Buffalo, NY was the last stop on our 2-week road through Pennsylvania and New York State. It is a city that my husband Rich and I have visited multiple times due to its proximity to our home in Toronto and we continue to find new areas to explore. In 2012, after reading an article about the beautiful Art Deco buildings downtown, we first thought to visit Buffalo. We went on an architectural tour with Preservation Buffalo, checked out the Albright Knox Art Museum and stayed overnight at the Mansion on Delaware. In 2015, we made a quick stop to tour the Pierce Arrow Museum after spending the night before in Niagara on the Lake. In 2017, we visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House as part of a road trip to Cleveland. And in 2018 for our shortest trip yet, we crossed the border mid morning, had a quick bite to eat, watched a 2pm show at the Shea Theatre and were home in time for a late dinner. Other than the time taken for border crossing, a trip to Buffalo is not that different in travel time than a visit to Niagara on the Lake or Niagara Falls.
We had not been back to Buffalo since before COVID, so we were excited to see what had changed. For this stay, we chose the
Richardson Hotel which has a fascinating history. Built in 1880 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by the eponymous architect Henry Hobson Richardson, it was originally designed as part of the 42-acre Richardson Olmsted Campus which housed the
Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane until the mid 1970s. After a massive renovation costing 100 million dollars, the central administrative building and two adjacent wards of the asylum were converted into the upscale boutique Hotel Henry, a full-service hotel with 88 guest rooms and suites. Unable to survive the prolonged shutdowns caused by the pandemic, Hotel Henry closed in 2021. In 2023, the hotel reopened under new management and was renamed Richardson Hotel as a tribute to its history.
As part of the rebranding of the Richardson Hotel, further renovations included moving the check-in desk to the first floor (one floor above ground level where you enter the building) and relocating the restaurants and bars. There have been grumblings on the internet about the inferior décor found in the Richardson Hotel (cheap carpets, large, tacky canvas prints of Buffalo, Wayfair-sourced furniture, plastic directional signs) in comparison to how the tastefully decorated the Henry Hotel was. Having never seen the Henry Hotel, I thought the Richardson was quite lovely, but then I might have been more impressed with actual architecture of the historic building with its massively high ceilings, wooden staircases, trim and bannisters and large floor-to-ceiling windows.
Across from the check-in desk, a display case contains historic, black and white photos depicting the Buffalo Insane Asylum, including images of the nurses and of the patients. The guest rooms are located in the two former patient wings which were named Olmstead (the male wing) and Hobson (the female wing) after landscape architect Frederick Olmstead and building architect Henry Hobson Richardson. The names are still used today to delineate the rooms on either side of the central tower where the check-in desk and restaurants reside. We were in the Olmstead Wing and our room was at the head the of the longest hallway that I’ve ever seen. Luckily we did not have to walk up and down that lengthy hallway to get from our room to the exit.
Our room was spacious with a King-sized bed and had a seating area and a desk where I could plug in my laptop. What it did not have was a mini fridge which we always prefer when we travel. Our massive windows looked out into the grounds of the Olmstead-designed campus. From our window, we could see people wearing hardhats taking part in a tour of the complex including the buildings still under construction. There are plans to further develop 9 of the 10 remaining vacant buildings on the campus, turning them into 200 residential units. We had wanted to take a tour but unfortunately, they were all booked during our stay. We took our own self-guided tour around the grounds and came across a sculpture made from enamel on stainless steel, titled “Look and See” (2005) by Jim Hodges. The curved piece has sections cut out in a “camouflage pattern” that change the view of your surroundings when you look through them.
There are several eateries within the Richardson Hotel including the Italian Restaurant Cucina, as well as the Calvert Café and
Vaux Bar which were named after architect Calvert Vaux, Frederick Olmstead's mentor and partner. We had a quick drink at the Vaux Bar but decided to venture off the campus for our dinners. At Southern-styled restaurant
Toulant, we ordered pork rinds and Shishito breaded pickled peppers with a corn queso cheese dip for appetizers. For our mains, we shared gulf shrimp and grits with tasso ham and tomato broth, and buttermilk fried chicken with collard greens. We had bread pudding with buttered rum sauce for dessert. At
Dapper Goose, we preferred the appetizer menu more than the main menu, so we ordered all appetizers for dinner. We had blackened green beans, roasted cauliflower with a green goddess sauce, pork belly with peach/almond caponata and basil, and chicken wings covered with curry powder, coriander, cilantro and caramel sauce.
The restaurant that was the most fun to eat at was
Fat Bob Smokehouse, both for the kitschy décor and quirky menu options. As we entered the smokehouse, we were greeted by a giant pig “host” that demanded a photo op. There was also a pink neon-lit pig clock behind the hostess counter, along with license plates from around North America on the walls. The barbequed meats are slow-cooked on low heat inside a custom-built Texas smoker and all menu items are made from scratch including the barbeque sauces which came in different flavours and spiciness. We tried the smoked chicken wings with medium, smoked BBQ sauce, seasoned, pan-seared blackened catfish with grilled veggies and cajun corn, and finally the beef brisket with salad and mac & cheese. We were intrigued by the soup of the day which was “cheeseburger” soup! We already ordered so much food that we could not fit this in, but the server gave us a small sample and it indeed tasted like cheeseburger!
Rich and I love exploring cemeteries and have done so around the world including Père-Lachaise in Paris, Highgate in London, and San Michele which is actually on an island a ferry ride away from Venice. But we have always preferred Mount Pleasant Cemetery in our home city of Toronto because of its diverseness in terms of history, unique tombs, mausoleums and sculptures, different ethnicities represented and its natural beauty with exotic trees, plants and flowers. We have not found one that compares to Mount Pleasant until we visited the
Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.
Forest Lawn Cemetery covers 269 acres of hills and valleys, trees and lawns with three lakes and a meandering creek. It was founded in 1849 by Charles E. Clark, a US representative from New York State. Larger than Mount Pleasant by 64 acres and older by 27 years, Buffalo’s cemetery definitely measures up in terms of spectacular tombs and beautiful landscaping. Forest Lawn was the first deliberately landscaped green space in Western New York and was inspired by Père-Lachaise. It operates as a cemetery and crematory, arboretum, public park and outdoor museum, offering tours and hosting events year round.
Immediately upon entering the main gates of Forest Lawn Cemetery, we encounter a variety of sculptures. There is the bronze sculpture of “
The Shepherdess” depicting a young woman with flowing hair comforting a fallen lamb. Created by sculptor Mary Dewitt Smith in 2009, it symbolizes the cemetery’s role in comforting mourners. The
St.Joseph’s Carillon is a set of 7 bells from the St.Joseph’s Cathedral that were installed in the cemetery in 2020 after the church closed. This set of bells ring on the hour. They join the 3000-pound copper and tin
Oishei Bell that dated back to 1866 and was donated to the cemetery in 1975 when it was too heavy to be hung in the original St. Joseph’s Cathedral. This bell rests on a marble base and no longer rings. Also by the entrance is the memorial sculpture depicting
Seneca Indian Chief Red Jacket, a key negotiator for the Seneca tribe after the American Revolution, securing land for his people. Installed in 1891, the bronze statue depicts the chief holding a hatchet while wearing a red, embroidered coat given to him by a British soldier (which led to his anglicized name) and wearing a medal presented to him by George Washington.
One of the highlights in this cemetery is the
Blue Sky Mausoleum, designed by architect
Frank Lloyd Wright for his close friend
Darwin Martin, whose Wright-designed Martin house we visited in 2017. The mausoleum was actually commissioned back in 1925 and designed by Wright by 1928, yet it was never constructed during either man’s lifetime, as Martin had run out of money during the Great Depression and could not finance the construction. Although Martin is buried in Forest Lawn, he is not buried in his commissioned resting place. In 2004, the cemetery finally constructed Wright’s vision using his drawings and plans. Consistent with Wright’s principles, the Blue Sky Mausoleum is immersed in nature on a large, grassy field flanked by the Jubilee Spring on one side and Crystal Lake on the other. Unlike other mausoleums, there are no physical walls or ceiling. Instead, the ceiling is the blue sky above and the walls are the conifer trees and other natural elements surrounding it. Built with “Rock of Ages Bethel White” granite from Vermont, the structure consists of 24 double-tiered, Westminster styled crypts, made from 12 broad granite slabs on each side with a narrow stairway in the middle. The central stone is etched with a quote from Frank Lloyd Wright that reads “A Burial Facing The Open Sky. The Whole Could Not Fail of Nobel Effect”. While a few of the crypts have engravings on them signifying occupancy, most of them are still available for purchase.
In addition to the unique open-air Blue Sky Mausoleum (or sarcophagus as Wright also called it), there are plenty of traditional and extremely beautiful mausoleum buildings in Forest Lawn Cemetery. The
Kellner Mausoleum has Art Deco features with its symmetrical vertical lines at each corner created by setback panels and the tall, narrow stained glass windows on each wall form geometric patterns. The
Van Clief Mausoleum has two Corinthian columns on either side of an ornate green, copper door with a landscape mural painted in between the window mullions. The
Ryley Mausoleum features an Egyptian Revival style with a solar disk, 2 spitting cobras, and vulture wings above the door and Egyptian flames at the top of the columns. Peering through the lotus-leaf decorated copper bars of the front gates, you can see a vibrant stained glass window depicting a religious scene.
The
landscaping in this cemetery is breathtaking with bridges spanning meandering creeks, sculptural fountains in the middle of ponds, curving drives, reflective spring-fed lakes, and a mix of scenic areas with rolling hills, charming valleys, open knolls, wooded glades and tree canopies. Online, I found images of the cemetery in the spring with flowers blossoming in some of the trees. It would be lovely to be here in the springtime, or later on in fall when the leaves change.
We saw many
animal sculptures throughout the cemetery, as decorative statues, memorials and ornamentations for tombs. There is a
metal buffalo sculpture that doesn’t seem to be related to any of the surrounding graves. A bronze sculpture of a
giant elk guards the burial site for members of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge. A beautiful bronze sculpture of a
hare sprawled across a rock sits near the Birge Memorial, a massive marble structure consisting of 12 Doric columns surrounding the sarcophagus of George K. Birge, President of the Pierce-Arrow Car Company. On a pair of tombs ironically located harmoniously close to each other, we found bronze sculptures of a
dog and of a
cat. The most interesting animal sighting that we saw in the cemetery were the group of
live deer grazing amongst the tombs. They must be used to people since we were able to get quite close without spooking them. Further on, we saw another deer loping through the grass, possibly to join the others.
Walking through Forest Lawn Cemetery was like touring an
outdoor art gallery. A massive fiberglass sculpture by artist John Field was installed in 1998 as part of a sculpture exhibition. The sculpture is titled “
And When the Earth Shall Claim Your Limbs, Then Shall You Truly Dance” but just looking at the work without the title, it seems like the angel is lifting up a soul to take it to Heaven. There was a giant bronze bust of composer
Guiseppe Verdi that was moved to the cemetery in 1996 from its original location outside Kleinhans Music Hall. A granite base was added, and the monument was erected as a tribute to the accomplishments of Italian-Americans in the community. There were many other sculptures sitting atop or beside tombs as well as carvings on the tombs that ranged from inspiring to sweet and cutesy.
A large section of the cemetery is designated as “
Veteran’s Field of Valor” which is dedicated to war veterans, their spouses and dependent children. In addition to the usual graves that are found in other cemeteries marking recent wars such as WWI, WWII, Korean War, etc., there are areas where the graves are much older. We saw tombs and memorials related to the American Revolution (1775-1783), American Civil War (1861-1865) and the Spanish-American War (1898-1902). There was also a moving memorial honouring volunteer firemen.
There were some very old tombs that look like they grew out of big mature trees, but more likely, the trees grew around the tombs. We found some interesting tombs including one labeled “
Feminist Partners”, one with a trophy on top with the label “champion”, one with a bronze violin, and a granite bench dedicated to “Buffalo’s greatest racquet ball star” and sports columnist
Charlie “The Gar” Garfinkel along with a blown up news article containing his obituary. Other than
Millard Fillmore, the 13th President of the United States, whose grave we did not get to, the most famous person buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery so far is singer
Rick James. Even though we spent hours wandering around this cemetery, there are still portions that we have not gotten to and more sculptures that we have not found. This will go on the itinerary for our next trip to Buffalo and perhaps we could see it in a different season when other plants and flowers will be in bloom.
The most impressive memorial in the Forest Hill Cemetery is the
Blocher Mausoleum, which also has a fascinating backstory that is probably a mix of fact and myth. The monument was built in honour of Nelson Blocher, son of wealthy businessman John Blocher and his wife Elizabeth. As the story goes, the 34-year-old Nelson fell madly in love with their 20-year-old maid Katherine, much to the disapproval of his parents. While Nelson was out of town on business, the Blochers fired Katherine and sent her away, telling a distraught Nelson on his return that she had run off, leaving only her bible. Nelson searched tirelessly for a year but could not find her. In the end, he died from exhaustion and ill health, or as the romantics would say, of a broken heart. The guilt-ridden Blochers erected a massive tribute consisting of a circular granite, turret-like structure with a bell-shaped roof and glass panes which reveal a series of Carrara marble sculptures depicting a sad scene. The deceased Nelson lies grasping Katherine’s bible while his grieving parents look on. Above him is an angel who some say resembles Katherine herself. Surrounding the monument are three granite benches with the names of Nelson, John and Elizabeth engraved on each, interspersed with matching granite planters filled with flowers. Nearby, the
Schickel monument is decorated with elaborate sculptures of an angel and other female figures.
Every time we visit Buffalo, we like to stop in on what was formerly known as the
Albright Knox Art Gallery (1962-2022) and before that, the Albright Art Gallery (1905-1962). Recently the gallery was renamed yet again, to the
Buffalo AKG Art Museum after a hefty donation from Buffalo native and art collector Jeffrey Gundlach helped to pay for a major renovation that would expand gallery space. Gundlach’s initials are added to John Albright and Seymour Knox who were the Art Museum’s founder and prior major contributor. We have always admired the impressive art collection at this museum and enjoy seeing the latest special exhibitions. But on this visit, we were more interested on seeing the results of the
new renovations.
The original 1905 Neo-Classical building was renamed the
Wilmers Building in recognition of a sizeable donation from billionaire banker Robert Wilmers. Renovations here included recreating the grand staircase leading to the entrance of the building as well as cleaning and restoring the marble façade. At the top of the staircase is the large-scale 7-meters high stainless steel sculpture Karma by Korean artist Do Ho Suh which depicts a upright man holding up 97 squatting figures stacked on atop the other, each covering the eyes of the one below him. From far away, the sculpture looks like a curved spine. On the east façade of the building are Caryatid figures similar to the ones in the Acropolis in Athens.
Much was done to the 1962
Knox Building in addition to the basics of repairing the roof, cleaning the marble and installing new red oak flooring. The most significant change is commissioning of a site-specific installation named “
Common Sky” which consists of a gently undulating glass and mirror canopy that covers the entire courtyard of the Knox building. Constructed from a complex triangular grid of over 600 alternating transparent glass and reflective mirrored windowpanes, this structure allows you to both look out at the sky and surrounding area and look down on many images of yourself and those around you. A funnel-like column extending from the ceiling to the floor is meant to resemble a tree trunk and is actually positioned in the exact location where a tree was planted in the former open-air courtyard back in 1960. A
new restaurant Cornelia is named after Cornelia Quinton, the first woman director of Albright Art Gallery in early 1900s. It offers pastries, coffee and sandwiches to go as well as serving sit-down lunches during the week and dinner on Thursday and Friday nights, the two nights when the museum stays open later. While a few tables and chairs are available out in the Common Sky courtyard, most of the seating is within the restaurant where a beautiful mosaic mural covers an entire wall. The piece “
Chorus of the Deep” is a mosaic, tesserae and glass scene created by Firelei Báez (2023). It is based on the myth of Drexciya, depicting a society of water-breathing beings born to pregnant African women who were thrown overboard during international slave trade. In the M&T Bank Gallery, an exhibit by Lucas Samaras called “
The Mirrored Room” is cube-sized room covered from floor to ceiling and on all walls with mirrors. People are allowed to walk inside to see a psychedelic amount of reflections of themselves and the mirrored table in the middle of the room.
With funds from his Jeffery Gundlach’s generous donation, a new 30,000 square foot
Gundlach Building was constructed out of glass and marble with 13 galleries of varying sizes to accommodate large-scaled artworks. A 300-foot glass temperature-controlled Albright Bridge curves around 4 oak trees planted in 1840, connecting the central Wilmer building to the new Gundlach building. Standing outside looking up onto the bridge, you can see the people walking by as well as the scenery behind them. Later on, we walked that curved bridge from the inside and looked out. Next to the bridge is a large sculpture of a head by Jaume Plensa.
The
Gundlach Building has a spiral staircase leading to multiple floors of galleries that feature modern and contemporary art. There is also a sculpture terrace, Glass Box theatre and a grab and go food and drink area. Its ground floor galleries are designed to finally showcase 31 works by Abstract Expressionist painter
Clyfford Still which were bequeathed to the museum back in 1964, but there was never proper space to display them.
There are some thought-provoking and fun pieces in the new Contemporary galleries within the Gundlach building.
Robert Colescott’s 1988 acrylic painting “
Feeling His Oats” provides commentary on Black stereotypes. The work depicts a prosperous Black man in a suit with a luxurious car juxtapositioned with Black caricatures. These include a Black weightlifter being ogled by a blond woman and a sharecropping family including a “Mammy” figure holding a baby. Traditionally white iconic images of Superman and the man on the Quaker Oats cereal box are depicted as small black figures.
Nick Cave’s 2011 mixed media work “
Speak Louder” consists of seven figures made from mannequins connected by a long drapery made from upholstery, black mother-of-pearl buttons and embroidered floss while their heads are shaped like speakers or the bell of a tuba. Cave traditionally creates sound suits that make noise when activated through dance. This piece refers to speaking and not being heard and how those who speak about violence against young Black men are often ignored or silenced.
Simone Leigh’s Village Series (2021) depicts a Black female figure made of glazed stoneware with a grass skirt that could also be the hut that she lives in, blurring the lines between figurative bodies and architecture.
Tony Ousler’s Junk (2003) is a fiberglass sculpture with four eyes and a moving mouth projected from a DVD video which make the eyes move and blink and the mouth producing incoherent words that occasionally sound like profanity. Oursler sees his piece as a commentary on society’s neediness and self-absorption.
Right next to the AKG Art Gallery is
Delaware Park, a 350-acre park designed by Frederick Olmstead and Calvert Vaux between 1868 and 1874. Originally simply named “The Park”, Olmstead designed this area to be a natural respite from the rest of the city, adding rolling meadows, wooded areas with walking trails and the large
Hoyt Lake in the centre. It was later named Delaware Park because of its proximity to Delaware Avenue, also known as Buffalo’s mansion row. The park connects to other Olmsted-designed green spaces including Forest Lawn Cemetery and the grounds of the former Buffalo Insane Asylum, now the Richardson Olmstead Campus where our hotel was. Entering the park from the west, we came across the bronze
sculpture of young Abraham Lincoln sitting on a log, before he became president of the United States. Continuing on, we found the
Rose Garden which features a pretty pergola that is used in wedding photos and 33 beds of roses of different varieties and colours. Unfortunately we were there too late in the season for the roses to be in full bloom. The park is home to
Shakespeare outdoor theatre festivals.
Looking across Hoyt Lake, we spotted what looked like a
Venetian gondola in the middle of the water. It turned out that is exactly what it was. The Buffalo Maritime Centre offers gondola rides for evening cruises from end of May to September. We could also see a bridge and the
Buffalo History Museum way off in the distance. We would get a closer look when we walked around the lake. Behind us was the
Terrace Café where we would have some lunch after our stroll around the park where we would see different gardens and sculptures.
The 6-acre
Japanese Strolling Garden in Delaware Park was created in 1962 through an initiative with Buffalo’s “sister city”, Kanazawa Japan. It incorporates elements of water, pathways with rolling slopes, small islets, pagodas and rock gardens, a stone lantern and a small arched stone bridge. There are 40 cherry blossom trees and an annual Cherry Blossom Festival which includes tea ceremonies, boat rides, taiko drum performances and Japanese cultural demonstrations. Continuing around the lake, we saw sculptures of a
Centaur, a bust of
Mozart and a giant replica of Michaelangelo’s
Statue of David.
Just north of the Japanese Garden is the
Buffalo History Museum that we spotted from across the lake. Looking like a Greek temple with sculptures carved into a pediment that is supported by Doric columns, the building was constructed in 1901 for the Pan-American Exposition. The museum’s permanent collection includes historic artifacts, manuscripts, books and photographs reflecting the history of the region. In front is another sculpture of
Abraham Lincoln, this time as “
Lincoln the Emancipator”.
Completing our walk around Lake Hoyt, we ended our visit of Delaware Park with a lunch on the terrace of the
Terrace Café. Although there was a nice indoor space with high tin-clad ceilings and pretty décor, there was no point going to a restaurant called Terrace Café and not sit on the terrace, especially on a warm sunny day.
We wheedled our way into getting a table right by the water so that we had the stunning view of the lake while we ate. We ordered Ahi Tuna nachos, a Caprese salad with beef-steak tomatoes and burrata and shared an iced coffee. This was a very pleasant way to end the day and end a wonderful road trip through Pennsylvania and New York State. By the way, this is now our fifth time in Buffalo, and I already have a growing itinerary for our next visit.
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