Downtown Buffalo

Last Friday Ted and I went on a tour of downtown Buffalo. It was amazing to see the history and architecture of the city. We toured many of the oldest building in the city. Buildings that included: The Guaranty Building, St. Paul’s, The Gold Dome, and Ellicott Square. The Terra cota tiles that cover the entire exterior of the Guaranty are beautiful and exquisite. It was sad to hear about the destruction of some of the original tiles as a result of careless restoration. The stained glass windows in St. Paul's were beautiful! The stained glass window done by Tiffany were so crisp and colorful. I also was fascinated by the German style of painting the glass after it was in place. The best part of the tour came when we visited the Electric Building and I had the privilege of meeting the head engineer of the building. He gave us a detailed review of the building and a behind the scenes tour of the basement. He allowed us to see the remnants of the coal chutes and coal rooms. It was amazing to see the real, tangible evidence of the coal system I am researching. Also, we walked around looking for more historic, old coal doors and anything else we found fascinating. We met the owner/curator of the Maritime Historical Society; he took us on a tour of his building and all its wonders. The building has 18 inch thick solid floorboards and hundreds of artifacts raised from the depths of lake Erie.  Seeing the dark underbelly of the this historic building has awesome. I truly enjoyed this tour and memorable experiences i had.