In 1876, this building, upon completion, functioned as both City hall and County Hall. In the 1920s the City determined it would build its own facilities and began to move out at the end of the decade. The County paid the City $1,512,500 for title to the building and grounds.

Harold J. Cooke, Buffalo architect, was commissioned to prepare documents necessary for alterations executed from 1925 to 1931. The work was a major reconstruction project and included replacement of all floors, fireproofing of the entire structure, reconstruction and rebuilding of walls, replastering of the entire interior, acoustic treatment of court rooms, installation of marble tile and terrazzo...all heating, ventilating, plumbing, electrical work and air conditioning has been installed new, the high pressure boiler abolished, the generators eliminated and the current changed.

Four new passenger elevators replaced hydraulic elevators, and a new prisoner's elevator was included in the work done in 1930. The usable floor area of the building was increased from 70,767 square feet to 128,864 square feet with an additional 6,000 square feet in the north end of the fourth floor which could be partitioned and finished in the future.

The saddest event to befall the building was when the body of President McKinley, assassinated at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition in 1901, lay In State in the center of the main lobby. A bronze floor plaque and roped off area commemorate the spot to this day,.

-- Source: A History of the Old County Hall, by Alison Kimberly