Early History of Buffalo Seminary
Buffalo Seminary was
founded in 1851 as the Buffalo Female Academy, and was established as a
place where the daughters of Buffalo’s elite could receive a quality
education on par with their male counterparts.
The Buffalo Female
Academy was formed from an idea originating from Rev. M. La Rue P.
Thompson, D.D., then pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. Rev.
Thompson called together a meeting of Buffalo’s community leaders at
the house of Stephen G. Austin in the spring of 1851. This initial
meeting led to a call for an additional public meeting which was held
at the Phelps House hotel. At this subsequent meeting, planning for the
school officially was undertaken, with stock subscriptions being
offered and a board of trustees selected. In March of 1851, the
organization was created.
Among the first trustees of the Academy were
some of Buffalo’s most prominent businessmen and civic figures,
including
Samuel F. Pratt who served as the first president of the board,
Aaron Rumsey,
Noah H. Gardener,
George W. Tifft and others.
In the antebellum
period the education of women was still a topic of debate, but the
engagement of Buffalo’s leading citizens in its formation is an
indication of the strong support that this institution received.
The school held its first classes on August 15, 1851, and the
institution was incorporated on October 14. The school’s first
Principal was the
Rev. Dr. Charles E. West. Dr. West hailed from
Brooklyn and had previously spent twelve years as the head of Rutgers
Institute before coming to the Buffalo Female Academy.
Around
this time, the fledgling school found a supportive patron whose
generous donations helped the Buffalo Female Academy through its
initial years.
Jabez Goodell, former school teacher and Buffalo pioneer
settler for whom the City’s Goodell Street is named, gave ten acres of
land to the Buffalo Female Academy, and took ten thousand dollars worth
of stock in the institution. After Goddell’s death on September 26,
1851 at age 75, he bequeathed five hundred dollars to the school. In
total, Jabez Goodell’s gifts to the Buffalo Female Academy totaled
$15,500. When the Trustees for the school constructed a building to
house the institution, they named it "Goodell Hall" in honor of their
generous patron. On July 6, 1852, Goodell Hall located on
Johnson Park, the then emerging residential area of Buffalo, was
completed and dedicated, and in this same year the school graduated its
first class of three students. The school previously utilized Evergreen
Cottage, the former home of
Dr. Ebenezer Johnson
the first Mayor of Buffalo, which was also located on Johnson Park at
Delaware Avenue, for initial classroom space, but following the opening
of Goodell Hall, Evergreen Cottage served largely as the academy
residence, primarily for the President and his family.
On the 25th Anniversary of the school’s founding in 1876, the alumnae
from the Buffalo Female Academy formed the
Graduates Association. In
June of 1884, the Graduates Association founded their first clubhouse,
located across the street from the school on Johnson Park
(11-11). This clubhouse was the first such building in the
country to be owned by a women’s club. Soon after, the name of
the school was changed to
Buffalo Seminary in 1889. During the mid- to
late- nineteenth-century, Buffalo Seminary experienced an era of growth
and relative stability, and became an increasingly prominent part of
the Buffalo culture. The Graduates Association sold their clubhouse on
Johnson Park in 1894, constructing a
new clubhouse on Delaware Avenue.
This prominent Italian Renaissance Revival building designed by the
firm of Green and Wicks (1895-96, NRE) would later become the
Twentieth Century Club,
Buffalo’s leading women’s clubhouse and social center. The Twentieth
Century Club was the first club run by women, for women, in the United
States.
In 1899 Buffalo Seminary merged with the
Elmwood School, under the
leadership of Miss Jessica E. Beers, who was then serving as Principal
for the school. The Elmwood School handled the primary grades of
students while Buffalo Seminary housed the upper grade levels. While
this partnership only lasted a few years, it did provide for a
continuous scholastic program for female students.
Around the turn of the century, Buffalo’s population had begun to shift
northward away from the downtown area and into the City’s newly forming
streetcar suburbs. The 1883 completion of the
New York Central Railroad’s Belt Line railroad,
which encircled the City of Buffalo, also encouraged the expansion of
the city fabric northward. This migration rendered the Johnson Park
location of Goodell Hall inconvenient for many of the City’s residents.
The school also sought to maintain its reputation as a first-class
educational program, and sought to create a new modern, updated
facility. In 1900 Buffalo Seminary moved to the
Twentieth Century Club
where it occupied the entire third floor and also held some classes at
the Heathcote School on Delaware Avenue, leaving the facilities at
Goodell Hall after 58 years. For the next several years, Buffalo
Seminary was without a permanent home, while it sought to obtain funds
to construct a new permanent home.
The Buffalo Seminary Building (1908-1909)
During this era, the Graduates Association led the campaign to locate
and purchase a site appropriate for a new school building. In 1906
property on Bidwell Parkway at the corner of Potomac Avenue was
purchased by the Graduates Association with a $40,000 mortgage to help
cover the costs of the new building which was estimated at $95,000.
Letters were also sent out to all students and alumnae of the school,
asking for contributions of any size to help offset the costs of the
new edifice. After the sale of the Evergreen Cottage and Goodell Hall
properties at Johnson Park ca. 1906, that money also formed a large
part of the Seminary’s building fund.
This new triangular parcel purchased by the Graduates Association was
described as being in the "most desirable residence section of
Buffalo." This prime location was noted as being convenient to
the Elmwood Avenue street car line but yet "sufficiently far away to
avoid noise and dust, while the whizzing cars afford convenient means
of transportation to and from the school." The parcel was
unanimously selected over several other sites due to its bucolic
location adjacent to Buffalo’s parkways, and its triangular shape was
thought to maximize natural lighting since it was nestled between parks
and streets.
The parcel of land
purchased by the Graduates Association was an oddly shaped triangular
plot formed by the diagonal of Bidwell Parkway crossing Potomac Avenue.
To maximize the irregular parcel, architect
George F. Newton designed a
three-story, T-shaped plan for the new Buffalo Seminary Building.
Drawing on his background in Gothic Revival and the Collegiate Gothic
style in which he was so proficient, he designed a building for the
school which consisted of a long, symmetrical façade along Bidwell
Parkway, with a perpendicular central wing which extended southward to
Potomac Avenue. The building was dressed in light
brick with limestone and terra cotta details. Created in a
Collegiate
Gothic style, many of the details relate specifically to the building’s
use as an educational building, substituting books for religious
motifs. Although the Classical Revival style was highly popular for
civic, commercial and other large-scale projects during this era, it
was noted that the Collegiate Gothic style was selected by the school
for its "historical associations with collegiate buildings."
The primary north
façade along Bidwell Parkway features
three shaped
gables, with a more prominent central gable which marks the main entry.
Buttresses with gablets divide the facades of the building into a
series of
bays. The entry is a deeply recessed compound pointed
arch portal. The entry is topped by a series of
grotesques and
prominently features a "BS" crest and the years "1851" and "1909" to
commemorate the origins of the Buffalo Female Academy as well as the
completion of the new Buffalo Seminary Building.
At each end of the
front elevation is a faceted one-story bay, topped with a
crenellated
detail. Each end of the north wing also features a
significant chimney feature, flanked by a pointed arch Gothic-style
window with
tracery detail and
label mold.
The
cross-gabled rear wingis
similarly detailed, with a series of larger pointed-arched windows
with Gothic tracery at the second floor, indicating the Chapel space.
These Gothic Revival windows are set within a larger pointed
arch enframement, placed between buttresses. The bulk of the windows in
the original church portion are modern 1/1 lite wood (appears to be
oak, stained dark) sash windows with a fixed transom above and covered
by storm windows, however each window lite features a pattern of
tessellated octagonal shapes created from thin caming. At the
termination of the rear wing at the property’s corner along Potomac
Avenue, a uniquely shaped roughly triangular apsidal projection was
created. The exterior of this feature was ornamented in polychrome
diaper patterned brick (photo 6) and topped with a crenellated parapet.
Crowning an internal circulation core is a monitor whose conical roof
resembles a tower, and which lends a medieval castle-like appearance to
this otherwise banal feature.
The
interior of the
original building featured spaces which served
specific functions to suit the scholastic needs of the students. At the
"crossing" of the two perpendicular wings is located a circulation core
which features a central landing at each floor level with two wide
dogleg staircases which feature metal newel posts and rails. The
balustrade on all levels features a modest Gothic-type design and an
oak handrail. The basement housed a large gymnasium (now used as the
lunch room), dressing rooms, a locker room and also a separate
apartment for a live-in janitor (see Historic Floor Plans, basement).
The main floor was entered from Bidwell Parkway through the main entry
portico which led up a flight of stairs to a central lobby. This lobby
was appointed in rich Tudor-style dark oak wood work including a
coffered ceiling. Towards the eastern end of the front wing was located
the elegant
library, which contains a fireplace with the school’s motto "Semper Fidelis" carved into the mantelpiece, an ornate oak coffered
ceiling, and dark oak paneling throughout. Built-in oak bookcases were
added around the perimeter of the room. At the western end of this wing
was the
Study Room; an open, flexible room for use as a study hall. The
perpendicular rear wing contained a double-loaded corridor with a
series of small "recitation rooms."
The key spaces on the
second floor include the large
Assembly Hall (now called the Chapel)
with stage, the
Social Room (now known as the Margaret L. Wendt
Foundation Gallery),
art studio space (now converted to offices), and
rooms for a
science laboratory and domestic science classes at either
end of the front wing. Historic plans indicate that the bulk of the
rooms on the third floor were left unfinished, perhaps left for
finishing as future needs might dictate. Today this floor houses
additional office spaces, but still features open rooms which appear to
be generally unused. The third floor provides access to a balcony level
in the Assembly Hall/Chapel space, and overlooks the vaulted Social
Room/Margaret L. Wendt Gallery.
West-Chester Hall
The first major
addition to the 1909 Buffalo Seminary Building arrived in the late
1920s. During the early twentieth-century in its new home, Buffalo
Seminary continued to grow and prosper, increasing its enrollment. By
1928 the school had grown to such an extent that the need for an
addition became apparent. The prominent Buffalo architectural firm of
Bley and Lyman designed a large addition to the east side of the
building. This addition contained a new gymnasium, classrooms
and the northern portion was named
West-Chester Hall, derived from the
last names of the school’s first two Headmasters,
Dr. Charles E. West
(1851-1860) and
Albert T. Chester (1860-1887). Construction of the
addition necessitated the removal of a large Dutch Colonial Revival
mansion at 34 Bidwell Parkway, and with the addition of the new wing,
the three sides of Buffalo Seminary formed a closed triangular form
around an interior courtyard. The design of this new space maintained
the Collegiate Gothic appearance of the original 1909 building,
distinctive upon close inspection, but mainly harmonizing with the
older portion with its use of similarly colored pale beige brick work
with prominent shaped gables at the front and rear elevations. Most of
the windows in the 1929 addition were multi-light metal casement
windows, which complemented the existing windows of the original
portion. The new portion created a new gymnasium space, which freed up
the previous basement gymnasium in the old building for new use as a
cafeteria and lunch room. The addition also contained additional
classrooms and an art studio which built-in cabinetry and elegant oak
woodwork. While the exterior maintained a similar style as the
original, many of the interior details were drawn from a more classical
tradition. The West-Chester Hall interiors featured details such as
broken pediments, columns, round-headed arches and other details which
contrasted with the medieval-based styling of the exterior. The
interior also features an abundance of Federal or Adamsesque details
including delicate swags and urns on the fireplace mantles and ribs of
the barrel vaults in both the upper and lower West-Chester Hall rooms;
a feminizing touch that is not present in the original building.
Larkin House
In 1953, Buffalo
Seminary received a generous donation which increased its real estate
holdings. Following the death of her parents in 1945 and 1948, Mary
Frances Larkin Kellogg (class of 1927) inherited the substantial
Larkin House at 65 Lincoln Parkway
(1912 by Wood & Bradney). In 1953, the house along with Larkin
Field was donated to Buffalo Seminary by the prominent Kellogg and
Larkin families. The house was used as the residence of the Headmaster,
while the field was utilized as an athletic field and tennis court by
the school.
Science wing
By the
1960s, the continued growth of Buffalo Seminary made the need for
another addition to the building necessary. Designed by Duane Lyman and
Associates (the successor firm to Bley and Lyman who designed the 1929
West-Chester Hall and gymnasium addition) in 1964, the new science wing
was constructed at the south-eastern end of the triangular-shaped
building along Potomac Avenue. While the earlier 1929 addition had been
highly sympathetic to the design and style of the original 1909
building, to the point where it was nearly indistinguishable from the
earlier portion in its design, detailing and materials, this new
addition was more modern in its design. Located on the site of a
demolished Potomac Avenue house adjacent, the new science wing addition
was one-bay wide along Potomac Avenue. It was designed using a similar
pale beige brick with similar four and three unit window groups
surrounded by simple tabbed molding details. The parapet is
crenellated, corresponding to other portions of the building. Absent
from the new addition is any other sort of elaborate exterior
ornamentation, however, such as the cast crests in several of the
original building’s shaped gables.
Margaret L. Wendt Performing Arts Center
Other changes to the
building include the construction of the Margaret L. Wendt Performing
Arts Center. The new addition was designed and constructed by the North
Star Construction company beginning in 1984. Constructed on the
previous roof-level of the 1929 addition, this new space served as a
performance, ballet, aerobics and drama room for the school. In 2001,
Buffalo Seminary raised funds needed to refurbish and modernize the
school. As a part of this process, the central courtyard which had been
created in 1929 with the construction of West-Chester Hall was roofed
over and opened up as an internal atrium space. While still maintaining
the sense of openness and light present in the original outdoor
courtyard by means of the large skylights located in the new roof, the
new atrium space opens to the basement lunch room. Of note in the space
is the presence of the fountain which features a putto figure. Formerly
located in the outdoor courtyard, the siting of the fountain within the
new atrium space maintains a connection between the old open courtyard
and the now-enclosed atrium.
Despite these changes and updates, the architecture of the Buffalo
Seminary Building remains largely intact. The mass of the original 1909
T-plan building is still present in the current layout of the building,
and it retains original features such as woodwork, exterior details,
interior plan and numerous other features. Historic additions such as
the gymnasium and West-Chester Hall wing (1929) and the new Science
wing (1964) were sympathetic to the design and appearance of the
original Collegiate Gothic building, complementing the existing
building with their own comparable use of materials and ornamentation.
Even more modern updates to the building such as the roofing over of
the courtyard respect the original architectural fabric, maintaining a
sense of open, sun-light space in the now enclosed atrium space. While
Buffalo Seminary has adapted and changed in order to maintain the
highest educational levels, and has likewise needed to expand and
update its building, it has made every effort to preserve and respect
the form, mass and detailing of the Buffalo Seminary Building.
City of Light
Perhaps
Buffalo Seminary is best known to the general public through
literature. Lauren Belfer (Class of 1971) revealed a unique picture of
the City of Buffalo at the time of the 1901 Pan American Exposition in
her book
City of Light,
published in 1999. Although a work of historical fiction, many of the
characters and locations from the book were lifted right from the
actual history of Buffalo. Characters such as
John J. Albright,
John Milburn,
Bronson and Dexter Rumsey and Mary Talbert were all prominent
Buffalonians from the era, and come to life in Belfer’s book. Among the
many actual locations described in the book are places such as the Pan
American grounds north of Delaware Park, the Buffalo State Asylum (now
known as the Richardson-Olmsted Complex), and the Adams Power Plant in
Niagara Falls. Perhaps one of the key locations in the work is the
Macaulay School, at which the main character Louisa is the
Headmistress. Through its descriptions of a school for the daughters of
Buffalo’s prominent citizens and in context of the story, the Macaulay
School is a clear fictionalization of Buffalo Seminary.
The Buffalo Seminary Building is a unique educational and cultural
building and home to Buffalo’s only non-sectarian, college preparatory
institute for girls. The building should be considered eligible for the
State and National Registers of Historic Places based on Criterion C as
an excellent example of early twentieth-century Collegiate Gothic
educational architecture designed by a prominent Boston-area architect,
George F. Newton. Subsequent additions were harmoniously designed by
the prominent local firms of Bley and Lyman and Duane Lyman and
Associates. The building is also eligible for listing under Criterion A
for its role in the educational history of the City of Buffalo for
nearly 150 years, educating many of the area’s brightest young women
including Margaret L. Wendt, Lauren Belfer and countless others who
carry their education and experiences at Buffalo Seminary with them
across the country. The Buffalo Seminary Building is unique for its
excellent and largely intact Collegiate Gothic architecture, and also
for its role in shaping the lives of the women of the City of Buffalo
and of the world. Where once the school attracted girls from as far
away as Massachusetts, now in its 159th year, Buffalo Seminary now
attracts 20% of its students from across the globe, from places as
distant as China, Korea, and Jamaica, proving the international reach
of the school.
Noteworthy Buffalo Seminary Graduates
Charlotte Mulligan (Class of 1863)
One of
the earliest graduates from Buffalo Seminary (then still known as the
Buffalo Female Academy) was pioneering social worker and activist
Charlotte Mulligan, who during the late nineteenth-century was one of
Buffalo’s most well-known advocates for temperance, reform and
education. At the young age of 7, Miss Mulligan became the first
student to enter the Buffalo Female Academy, and by all accounts was a
sturdy, spirited young girl. Her early years were tempered by loss,
which many felt shaped her later life. At age 19, Ms. Mulligan lost her
brother James, a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War, after
he became ill on a barge in the Potomac River. Shortly after, her
brother Gregg died while in Florida. Following the loss of her two
beloved brothers, Charlotte proclaimed that she would never marry and
instead "would do something for men."
Like many young, unmarried women of the era, Charlotte Mulligan pursued
a career as a teacher. At age 17 while still a senior at the Buffalo
Female Academy, Charlotte bean teaching a Sunday School class in the
Wells Street chapel of the First Presbyterian Church. This class was
comprised of young rowdy students almost her same age, but soon these
energetic young students were "tamed" thanks to the skills of Miss
Mulligan. Known for her musical talents, Ms. Mulligan was also taught
vocal and violin courses out of her Johnson Park home. A woman known
for her refinement and talents, she also worked as Buffalo’s first
newspaper woman, serving as the Buffalo Courier’s music critic for 20
years.
Out of her background of education and working with troubled students,
Charlotte Mulligan founded the Guard of Honor, an early settlement
house and reform program, in January of 1868 which met on Sundays at
the First Presbyterian Church. Formed as a reform-based organization
for working-class men, the Guard of Honor was established with the
mission of guiding the moral, religious and social lives of the
underprivileged. Members of the Guard pledged to abstain from alcohol,
refrain from using "profane or vulgar language," and not quarrel or
fight. Members also pledged to desist from gambling or associate with
men, women or boys of "questionable character." The Guard of Honor also
had a religious basis, requiring members to attend their weekly Sunday
meetings, and attend church services. Eventually in 1884, the Guard of
Honor obtained its own building at 620-622 Washington Street across
from the Washington Market. The building was structured so that the
first floor open to the "roughest" of the members, and as the person
made improvements in their life, they could move higher and higher in
the building. The second floor offered a lounge and library to those
who had made progress in their treatment. Ms. Mulligan also was known
to take in the needy into her own house, provide them with a bath and a
place to sleep for a night. The Guard of Honor existed as a reform
house until at least the 1930s.
Charlotte Mulligan was instrumental in forming the Graduates
Association of the Buffalo Seminary in 1876, and was also active in
helping the group establish its clubhouse. However, Ms. Mulligan had
bigger hopes for the organization, envisioning it becoming a center for
musical, artistic, literary and social activities in the Buffalo
community. She felt that the group needed a more stately mansion to
house the club she saw fit to welcome in a new century. Due to the
strong-minded Charlotte Mulligan, the Twentieth Century Club was
incorporated on October 3, 1894 and two years later moved into its new
home on Delaware Avenue. During this time, the Twentieth Century Club
was ahead of its time, providing women with an equal facility and
opportunity on par with the upscale men’s clubs throughout Buffalo.
Besides her work at the Guard of Honor, the Graduates Association and
as a founder of the Twentieth Century Club, Charlotte Mulligan was also
the founder of the Morning Musicales and the Afternoon Musicales
musical groups. She also founded the Scribblers, a writing club, which
was active into the 1930s. Later in her life, she spent much of her
time at her home at Clover Bank located south of the City on the shore
of Lake Erie, where the aristocrats of Buffalo were known to mingle
with those who had gone through the Guard of Honor. She died in 1900 at
the age of 55 years.
Marian De Forest (Class of 1884)
Among the
many notable graduates of Buffalo Seminary is
Marian De Forest,
playwright, journalist and a prominent figure in many organizations in
Buffalo. Born in the City on February 27, 1864 to parents Cyrus and
Sarah Germain De Forest, Marian suffered from an eye injury as a child
which forced her education to begin with private tutoring at home.
Despite this handicap, her hard work and perseverance allowed her to
graduate from Buffalo Seminary in 1884; at the time, the youngest
graduate from the prestigious school.
Marian’s early career following
her graduation was as a reporter, becoming one of the first women in
this profession in Western New York. Her talents as a writer allowed
her to rise in the profession quickly, working as a reporter at the
Buffalo Evening News newspaper and then later with the
Buffalo
Commercial.
In 1901, she served as the
Executive Secretary of the Board
of Women Managers for the Women’s pavilion at Buffalo’s
Pan-American
Exposition.
After the Exposition, Marian joined the
Buffalo Express
staff, serving as the editor of the Women’s Department and dramatic
editor. During her tenure with the newspaper, she met many of the most
celebrated and prominent figures in the theatrical and musical world.
Encouraged by Minnie Maddem Fiske, she began her career as a playwright
during this period.
Marian De Forest was not only a prominent writer, but quickly became a
noted playwright as well. In 1911 her play
Little Women, based on the
book by Louisa May Alcott, was said to have launched the career of
Katharine Cornell. At the time, Cornell was a local actress, but soon
became one of the nation’s most prominent actresses. Following
performances in Buffalo (in January, 1912 at the Teck Theater) and New
York City, Little Women opened in 1919 at the New Theater in London,
with Cornell as its star. Ms. De Forest traveled with the play to New
York, London and Paris, serving not only as the author but also as
publisher and director as well. By 1931, Little Women returned to New
York, and also was performed by four professional companies in Buffalo
as well.
Other plays written by Marian De Forest include Erstwhile
Susan, Mr. Man and several unpublished works. She also worked with Zona
Gale (who in 1921 became the first woman to will a Pulitzer Prize for
drama) to produce a radio broadcast series Friendship Village as part
of a series called Neighbors on WEAF, a national broadcasting system.
Ms. De Forest was highly influential in the theatrical scene in
Buffalo, bringing the highest quality performances and actors to the
City including Sarah Bernhardt, Victor Herbert and Serge Koussivitsky.
Ms. De Forest was also active in the musical culture of Buffalo. In
1924, Marian left the Buffalo Express to establish and manage the
Buffalo Musical Foundation. Through this organization she played a
major role in bringing symphony orchestras and other musical groups to
Buffalo. In 1932 she promoted the first Pop Concert, which gave work to
unemployed musicians, and in the 1930s played a significant role in
helping to form the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Marian De Forest was also actively involved in many social and service
groups in Buffalo. She was an active member of the Buffalo Seminary
Graduates Association, as well as the Lyceum Club of London (an
exclusive writers’ group), the Authors League of America, the
Scribblers (the same Buffalo women’s writing club founded by fellow
Buffalo Seminary alumnae, Charlotte Mulligan), the Buffalo Athletic
Club and other organizations. She also served as a member of the board
of directors for the Buffalo Public Library and the Society for the
Preservation of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
On November 8, 1919, Marian
gathered a group of similar prominent professional women at the Hotel
Statler, forming the Zonta Club of Buffalo. Zonta was formed as a
service organization comprised of executive and professional women who
sought to improve the status of women worldwide, and to help women
reach a higher level of professional acceptance. The club eventually
expanded from beyond Buffalo to include nine founding clubs that
made up the Confederation of Zonta Clubs. These were located in
Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton, Elmira, Syracuse, Erie, Utica,
and Detroit. In 1927, Zonta became known as Zonta International
with the incorporation of a Toronto club. Today, Zonta is still in
existence and carries on Marian’s original goal of improving the
situation of women locally, nationally and internationally.
After a long battle with a cancer-related illness, Marian De Forest
died on February 17, 1935 at the age of 70. A remarkable role model for
women in Buffalo and throughout the world, Marian De Forest was
inducted into the
National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New
York in October of 2001, becoming the first Buffalo-born woman to
receive the honor.
Margaret L. Wendt (Class of 1903)
Born the daughter of
wealth and privilege from a prominent Buffalo family, Margaret L. Wendt
is best known as the founder of a philanthropic foundation which bears
her name. Born in 1885 to William Franz Wendt, owner and operator of
the successful Buffalo Forge company, and the former Mary Gies,
Margaret was raised in a traditional, conservative manner by an
overprotective father. Perhaps a reaction to the early death of her
older sister Gertrude in childbirth, Margaret was raised to be a
product of the Gilded Age. Expected to follow a conventional path for
women by attending a good school, followed by finishing school (not
college), Margaret attended Buffalo Seminary, graduating in 1903, and
although she was a bright student she was denied the opportunity to
further her education by her strict father, who was described as having
strong ideas about the proper role of women.
In spite of living in her protective father’s shadow, Margaret was
described as a reserved young woman who was warm and compassionate, and
was a lover of animals. Margaret was a frequent visitor to her family’s
land in Lockport, acting as manager and tending to the business of
running the horse farm. On the farm was also a large aviary with an
assortment of exotic birds which appears to reflect another of her
interests. Margaret was passionate about her horses and was an
experienced rider both in Lockport and in Buffalo, often being spotted
about town with her horse and buggy.
Ms. Wendt was also a seasoned traveler as well, frequently touring the
globe with her mother. In the early twentieth-century Margaret and her
mother traveled to Europe, leaving William and Gertrude at home in
Buffalo. The two traveling companions returned there for a six-month
tour of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East in 1924. Margaret also
toured this country, taking automobile trips to New Hampshire and South
Carolina often with her beloved cousin Edith.
William Wendt died in the 1920s, followed by Margaret’s mother’s death
around 1940. Shortly after the death of her mother, Margaret sold the
horse farm in Lockport and turned her attentions to the construction of
a new beachfront cottage in Thunder Bay, Ontario, an emerging
playground for the well-to-do, which was finished in 1948. Margaret
also maintained her family’s home at 570 Richmond Avenue where she was
frequently spotted walking her pet dog, Michael, around the
neighborhood.
It was during the late 1940s and early 1950s that Margaret L. Wendt
began to take a more charitable role in the Buffalo community. After a
chance meeting with the Reverend Ralph Loew during her neighborhood
walks, Margaret soon became involved through him in small, anonymous
charitable acts to help the needy. In one act, Margaret brought a young
European family to Buffalo where she helped them get established in
their new community. One of the family’s sons, Ernst Both, would later
become the long-time director of the Buffalo Museum of Science.
By the mid-1950s, Margaret and the Reverend Loew began creating a more
organized charitable organization. Along with Rev. Loew, Ms. Wendt
worked with her investment broker, Samuel D. Lunt, and her lawyer,
William I. Morey, establishing the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation in
1957. Initially the funding was started with $750 thousand dollars,
which earned $30 thousand dollars a year annually which was given as
one, two or three thousand dollar awards. Meeting annually to discuss
the awards, Margaret stressed her desire that the money be used
primarily in Western New York.
During the 1950s, Margaret L. Wendt continued to pursue her personal
passions for travel, her church and the cultural life of Buffalo.
Unfortunately in 1959 she suffered a stroke and lapsed into a coma.
Although Foundation trustee Samuel Lunt maintained her Richmond Avenue
home, retained her maid and kept her automobile in working order for
thirteen years, Margaret never regained consciousness. Margaret L.
Wendt died in 1972.
In her will, she left the bulk of her estate, valued at $14,557,348, to
the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, significantly increasing the
foundation’s worth. The well-managed foundation has continued to thrive
since her passing; in 2002 the foundation was valued at about $120
million. Annually, the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation distributes about
$5.5 million a year into the area economy, supporting a wide variety of
cultural, architectural and social needs. A $1.5 million loan helped
supped the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra during its time a need, and
the foundation also assisted with the restoration efforts for the
Roycroft Campus in East Aurora, promoting its "cultural tourism."
The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation has also supported the restoration work at Frank Lloyd Wright’s
Darwin D. Martin House and
Shea’s Performing Arts Center.
The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation has also given back to Buffalo
Seminary, the school which provided the only formal education in
Margaret’s life, contributing funding in Margaret’s name for the new
Performing Arts Center (1985) as well as aiding in the restoration of
the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation Gallery on the building’s second
floor.
The foundation has been a key financial supporter as well as advocate for the on-going rehabilitation of the historic
Genesee Gateway
block on Genesee Street between Oak and Ellicott Streets in Buffalo,
helping turn a neglected and highly threatened intact row of pre-Civil
War era commercial buildings into a new development project.
Tara VanDerveer (Class of 1971)
Tara
VanDerveer is well known as one of the winningest active coaches in
NCAA Division I basketball. Serving as coach of the Stanford women’s
basketball team for nearly two decades, VanDerveer led the Cardinals to
two NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championships in 1990 and 1992.
In 1996, during a year sabbatical from Stanford, she served as the head
coach for the US Olympic women’s basketball team, which captured the
gold metal in Atlanta. VanDerveer was awarded the 1990 Naismith
National Coach of the Year award and is a ten-time Pac-10 Coach of the
Year. She also stands out as one of only seven NCAA Women's Basketball
coaches to win at least 700 games. A stand-out player during her
collegiate career at Indiana University, in 2002, VanDerveer was
elected to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
Lauren Belfer (Class of 1971)
Lauren Belfer is a
Buffalo-born author and graduate of the Buffalo Seminary. After
graduation, she attended Swarthmore College where she majored in
Medieval Studies. Belfer later worked a wide variety of jobs including
as a clerk at an art gallery, a paralegal, an assistant photo editor at
a newspaper, a fact checker at magazines, and as a researcher and
associate producer on documentary films. She also earned her M.F.A.
from Columbia University. Belfer’s debut novel, City of Light, was
published in 1999 drew on her childhood home of Buffalo. Set during the
City’s Pan-American Exposition in 1901, the main character and narrator
of the book serves as Headmistress of the fictional Macaulay School for
Girls; a clear interpretation of the Buffalo Seminary. City of Light
was a New York Times Best Seller, and was well as a number one Book
Sense pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover Award nominee, a New York
Times Notable Book, a Library Journal Best Book, a Main Selection of
the Book-of-the-Month Club. The book was also a bestseller in Great
Britain, and has been translated into seven languages. City of Light
was also adapted into a stage play. Belfer has also published several
short works of fiction in a variety of publications. Her second novel,
A Fierce Radiance, was published in June 2010 and is a romantic
historical thriller set in the context of the development of penicillin
during World War II in New York City.
Other notable alumnae include:
Elizabeth Coatsworth Beston (Class of 1911) – A poet and author of books for young adults
Jane Botsford Armstrong (Class of 1939) – A notable sculptor, with a long and prominent career in Manchester Center, VT
Suzanne Hoskins White (Class of 1956) – An author of several books, who
recently had an article featured in the Sunday New York Times.
Robie Heilbrun Harris (Class of 1958) – A writer of children's books in the Boston, Massachusetts area
Margaret Martin (Class of 1958) – A well-known local watercolorist, who has also written about painting
Gwendolyn Yates (Class of 1979) – An Academy Award-nominated sound
editor on the movie Avatar, and also worked as dialog editor on the
blockbuster movie Titanic.
The Olmsted Parkway System and the Suburbanization of Buffalo
The
location for the new building for Buffalo Seminary was selected in a
section of Buffalo which was quickly developing as one of the City’s
premiere residential areas at the turn of the twentieth-century.
Initially, this area north of downtown was sparsely settled through
much of the nineteenth-century, consisting mostly of farm lands.
Beginning in 1868, this area of Buffalo would be slowly transformed by
Frederick Law Olmsted and partner Calvert Vaux
who envisioned a series of connected parkways and parks in north
Buffalo. Several developmental factors in the late nineteenth-century
led the area north of downtown to become highly attractive to Buffalo’s
growing middle- and upper-class residents, leading to the development
of this area in the late nineteenth- and early-twentieth centuries.
Frederick Law Olmsted was one of the nation’s most celebrated and
recognized figures in the relatively new field of American landscape
architecture when he arrived in Buffalo in 1868. Ten years earlier,
Olmsted with Calvert Vaux had created the landmark Central Park in New
York City; one of the earliest examples of the English romantic
landscape tradition which had flourished there in the
eighteenth-century brought to a municipal park in the United States. In
the mid-1800s, Buffalo was one of the nation’s most rapidly growing
cities, attracting scores of Easterners and immigrants who were
attracted to the city following the opening of the booming
Erie Canal trade in 1825 and by the thriving
Civil War
economy. To combat the growing industrial and urban character that the
City was taking on, many of Buffalo’s prominent and more progressive
leaders sought the creation of a city park which could act as a public
leisure grounds, offering a respite from the dirty, noisy and crowded
nineteenth-century urban environment. Olmsted regarded parks as
inherently democratic institutions which could be use by people from
all walks of life for strolling, picnicking, boating and relaxing. Some
of Buffalo’s leading figures shared this view, including US District
Attorney for northern New York
William Dorsheimer who was instrumental in bringing Olmsted to Buffalo, as well as
Pascal Paoli Pratt (owner of a thriving ironworks) and
Sherman S. Jewett (a prominent manufacturer of stoves and a director of a railroad company).
Unlike his single park concept at Central Park, Olmsted’s plan for the
City of Buffalo involved creating an integrated network of landscaped
parks linked by treed and landscaped parkways. Olmsted envisioned three
main parks,
The Park (today known as Delaware Park),
The Front (later known as Front Park) and T
he Parade (later Humboldt Park and presently Martin Luther King Jr. Park),
served as the each with its own individual character and function. The
Park, the largest park area which served as a sort of centerpiece for
the park system, was located in what at the time was a largely
uninhabited section of Buffalo and featured ponds and a meadow as well
as winding paths. The Park was sited in close proximity to the extant
Forest Lawn Cemetery (1853, NR 1990).
A critical component to Olmsted’s vision for the parks of Buffalo was
the series of parkways which connected the various larger parks with
tree-lined streets and avenues. Drawing on the inspiration of Buffalo’s
original Baroque-style street plan which featured a grid overlaid with
radial streets which was original designed by surveyor Joseph Ellicott
in 1804, Olmsted’s broad, landscaped streets in Buffalo were among the
first of their kind designed for American cities. These parkways were
accented by lushly landscaped circles which marked significant
intersections, and further highlighted the integration of natural
landscaping into the city fabric. Olmsted and Vaux’s plan highlighted
certain Buffalo streets, widening them to 100 feet and recreating them
as significant city arteries. Delaware Street which ran from Niagara
Square to Chapin Place became the most prominent thoroughfare of the
plan. Older streets were reconfigured along Buffalo’s West Side to
create Porter Avenue and The Avenue (now Richmond Avenue) which were
created to link Front Park and the West Side to The Park. Olmsted and
Vaux also designed a unique inverted Y-shaped parkway which linked the
radial boulevards of Bidwell Parkway and Chapin Parkway at the central
Soldier’s Circle which then led northward with another parkway, Lincoln
Parkway to The Park. This convergence of boulevards which still retain
their expansive, open tree-lined streets with grassy medians was
intended to mark one of the most prominent access points to the new
park. The elaborate system of parkways tied every corner of the City
into the park environment.
While Olmsted and Vaux continued developing their extensive parkway
network in Buffalo throughout three decades in the second half of the
nineteenth-century, developing this area of north Buffalo for
residential development was a key component in their scheme. Areas
around the parks and parkways began to rise in property value as a
result of the enhancements, creating an area desirable for residential
development. Another key factor to the development and growth of the
areas north of downtown was the growth of transportation throughout
Buffalo. In 1883, the Belt Line railroad, owned and operated by the New
York Central Railroad, created a rail system which circumscribed the
City and contained numerous passenger stations along its course. These
stations in areas such as
Black Rock,
Delaware Avenue at The Park, Broadway and Genesee Street helped to
promote easy access from these sparsely settled fringes to the
downtown, thus spurring the increased settlement and development of
these once remote areas in the late 1800s. At the same time, a series
of electrified street cars also helped to increase accessibility to
this northern region of the City. Initially opened with five lines in
1889 which ran between Cold Springs and The Park, electric streetcars
by the turn of the twentieth-century would become another popular,
inexpensive and widely used transportation system which also helped
encourage residential settlement in areas around the downtown
core.
Early on in their park planning, Olmsted and Vaux saw the immense
potential for residential development in this area of Buffalo following
the completion of their park system. The desire to settle and develop
the northern fringes of Buffalo had already taken root by the mid-1800s
when Olmsted and Vaux began their work, and they were encouraged to
consider a residential aspect to their design by local backers. Olmsted
envisioned residential development in this area as characterized by
wide-open spaces and individual houses set on landscaped grounds,
rather than the dense, cramped urban blocks and rowhouses which were
typical of the vast majority of mid-nineteenth-century cities at the
time. As a result, Olmsted and Vaux proposed a residential development
along the northern curve of The Park they named Parkside. Envisioned as
a residential complement to their park design, the Parkside
neighborhood contained several winding, intertwined streets reminiscent
of the pathways which wandered through The Park. Like the Riverside
development in Illinois, Parkside was a private development, but
Olmsted envisioned Parkside as connected to the success of his park
system. Olmsted felt that the rise in tax revenues from the development
would offset the costs to the City for constructing the park system,
thus economically linking the residential enclave to the park system.
Olmsted’s vision for the Parkside neighborhood wasn’t carried out until
the late 1880s, when it was developed by the Villa Land Company.
Although Olmsted had apparently envisioned a park-like residential
setting with a few broad, curving roads, the actual Parkside
development had more streets which were less curved than in Olmsted’s
design. By the early twentieth-century, Parkside became one of the
City’s most popular and fashionable areas; in 1903-1906 Larkin Soap
Company executive Darwin D. Martin was attracted to the neighborhood,
commissioning prominent architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design his new
Prairie-style
house on Jewett Parkway.
Another factor which drew people out of downtown and out into the northern areas of Buffalo was the
Pan-American Exposition, held May 1 through November 2, 1901. Constructed on what had only a few years earlier been the farmlands of
Bronson C. Rumsey
located just north of Olmsted’s Delaware Park, the Pan-American
Exposition attracted thousands of visitors, both locally and
nationally, to this area on the fringes of Buffalo. Capitalizing on the
adjacent
Belt Line railroad
lines and passenger station which helped to transport people to the
fairgrounds from houses, apartments, and hotels located throughout the
city, the Pan-American Exposition spurred new development just outside
its gates.
The expanding streetcar system, with lines extending along three sides
of the grounds, also encouraged growth in the area. The immense
economic opportunity created by the fair also spurred development in
the areas around the grounds; hotels, restaurants, boarding houses and
other buildings sprung up along Elmwood Avenue, Delaware Avenue,
Amherst Street and other areas, with owners and businessmen seeking to
cash-in on the opportunity. Following the closing of the Pan-American
Exposition, the staff and plaster fair buildings were demolished, and
the land was cleared. Because of the tremendous development already
underway in this area, thanks in part to the attraction of the fair,
the grounds were quickly parceled for new development. The
Pierce Arrow automobile manufacturing company
was one of the earliest occupants of the former fair grounds, locating
their expansive 34-acre new modern factory complex in the north-western
corner of the grounds along the Belt Line rail lines and Elmwood Avenue
around 1906 (NR 1974). Much of the land was platted with curving
residential streets and prepared for new houses which were constructed
primarily in the early decades of the twentieth-century.
Although Parkside was one of the most prominent residential
developments in Buffalo to grow in the wake of the creation of the park
system, at the end of the nineteenth-century and into the
twentieth-century, the area north of downtown Buffalo saw an explosion
of residential development. As areas along the City’s waterfront and
East Side became increasingly industrialized, and the downtown core of
Buffalo became increasingly more densely settled, many area residents
sought refuge from the noise, pollution and crowds by migrating
northward. Olmsted’s vision of the park system encouraging the
residential settlement of this desirable area proved to be true by the
late 1800s, and coupled with the improvements made to public
transportation, encouraged widespread residential development. As the
population shifted, abandoning downtown Buffalo to largely commercial
and industrial functions, secondary services followed. These new areas
needed churches, schools, fire and police stations, libraries and other
buildings which supported the daily lives of the new residents.
Among the many institutions which left downtown and migrated north to
the growing suburban areas was Buffalo Seminary. As many of its
families and patrons left their stately houses in places such as
Johnson Park and Niagara Square in the late nineteenth-century,
relocating to new areas such as Richmond Avenue, Linwood Avenue,
Lafayette Avenue and along the beautiful Bidwell and Chapin Parkways.
By the turn of the twentieth-century, Buffalo Seminary had seen many of
its families relocate to these new northern suburban areas, making the
daily commute to the school in Johnson Park more difficult. In order to
maintain the school’s reputation as one of the nation’s leading
educational facilities, the decision was made to select a site for a
new school building located in closer proximity to the new core of
Buffalo Seminary’s demographic. The Graduates Association, who
purchased the new property, selected a very prominent site in the
developing northern area of Buffalo, located along Bidwell Parkway near
Soldier’s Circle, along the central Y-shaped axis and near the most
prominent of his landscaped circles which Olmsted designed as a primary
access route to Delaware Park traveling from the southern downtown
areas. At the time in the first decade of the 1900s, the block that
would become the new home of the Buffalo Seminary had begun to see
development in the way of stately single-family houses.
Architect George F. Newton
Plans for
the new Buffalo Seminary building were created by prominent Boston
architect, George F. Newton in 1906. Newton was a well-known collegiate
and ecclesiastic architect during the early twentieth-century and was a
prestigious selection for architect of the new Buffalo Seminary school.
Born in 1857, Newton was the third student to be awarded the Rotch
Traveling Scholarship, a prestigious award established by Boston
architect Arthur Rotch in 1883 to grant promising young talent the
opportunity to study abroad. Newton won the award in 1886 and spent two
years studying and traveling in Europe where he was connected to the
Atelier Daumet, led by one of the most successful students of the famed
Ecole des Beaux Arts
in Paris. Upon his return to the United States, Newton worked for the
prominent architecture and engineering firm of Peabody and Stearns,
working closely with mentor Robert Swain Peabody who had also studied
at the Atelier Daumet some years prior. Peabody at this time had
embraced the nascent
John Ruskin-influenced
English Gothic Revival medieval architecture, which appears to have
also had a strong influence on the young George F. Newton.
George F. Newton established his own architectural practice in the late
1890s. He rose to prominence as the first instructor of design hired at
Harvard University’s newly-established architecture program in 1894.
Newton was hired by program founder H. Langford Warren on the
recommendation of his mentor Peabody. In a letter to Warren,
Peabody described Newton as "the best man I could think of."
Newton taught architectural design at Harvard for ten years while he
maintained a substantial independent practice where he was noted for
his many Gothic Revival Churches. He appears to have been an adherent
to the Gothic Revival in the context of the Arts and Crafts movement,
which was advocated by theorists such as John Ruskin, who supported a
return to the traditions of hand crafting in the medieval manner.
Interestingly, George F. Newton presented a paper as part of a
four-part series on the topic of the "Influence of Steel Construction
and of Plate Glass upon the Development of Modern Style" to the
American Institute of Architects (AIA) Annual Convention in Nashville
on October 21, 1896. In 1898, Newton was involved in organizing a
significant arts and crafts exhibition, sponsored by the Society of
Arts and Crafts in Boston. Typical of the Arts and Crafts movement at
the turn of the twentieth-century, a wide variety of handicrafts were
on display at this exhibition including embroidered reredos by R.
Clipston Sturgis, printed works by Bertram Goodhue and iron work by
McKim Mead and White. Also collaborating on the exposition was
architect Ralph Adams Cram, who also was a strong advocate for the
Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts during this era.
George F. Newton was a prominent architect who undertook a wide variety
of projects. Although the bulk of Newton’s work was located in Boston
and throughout Massachusetts, he was not unfamiliar with the City of
Buffalo. In 1906-07, he designed the
Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Annunciation
(originally built as North Presbyterian Church) at 1000 Delaware Avenue
(NR 2002). The Buffalo Homeopathic Hospital on Lafayette Street at
Gates Circle (presently the Millard Fillmore Hospital) was also
designed by Newton in 1911.
Among the works by Newton include the English Gothic Winchester
(Massachusetts) Unitarian Church (1898) and the First Baptist Church of
Winchester (1928) and also the Wadleigh Grammar School (1900,
demolished). The granite Gothic style Newton Highlands
Congregational Church located in Newton, Massachusetts, was also
designed by Newton and was dedicated in 1906. George F. Newton
was also the architect for the Massachusetts-located First
Congregational Church of Wellesley Hills (1901) and the First Baptist
Church in Melrose (1907). Besides numerous churches, Newton also
designed the Gothic Revival-style Williston Memorial Library at Mount
Holyoke College (1905). The Colonial Revival house at 7 Greenough
Avenue (1893) in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood is attributed to
Newton and Clarence Blackall (contributing to Sumner Hill Historic
District, NR 1986).
George F. Newton retired from architectural practice in the 1930s after
a long and prominent career which spanned over forty years. He died in
1947.
Architects Bley and Lyman / Duane Lyman and Associates
The firm of
Bley and Lyman
and its successor firm, Duane Lyman and Associates, was one of
Buffalo’s most prominent architectural firms beginning in the late
nineteenth-century and spanning well into the mid-twentieth-century.
The firm was initially comprised of partners
Williams Lansing,
Lawrence Bley and Duane Lyman, all of whom were well known and
prominent men in Buffalo. The Lansing, Bley and Lyman partnership
was formed in 1914 and lasted until about 1919-1920. Their most
prominent projects include The Buffalo Tennis and Squash Club (1916, NR
2008), the Curtiss Aeroplane Company Office and Laboratory Building
(1917) in Garden City, Long Island, and the Yale University Armory
(1916-1917) in New Haven, Connecticut. During this time the firm
held offices in the famed Prudential Building (1895, NR 1973) and in
the
Delaware Court Building which the firm designed in 1917.
Williams Lansing was born on
October 1st, 1860 to one of Buffalo’s oldest and most prominent
families. After graduating from Buffalo State Normal School he
went to Colorado and spent several years on western ranches before
returning to Buffalo to work in the architectural office of Green and
Wicks. Lansing worked briefly as an independent architect before
partnering with fellow Green and Wicks draftsman Max G. Beierl around
1892. He served as supervising architect for the Buffalo
Pan-American Exposition in 1901 before joining with Bley and Lyman in
1910. After he left the firm of Lansing, Bley and Lyman he joined
with another architect of the name Oakley in 1919. Among his most
prominent works were the
Connecticut Street Armory
(1898-1900, NR 1995) with State Architect Isaac Perry, the C.W. Miller
Livery Stable (with Beierl in 1892-94, NR 2007) and the homes of
several prominent Buffalo businessmen. Lansing died after
suffering a stroke on September 30th, 1920 at his home at 200 Bryant
Street. He was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Lawrence H. Bley was born in
the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg on December 15th, 1884, where he resided
throughout his life. After graduating from Hamburg High School he
worked in the offices of Lansing and Beierl before he partnered with
Williams Lansing and Duane Lyman. After the departure of Williams
Lansing,
Bley and Lyman completed numerous notable works including the
Saturn Club
(1921-22, NR 2005), additions to the historic E. & B. Holmes
Machinery Company Building (originally ca. 1850s, 1913 addition, NR
2009) the Johnston House (1934, NR 1997), the
Buffalo Federal Courthouse (with
E.B. Green, 1936), the
Vars Building
(1929), and the Niagara Mohawk Building in Syracuse, NY (1932, with
Melvin L King). Bley was a member of the AIA, the Hamburg Knights
of Columbus, Hamburg Business Men’s Association and the Kiwanis Club
among many other organizations. Lawrence Bley died in 1939.
Duane Shuyler Lyman had a long
and prominent architectural career in Buffalo and has been dubbed the
"Dean of Western New York Architecture" due to the prominence of many
of his projects. Born in Lockport, NY on September 9th, 1886
Lyman attended Manlius Military Academy before studying architecture at
Yale University’s Graduate Sheffield Scientific School, graduating in
1908. With his new bride Elizabeth Stimson, Lyman lived in Europe
for several years before returning to Buffalo on the eve of World War
I. Lyman worked in the office of Lansing and Beierl from 1912
until 1914 when the firm of
Lansing, Bley and Lyman was created.
During the War, Lyman left the firm and served as a Major in the
Ordinance Department. The firm of Lansing, Bley and Lyman lasted
until about 1920 when Lansing left the partnership and Lyman returned
from the war to partner with Bley. The firm of Bley and Lyman
existed from 1920-1938 when many of Lyman’s most notable works were
created. In 1938, the firm of Duane Lyman & Associates was
established. This firm was noted for their numerous school
buildings which they designed around Western New York, including
Williamsville South High School (1949-51, NR 2008). The firm also
was responsible for the
Bethlehem Steel Co. Management Country Club (1964),
M&T Central Bank
(1964-66, under primary designer Minoru Yamasaki) and the Christ the
King Chapel at Canisius College (1949-51). Outside of his architectural
work, Duane Lyman was passionate about fishing, hunting and gardening,
served as a dean of the Saturn Club and was active in the Buffalo Fine
Arts Academy. Lyman died on April 30th, 1966 in his home at
78 Oakland Place, which he had designed for himself in 1948.
Major Construction Projects:
1908-1909 Construction of the original main T-plan building designed by George F. Newton
1929 West-Chester Hall and gymnasium wing constructed by the firm of Bley and Lyman
1964 Science wing addition constructed by Duane Lyman and Associates
1985 The Margaret L. Wendt Performing Arts Center is built
2001 Enclosure of the courtyard, expanding the cafeteria into the atrium
Timeline
1851 - The Buffalo Female Academy is founded as an
educational facility for the daughters of the Buffalo community. Dr.
Charles West serves as the school’s first Headmaster. The school is
located in the Evergreen Cottage (1814), the former home of Mayor Dr.
Ebenezer Johnson.
1876 - On the 25th Anniversary of the school, the Graduates Association forms.
1884 - The Graduates Association builds its Chapter
House across from the school building on Johnson Park. This clubhouse
is the first such building built by women in the country.
1889 - The school is renamed as Buffalo Seminary,
reinforcing the school’s commitment to higher education for women.
1894 - The Graduates sell the Johnson Park clubhouse
in order to construct a new clubhouse on Delaware Avenue. This new
clubhouse becomes the Twentieth Century Club.
1899 - Jessica E. Beers becomes Principal of the
school. For a few years, Buffalo Seminary and the Elmwood School form
an educational union to provide a consecutive scholastic program.
1900 - After nearly 50 years, Buffalo Seminary
vacates the former Evergreen Cottage and relocates to the Twentieth
Century Club. Additional classes are also held at the Heathcote School
on Delaware Avenue.
1903 - L. Gertrude Angell becomes Headmistress of the school; a position she will hold for 49 years.
1907 - Property on Bidwell Parkway near Soldier’s
Circle is purchased by the Graduates Association for a new school. The
Graduates mortgage it for $40,000 to help pay for the new building
which will cost $95,000.
1909 - Designed by prominent Boston-based architect
George F. Newton, the new Collegiate Gothic facility at 205 Bidwell
Parkway opens.
1929 - In conjunction with the school Trustees, the
Graduates Association raises funds for an addition to house additional
classrooms, an art studio, a gymnasium and West-Chester Hall. The
addition is designed by prominent local firm Bley and Lyman.
1951 - Buffalo Seminary celebrates its 100th
anniversary. Graduation ceremonies take place at Kleinhans Music Hall
(NHL 1989)
1953 - Through the generosity of Mary Frances Larkin
Kellogg (Class of ’27) and her family, Larkin Field and the Larkin
House are acquired by Buffalo Sem.
1964 - A new science wing is added to the building,
and the school is refurbished and modernized. This new wing is designed
by Duane Lyman and Associates.
1974 - Membership to the Graduates Association is opened to anyone who attended the school.
1985 - The Margaret L. Wendt Performing Arts Center,
built with a generous grant from the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation,
opens. The center is named for Margaret L. Wendt who was a graduate of
Buffalo Seminary in 1903.
1991 - After 25 years as Headmaster, Robert A. Foster
retires. Foster had played a critical role in preserving the school’s
independence during the 1970s, when under his leadership, the school
made the decision not to merge or become co-ed, but to remain an
all-girls school.
1995 - The Graduates Association is dissolved, and
the new Alumnae Association is formed. The new Association welcomes
anyone who attended Buffalo Seminary for at least one year.
1999 - Lauren Belfer (Class of ‘71) publishes
City of Light,
a historical novel based on Buffalo’s 1901 Pan-American Exposition. The
novel’s "Macauley School for Girls" is an obvious version of Buffalo
Seminary.
2001 - Buffalo Seminary celebrates its
Sesquicentennial and raises more then $5 million to refurbish the
school and to increase endowment for faculty enrichment and scholarship
funds.
2007 - Jody Douglass becomes the 13th and current Head of Buffalo Seminary.
2007 - Buffalo Seminary sells the largely underutilized
Larkin House on Lincoln Parkway to Drs. Gurmeet Dhillon and Lisa Hansen for $755,000, maintaining ownership of the Larkin athletic fields.
2008 - Buffalo Seminary launches a residential program housing students
in historic homes near the school. The residential program's financial
impact on Buffalo and Elmwood Village is estimated to be over $1
million a year.
2014- Buffalo Seminary rebrands as SEM with a new logo and brand standards.
2015- SEM launches Remarkable Opportunities, Campaign for SEM with the goal of raising $9 million.
The funds will be for exterior building improvements and the creation
of a new courtyard the Magavern-Sutton Courtyard which will connect our
school with our 5 next door houses which are our student residences and
one is the head of school's home. The improvements began as of June 10.
We will be a truly unique intimate, urban campus. SEM is the only in
boarding school in the City of Buffalo, bringing in upwards of 40
students from around the world. The students and their visiting
families bring new revenue of at least $1.5 million to Elmwood Village,
Buffalo and Western New York.
The campaign will also raise funds for our endowment and professional development of our faculty.