44. Spaulding Building
763 Main Street
 Designed in 1906 by McCreary, Wood and Bradney for Edward Rich Spaulding, this three-story building is ornatley decorated with terra cotta columns, pilasters and many moldings. The entranceway is marked by fluted columns with Ionic capitals containing what look like scrolls called volutes. Note the lintel, or horizontal bean across the doorway and the letter “S” for Spaulding carved into the cartouche in the middle.
The building is named for the Spaulding family, who arrived in the American colonies just after the Mayflower. Elbert Spaulding was an attorney, a banker and mayor of Buffalo. He is best know as the “father of the greenback”, for his work in Congress in creating the green paper currency that helped keep the North’s economy afloat during the Civil War. Like the nearby Sidway Building, the Spaulding Building also uses brick and terra cotta - however it is light in color, in keeping with it’s more strictly classical roots. The architects who designed both the Spaulding and the Sidway also designed the well-known Larkin House on Lincoln parkway, which is currently owned by Buffalo Seminary.
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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