Buffalo Public Library - Table of Contents................. Lafayette Square - Table of Contents

1887 Buffalo Public Library
Washington Street opposite Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY

Library architect: Cyrus Eidlitz
Library demolished: Early 1960s


Click on illustration for larger size

Lafayette Square acquired its name in 1879, having originally been called Court House Park.

The 1818 Erie County Court House preceded the Library on the site.

The Buffalo Public Library was dedicated on Feb. 7, 1887 on the site of the Old Court House.

Eidlitz won an architectural competition that also drew a design from the country's top architect, Henry Hobson Richardson.

Eidlitz's Romanesque building was so beloved that when it was being razed in the early 1960s for a replacement Central Library, the demolition firm received dozens of phone calls from Buffalonians begging them to save its gargoyles.They did not, citing extra costs.

The one remaining Eidlitz building in Buffalo in 2007 is the Webb Building.

Photo Source: "A History of the City of Buffalo," published by the The Buffalo Evening News, 1908.


Page by Chuck LaChiusa
| ...Home Page ...| ..Buffalo Architecture Index...| ..Buffalo History Index....|.. E-Mail ...| ..