U.S. Post Office - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

During the last decade of the 19th century the United States government launched major construction projects around the country to build a series of impressive post offices and government buildings in key cities, making Buffalo a natural choice as it was the 8th largest and one of the most progressive cities in the nation at the turn of the century.

This massive 5-1/2 story pink granite Gothic structure, covering an entire city block bordered by Ellicott, South Division, Oak and Swan Streets, is dominated by a 244 foot Romanesque Florentine tower enhanced with studded finials and carved gargoyles. On the corners of a ledge below the gargoyles are four granite eagles and over the main entrance an impressive stone eagle, symbolizing the United States government. To each side of the doorway is stylized bison head representing the great city of Buffalo and a series of gables dominate the mansard roofline with a safety railing skirting the roof’s edges.

The cornerstone was laid June 19, 1897 and the building officially dedicated on March 20, 1901. Built at a cost of $2 million and replacing the old US post office and court house at Seneca and Washington Streets, the main floor of the new building was given over to the post office facilities while other floors housed federal courtrooms, the custom house and other government offices. A great skylighted court dominates the central portion of the building, which accesses four floors of arched galleries.

Supervising Treasury architect Jeremiah O’Rourke’s original plans were favorably modified by William M. Aiken and James Knox Taylor who continued the work with contributions by Buffalo consulting architects Edward Metzger and Edward A. Kent who was to later die in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

After the main post office was moved to new quarters on William Street in 1963, this building continued to serve as a branch post office. However it was soon threatened with demolition and thanks to the public spirit and tenacity of Erie County Legislator Joan Bozer and others, the old post office was readapted for use as a college in 1981 under the supervision of Cannon Design and is a key anchor in the rebuilding and regrowth of downtown Buffalo.

Street address: 121 Ellicott St Buffalo, NY United States 14203 County / Borough / Parish: Erie Year listed: 1972 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1875-1899, 1900-1924 Historic function: Government: Post Office Current function: Education: College Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/08/2014 sevenil7il visited it 08/31/2011 stinger503 visited it 07/24/2011 uccacher visited it 07/14/2010 BruceS visited it

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