Ellsworth M. Statler - Table of Contents ................Statler Hotel / Hotel Buffalo - Table of Contents

Statler Hotel / Buffalo Hotel
Swan and Washington Streets, Buffalo, NY

Ellsworth M. Statler built the first Statler hotel at the corner of Swan and Washington streets in 1905-08. The second Statler Hotel was completed in 1923. Then he branched out and built a string of Statler hotels in other cities.

This hotel boasted the following "firsts" - innovations - in the nationwide hotel industry:

• A private bathroom with bathtub in each of the 450 rooms
• A shower and a bathtub in some rooms
• A wall light switch for each room
• A closet light for each room
• Hot and cold water in each bathroom
• An electric lamp on a desk in each room
• A radio in each room

Second hotel

When Niagara Square had been decided upon as a civic center, Mr. Statler bought the. old Millard Fillmore mansion. In 1919, Statler hired George B. Post & Sons to design a nineteen-story hotel -- said to have been the largest building in the state outside of New York City - on Delaware Avenue at Niagara Square. and built a large hotel thereon, calling it Hotel Statler, and changing the name of his first hotel on the corner of Swan and Washington streets to Buffalo Hotel.

He also built the Erlanger Theatre. across the street from the second Statl;er Hotel.

Statler branched out and a string of Statler hotels were built by him in other cities.

Bio

Statler was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania on October 26,1863. He was an officer in various associations and a member of several clubs, as well as a 33rd degree Mason and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France.

Ellsworth M. Statler died in his suite at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York of double pneumonia on Apr. 16, 1928. He was one of the best known hotel proprietors in the United States.

-- Text source: "Buffalo Historical Society Publications," Volume 30, 1930

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Consultants:

• Patrick Mahoney AIA
• Jerome Puma
• Martin Wachadlo

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