Saint Vincent's Female Orphan Asylum - Table of Contents

2012 Photos
G. Barrett Rich House /
Little Portion Friary

  1305 Main Street, Buffalo, NY

Little Portion Friary - Official Website

1860
Robinson-Squier Mansion, 1313 Main Street, built
1885
Sisters of Charity purchase the Robinson-Squier Mansion for Saint Vincent's Female Orphan Asylum
1889-90
G. Barrett Rich Mansion, on Main Street, built
1898-1899
St. Vincent's expansion: Orphanage, 1140 Ellicott Street, built.
Architect: Green & Wicks
1922
St. Vincent's expansion:  Rich Mansion purchased for convent
1952
St. Vincent's sold to Bishop O'Hern H.S.
1971
Bishop O'Hern H.S. sold to Erie County for its Community College-City Campus
1982
ECC-City Campus moves to Old Post Office leaving
1140 Ellicott Street orphanage and the gymnasium vacant until 2011.
1984
Rich Mansion sold in 1984 to the Franciscans for the Little Portion Friary

Source: Nomination for Local Landmark Listing



Vinyl siding covered up a Shingle-style house




Medina sandstone chimney



Eyebrow window



Note two oriels





In 1922 St. Vincent's Female Orphan Asylum purchased the adjacent residential property, a Shingle-style house built for Buffalonian G. Barrett Rich about 1890 and sold by him in 1921 after the death of his wife.

Like his grandfather and father, G. Barrett Rich was President of The Bank of Attica, the oldest bank in Western New York (est. 1836), and an important financial institution in Buffalo. He served also as President of its successor The Buffalo Commercial Bank. He was one of the incorporators and directors of the Commonwealth Trust Company and also a trustee of the Erie County Savings Bank. An article in The Buffalo Morning Express Describes Rich's military record as:

... prominently connected with the National Guard of the State of New York... He entered the service as first lieutenant on the brigade staff in 1871, and after many advances was finally elevated to the high office of Paymaster-General of the State on the staff of Gov. Cleveland in 1883, which position he held for three years.


General Rich held numerous positions of trust and responsibility in the community including: member of the Executive Committee of the Buffalo Public Library; life member of the YMCA; trustee of the North Presbyterian Church; member of the Masonic fraternity; President (in 1901) of the Buffalo Club; and member of the Buffalo Historical Society Board of Managers who were responsible for the erection of the New York State Building, now the Historical Society, for the Pan-American Exposition.

On October 1, 1873 General Rich married Cornelia Perrine. Their children were Gaius Barrett (III), a Yale graduate and Spanish-American War veteran, whose business interests were identified with the Frontier Telephone Company, and Harold Perrine who who died at the age of 16 in 1894.



Page by Chuck LaChiusa in 2012
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