18. Stanton Building
251-257 Main Street
 The Stanton Building is the only surviving local example of a façade entirely of iron. Unfortunately, modernization of the ground floor has obscured any identifying plaques and it is not known if the building was the product of a local manufacturer.
Cast iron provided greater structural strength, allowing for wider first story openings, while easily supporting the weight of the masonry above. Larger shop windows could be created, letting more light into the building and providing additional display space. Iron could be cast in a variety of designs. Use of the material became so prevalent that ultimately entire cast iron facades were constructed.
The idea was to mold all of the decorative elements - columns, pilasters, capitals, arched window lintels, dentil moldings, and cornices - out of iron and then paint the iron to resemble stone.
More common to Buffalo than the multistoried iron front are facades consisting of ground-floor iron columns supporting upper stories of brick in which decorative features, such as window sills and caps, are of cast iron.
As quality stone became more expensive, cast iron was an economical alternative that produced a similar effect. In the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, Buffalo, strategically located between the ore fields of the upper Great Lakes and the coal mines (to fire the blast furnaces) of Pennsylvania, was a major producer of iron and steel, and several large architectural ironwork firms, including the Eagle Iron Works, Washington Iron Works, and Tifft Iron Works, existed here after 1850. These names can still be found on many buildings in the city.
Text and photo courtesy of Chuck LaChiusa.
Credits
Scripts: Denise Prince and Jane Kwiatkowski
Voice: Christopher Jamele of Jamele Freelance Services
Audio production: John Davis of Eclectic Electric
This project was made possible in part with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Tour content courtesy of Buffalo Tours.
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