Brisbane Building

Lafayette Square - Table of Contents

2006 photos

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

TEXT Beneath Illustrations

Click on photos for larger size - and additional information

			See also: Beaux Arts Main Street Entrance
The Arcade, Main, Clinton, and Washington Streets. Built 1855. Destroyed by fire in 1893.	Ruins of The Arcade, Main and Clinton Streets, after the fire of December 14, 1893
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Milton E. Beebe	Mooney & Brisbane Building C. 1895	Mooney & Brisbane Building C. 1895

	Postcard	Postcard	Note modernized entrance facing Lafayette Square

Lafayette Hotel at left			Main Place Mall at right

Left: Vacant AM&A's Building on Washington Street. Note entrance.	Washington Street entrance.	Acanthus leaves on frieze and on keystone	Acanthus leaves Laurel leaves surround cartouche

			Acanthus leaf-ornamented modillions under cornice Composite brick pilasters

		Acanthus leaves on frieze Composite pilaster	Composite pilasters

	Cornice: Copper bead-and-reel molding Copper acanthus leaf-ornamented modillions alternate with rosettes under cornice	Cornice Course banded with egg-and-dart and dentils

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:

"A History of the City of Buffalo," published by the The Buffalo Evening News, 1908
Michael Miano, Consultant