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PHOTO July 4, 1930. Elmwood Avenue entrance. English-born Albert T. Stewart was the sculptor of the rear frieze on Elmwood Avenue, as well as the front frieze, and four large figures in the center of the main lobby. The sculpted stone frieze at the rear of the building is of the same colossal dimensions as the one over the front portico. Similar columns support the frieze, and also serve as window divisions. Albert Stewart's frieze portrays five scenes from the early history of Buffalo in a chronological sequence, from left to right. At the left, a man in the garb of a French Canadian trader has left an ax in the stump of a tree while he addresses three Native Americans. Behind him is a partially completed building. The date, 1758, represents the first non-Native American construction on the site of Buffalo. Daniel Chabert Joncaire in that year built a house, barn, stable, and blacksmith shop near the mouth of the Buffalo River, Rivier des Boeufs. The next group, dated 1803, represents Joseph Ellicott giving instructions to the Holland Land Company surveying team. They are about to lay out the Ellicott plan for the village of New Amsterdam, as Buffalo was then named by Ellicott. The central group depicts a scene which took place in an oak grove on Scajaquada Creek, now within Forest Lawn Cemetery, when representatives of the Iroquois people met in council. The Seneca orator, Red Jacket, is presenting a ceremonial tomahawk to Native American Agent Erastus Granger. The actual tomahawk presented in 1810 is in the collection of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. The scene represents the peaceful relationship between Buffalo and the Senecas. To the right, dated 1820, a group of figures represents the efforts to build the first Buffalo Harbor. Samuel Wilkeson, who later became mayor of the city, was the driving force behind the project. The completion of the harbor on schedule enabled Buffalo to be chosen as the terminus of the Erie Canal. The group on the far right represents the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. It was the key event beginning Buffalo's steady growth in population and prosperity, which was continuing as City Hall was being built. - Text source: "Buffalo City Hall: An Americanesque Masterpiece," by John H. Conlin. Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier, Buffalo, NY, 1993. Available through Western New York Wares Photo Source: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (27 photos, 16 data pages). Type: Buffalo City Hall Photographer: unknown.

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