collection of magnificent illustrated books, including Audubon's Birds of America. Small group tours are available by appointment.
From downtown, make your way to suburban Amherst and the North Campus of the University at Buffalo's Poetry/Rare Books Collection, 420 Capen Hall. Devoted to 20th Century poetry in English and English translation, the Poetry Collection contains 90,000 volumes by every major and many minor poets writing in English. Recordings of poets reading from their own works, poets' notebooks, letters and manuscripts, and a wide variety of literary magazines are also included in the collection. The cornerstone of the Rare Books Collection is Thomas B. Lockwood's collection of first editions of the works of English language authors from the 16th through the 19th centuries. The collection is also internationally known for its significant holdings of the work of James Joyce.
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History, Mystery & Beauty:
Buffalo Niagara Heritage Trail South
Begin your trip at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1285 Elmwood Avenue). The Albright-Knox has been called "one of the world's top international surveys of modern and contemporary painting and sculpture." Across the street from the Albright-Knox at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center (1300 Elmwood Avenue) you'll find an outstanding collection of regional art built around the work of the great American watercolorist Charles Burchfield, best known for his romantic, often fantastic depictions of nature. Just around the corner at 400 Forest Avenue, take in the soaring red Medina sandstone towers of H.H. Richardson's Buffalo Psychiatric Center, a Romanesque monument that presides over the city's West Side.
 At the corner of Forest and Elmwood, go left and retrace your steps past the Albright-Knox and Burchfield-Penney. Take a right on Nottingham Terrace. Pass the Grecian columns of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. (At right is the police report on Leon Czolgosz, President William McKinley's assassin. Click for an enlargement) This is the only building remaining from Buffalo's World's Fair, the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. Continue on Nottingham alongside the Meadow of Frederick Law Olmsted's Delaware Park, the centerpiece of his Buffalo parks system. At Amherst Street, go right two blocks to Parkside Avenue, then right two blocks to Jewett Parkway. Proceed left on Jewett two blocks to Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin Estate. Currently undergoing an extensive re-construction and renovation, the estate consists of the Martin House, the George Barton House, a pergola, conservatory, carriage house and a modest two-story cottage known as the Gardener's Cottage.
From Darwin and Isabelle Martin's city house go south to their country getaway, Graycliff, also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Take a left on Parkside Avenue to the Scajaquada Expressway (Route 198) West. Take I-190 South to the New York State Thruway (I-90) West. Proceed to Exit 57 (Hamburg) to Route 75 North. Take a left onto Route 20 West. Proceed five miles and go right on South Creek Road. Follow South Creek to its end and follow the Graycliff signs. Situated on a 70-foot cliff overlooking Lake Erie in Derby, Graycliff served as Darwin and Isabelle Martin's summer retreat from 1928 through the mid-'40s.
 From Graycliff, return to the New York State Thruway and go west to Exit 60 at Westfield. Take Route 394 east to Mayville and on to the Chautauqua Institution (left). Founded in 1874, Chautauqua is a National Historic Landmark and vibrant summer community. From Chautauqua, continue east on Route 394 to Route 17/86. Use Jamestown exit 12, following Route 60 south. In Jamestown, turn left on Buffalo Street, left at Falconer Street, and left on Curtis Street. At 311 Curtis Street you'll find the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. Enjoy wildlife art and photography exhibitions or view the collection of the 20th century's great naturalist and ornithologist, Dr. Roger Tory Peterson. From Jamestown, return to Route 17/86 and go east to Salamanca. At Salamanca, head north on Route 219 through a landscape of lovely rolling hills and farms to the charming village of Ellicottville and its multi-block historic district. Leaving Ellicottville, head east on Route 242. Turn left on Route 16 and head north to the lovely village of East Aurora, home to the National Landmark Roycroft Inn and Campus. The Roycroft Arts and Crafts Community was founded by writer-philosopher Elbert Hubbard in 1895 as a self-contained community, which supported hundreds of craftspeople. You'll also find Vidler's 5 and 10, an old-fashioned five and dime, an ice cream shop, a toy store and much more along charming Main Street. Take the Aurora Expressway (Route 400) to the New York State Thruway (I-90 East) and follow the signs to return to downtown Buffalo via I-190 North.
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History, Mystery & Beauty:
Buffalo Niagara Heritage Trail North
From downtown Buffalo go north on the New York State Thruway (I-190N) and proceed to the Peace Bridge exit. Cross the Peace Bridge to Fort Erie, Ontario. After clearing Customs, turn right onto Goderich Street and go two blocks to Queen Street, turn right and proceed three blocks to the Niagara Parkway, one of the world's great scenic drives. Take a left on the Parkway and head north towards Niagara Falls. Continue into the city of Niagara Falls. Stop and take a cruise on the Maid of the Mist, for an up close view of the thundering cataract.
 Continue northward on your journey and you'll come across one of the highlights of any trip along the Parkway - the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens and the Butterfly Conservatory. Continuing north on the Parkway, you'll pass through Queenston with its distinctive memorial to General Sir Isaac Brock, a British hero of the War of 1812, and by vineyards and fruit stands selling locally-grown produce, jams, honey and baked goods. As you prepare to enter the quaint and historic village of Niagara-on-the-Lake, you'll pass the Fort George National Historic Site (right), a restored British fort.
From Niagara-on-the-Lake return to New York State via the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge and head north along the Robert Moses Parkway to one of the jewels of the Great Lakes - Old Fort Niagara. Old Fort Niagara includes the oldest building on the Great Lakes and is a National Historic Landmark and New York State Historic Site.
 Continue on to the final leg of the Trail along Route 18F North to Route 18 East along Lake Ontario through the pleasant lakeside towns of Wilson and Olcott. At Olcott, turn right (south) on Route 78 (Lockport-Olcott Road). Then turn right onto Wilson-Burt Road. The second left is McClew Road. At 2402 McClew Road you'll find Murphy Orchards, a privately owned fruit farm that is believed to have been an Underground Railroad safe house. From Murphy Orchards, turn right onto McClew Road. At the end of the road turn left onto Ide Road. At the second right proceed onto Route 78. Go through Newfane to Lockport. At a fork in the road, bear left and pass over the Canal. Turn right onto Market Street and proceed to the foot of the hill. Stop at the Lockport Locks and Erie Canal Cruises (210 Market Street, left) for the opportunity to travel "15 miles on the Erie Canal" the way 19th century settlers moving west did. This narrated cruise along the Old Erie Canal takes a visitor along historic sites and through five original 1825 locks.
From the Lockport Locks, proceed on Market Street. Make a right on Main Street and then a left on Route 78. Go to Millersport Highway (Route 263). Proceed to I-990 South to I-290 East to I-90 West to Route 33 East to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport or Route 33 West to downtown Buffalo.
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