Lafayette Square - Table of Contents                                Mooney & Brisbane Bilding / Brisbane Building

Mooney & Brisbane Building / Brisbane Building
403 Main Street at Lafayette Square Buffalo, NY                    

                    On this page, below:

                                Historic photos

                                2006 photos

                                2009 photos

                                History

Historic Photos

The Arcade Building, built 1855

Source: The Picture Book of Earlier Buffalo, Frank H. Severance, ed. Pub. by the Buffalo Historical Society Publications, Vol. 16, 1912, p. 170




The Arcade Building, built 1855                            Destroyed by fire in 1893.
Source: The Picture Book of Earlier Buffalo, Frank H. Severance, ed. Pub. by the Buffalo Historical Society Publications, Vol. 16, 1912, p. 171




Mooney & Brisbane Building                              Architect's drawing, C. 1895
Source: 
Architectural Portfolio of Some of the Buildings Erected by M. E. Beebe & Son, Architects




Milton E. Beebe





Lafayette Hotel                      Mooney & Brisbane Building                    Soldiers & Sailors Civil War  Monument




Postcard

Public library (demolished)                   Lafayette Hotel                  Mooney & Brisbane Building                   Soldiers & Sailors Civil War  Monument


Postcard

Public library (demolished)                   Lafayette Hotel                  Mooney & Brisbane Building                   Soldiers & Sailors Civil War  Monument


Mooney & Brisbane Building                        Note original entrance                  Source: Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society Museum



Source: Architectural Portfolio of Some of the Buildings Erected by M. E. Beebe & Son, Architects








2006 Photos


North elevation with 
Lafayette Hotel at left



Three north elevation bays facing Lafayette Square                            Note "modernized" entrance



North elevation right bay facing Lafayette Square



North elevation facing Lafayette Square                                 Main Place Tower and Mall at right    





North and west elevations                         Note "modernized" entrance at right facing Main Street



West elevation on Main Street                   Far left: Rand Building


West elevation on Main Street                Capital features  acanthus leaves  and laurel leaves surrounding a plain cartouche               



West elevation on Main Street                  Egg-and-dart molding on belt course       Hoodmolds and voussoirs over rounded ribbon windows, consistent with the Renaissance Revival style of the building      


West elevation on Main Street                    Overhanging cornice supported by modillions featuring acanthus leaves                  Decorative panel featuring  cartouches                      Composite style pilasters



West elevation on Main Street



West elevation on Main Street                  Terra cotta Renaissance Revival style decorative panel



West elevation on Main Street                    Composite style pilasters  with Renaissance Revival style decorative panel


West elevation on Main Street                      Modified Roman Lattice design



West elevation on Main Street                       Overhanging copper cornice supported by modillions featuring acanthus leaves  with alternating rosettes



West elevation on Main Street                       Overhanging copper cornice supported by modillions featuring acanthus leaves  with alternating rosettes                             Bead-and-reel molding                          Fluting molding





East elevation on Washington Street                     Note entrance (detailed below)                        Left: Vacant AM&A's Building on Washington Street                  Right: Rand Building


East elevation on Washington Street entrance                     Note the frieze and keystone detailed below                           The entrances on Lafayette Square and on Main Street were later "modernized" with marble




East elevation on Washington Street               Top frieze features  acanthus leaves                 S scroll-shaped keystone also features acanthus leaves  






2006 interior photo                        Cast iron                            Acanthus leaves above and below fluting




2006 interior photo                       Renaissance Revival style ornamentation on door plate   features C scrolls, S scrolls, beads,  and  acanthus leaves  





2009 Photos - Main Street Entrance Restoration


 































Constructed:

1894-96

Architect:

Milton E. Beebe and Son

This is the premier production of the father and son firm of local architects, Milton E. Beebe and Son, who were in demand to design churches and commercial and residential buildings in the city in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Milton E. Beebe (1840-1922) who was a grandson of one of the first settlers in Buffalo, worked as a carpenter before setting himself up as an architect after the Civil War. His son, Henry, joined him in the 1880s.

This firm also designed the original Masten Park High School.

Style:

Beaux Arts Classical Revival

Preceding building:

The Arcade Building: Albert and George Brisbane family had first built an "Arcade" on this site in the early 1850's following a disastrous fire, which leveled the block. Architects were the Rose brothers. The Arcade, which was the largest office building in the city, housed Shea's Music Hall, Robinson's Musée Theatre, T.C. Tanke Jewelers and other businesses, also succumbed to a fire on December 14, 1893.

Original Owners:

Mooneys: Originally known as the Mooney and Brisbane Building, since it was built for James Mooney of Buffalo and James Brisbane of New York City.

(According to his great grandson, Mooney funded the Fenian Raid into Canada. Afterwards, he could never visit the family's summer home in Canada, since there was a price on his head.)

Mooney's brother, Henry (Henry Mooney House), also was a partner.

In 1906 James Brisbane assumed complete ownership.

Building:

Covers half a city block, with 180 feet of frontage on Main Street, 200 feet on Clinton Street overlooking Lafayette Square, and 180 feet on Washington Street.

Materials included over 2,000 tons of iron and steel, about 3,000,000 bricks, and over 40,000 square feet of glass, terra cotta and marble. The interior floor-arching and partitions were fireproof. The heating and power was furnished by 4 one hundred and twenty-five horsepower boilers.

At the time it was built, the Brisbane Building was the largest mercantile and office building in the city. It was designed to accommodate a single retail establishment on the first floor and offices on floors 3 through 7. The second floor was set up as a "Bon Marché," with two immense skylights over a central court that served 16 small stores.

1908 Tenants:

In 1908, the ground floor of the building was occupied by the three largest stores of their line in the city:

  • The Kleinhans Men's Clothing Store, which came to occupy the basement, half of the first floor and the entire second floor
  • Faxon, Williams, & Faxon, the most prominent grocers in Western New York
  • S. H. Knox's five and ten cent store (photos)

The second floor included a 50-feet wide court covered by a colored glass dome.

Text sources:



Photos and their arrangement © 2006 Chuck LaChiusa
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