Symphony Circle. The KCA neighborhood had its origins in Buffalo’s 1868 parkway design courtesy of famed 19th century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. He initially designed the Circle in 1868 and then re-designed it in 1874 to serve as a vital link of green space between The Front and Porter Avenue. From the Circle, his west Buffalo parkway design continued down Richmond Avenue to Bidwell Parkway, then to Lincoln Parkway and finally the parkway terminated at Delaware Park.
The Circle was graded in 1874, and much of it was developed over the former Black Rock Cemetery (especially the northwest quadrant). The remains of Buffalonians buried there were reinterred in Forest Lawn Cemetery, but some of the pauper graves still remain. The Circle’s finishing touch came in 1879 when an ornate 5 light gas standard was erected in the center of a circular flower bed island approximately 25-30 feet in diameter. In the 1890s the Circle became a finish line for spirited winter cutter (sleigh) races running down Richmond Avenue south from West Ferry Street. The island and light standard were removed in 1938 in deference to the automobile.
Thanks to the diligent efforts of the Symphony Circle Steering Committee, the Circle has been undergoing restoration since 1992 with new trees, lawns, gardens and park fixtures being recent accomplishments. In 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001, Symphony Circle’s gardens were featured in the annual Garden Walk - a tour of west side neighborhood gardens which draws thousands of visitors and sponsored by Forever Elmwood, Inc.
Kleinhans Music Hall, on Circle quadrant between Porter Avenue and Pennsylvania Street.
In 1999, thanks to city and county funding, a federal matching grant has enabled the establishment of a water system for each garden, and the re-creation of 4 additional shrub/perennial gardens (as existed in Olmsted's original design), plus the publication of an educational brochure about the past, present and future of Symphony Circle.
Also completed in 1999 was the re-creation of a missing element of The Circle -- a section of greenspace at the corner of the First Presbyterian Church -- that existed in Olmsted's original design.
The restoration work of Symphony Circle has won several awards. In 1999 Symphony Circle was the recipient of the Allentown Association’s Beautification Award and Ann Angelo, facilitator of the Symphony Circle Steering Committee was recognized for her restoration efforts on Symphony Circle by receiving the Buffalo Olmsted Conservancy’s Volunteer of the Year Award. In 2000, the Symphony Circle Steering Committee received the All-America Committee Civic Empowerment Award, which recognized Symphony Circle’s civic partnership and accomplishments in enhancing the quality of life for the Erie-Niagara regional community. The restoration efforts of Symphony Circle has also been featured in several Buffalo News articles, including a front page article on its restoration efforts published on May 7, 2000. The restoration of the center island, the last major component missing from Olmsted’s original 1874 design of Symphony Circle has been funded with private donations and city funds. Mayor Anthony Masiello visited Symphony Circle in June 2001 to announce the restoration of the light standard as a symbol of his commitment to Buffalo’s strong neighborhoods. The light standard is scheduled to be installed in 2002.
Kleinhans Music Hall. From the earliest days of the Circle this site was home to a greenhouse and some dwellings of modest size until the early 1890s. At that time, Trueman Avery purchased all the grounds bordering this quadrant (3.5 acres) and built a palatial mansion.
In 1938, when the City of Buffalo was searching for a site for the new music hall to be erected as a memorial to retailer Edward L. Kleinhans’ mother and wife, heirs to the estate of Mrs. Trueman Avery offered the mansion to the City for a nominal sum. The music hall committee was impressed with the park-like beauty of the Circle and selected the site over all other proposed locations.
The music hall was built between 1938-1940 and designed by the Finnish-American father-and-son team of Eliel and Eero Saarinen in the International style. The architects studied the Circle at great length with the intent to have their hall be an organic design that complimented the Circle. The architects themselves said in 1940 that Kleinhans music hall has “‘grown up’ from its site and soil and has formed itself accordingly-just as have the surrounding trees grown up from their site and soil and formed themselves accordingly.” In an article published in 1998, the New York Times said that “Of all the buildings that have gone up in Buffalo in the last 75 years, the most influential by far is the Kleinhans Music Hall...” The building has undergone a renovation in recent years and is very much as it was when completed in 1940. Its reflecting pool, which outlined the smaller auditorium (Mary Seaton Room) was restored in September 2001 after being filled in several decades ago.
The music hall has played host to many musical celebrities through the years. Legends like Judy Garland and Aretha Franklin have performed there as well as the finest talent from the classical musical world. Many famous Americans have visited Kleinhans Music Hall. Marian Anderson said that Kleinhans is “unsurpassed by any other” music hall. Eleanor Roosevelt said “how wonderful if every city in America could have such a music hall” when she commented about Kleinhans.
The Circle was renamed Symphony Circle in 1958 because of its association with Kleinhans Music Hall and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Northwest (Homes) Quadrant, between Porter and Richmond Avenues.
Originally all quadrants of the Circle had homes on them, and this is the only one that retains its late Victorian residential vista. In the late 19th century, prominent Buffalonians lived on the Circle or nearby North Street between the Circle and Elmwood Avenue. For example, Joseph Kittinger, father of Irvine Kittinger of Kittinger Furniture lived at the large frame mansion at 530 Porter Avenue. The brick mansion at 26 Richmond Avenue and the Circle (now home to the administrative offices of the Buffalo Philharmonic) was built in 1892 for tug line owners Thomas and Edward Maytham. Noted author of paranormal books Mason C. Winfield has called the mansion the “most haunted house in Buffalo, probably Erie County.” Several of the homes on this quadrant are attributed to the work of Buffalo architect Frank Caulkins.
Northeast Quadrant - Birge Mansion, between Richmond Avenue and North Street.
The Birge Mansion gives some indication of the many substantial mansions that were built around the Circle between 1874 and 1895. As the 19th century drew to a close, the homes built in the neighborhood grew ever larger. The Georgian Revival style mansion was built in 1896-1897 for George K. Birge, owner of the famous Victorian-era wallpaper manufacturing business on Niagara Street. It was designed by the prestigious architectural firm of Little and Browne of Boston, Massachusetts. After passing from the Birge family to become a convent and later an Elks lodge, the Birge mansion was close to demolition until it was declared a local landmark in 1977. The Birge mansion was all but written off to demolition and would be only a memory today if it were not for a few Buffalonians passionate about saving the building. Inspired by a desire to preserve the building for future generations, citizens chased away those who tried to loot the house of its interior architectural treasures. A few individuals negotiated the buy-back of existing mortgages to gain control over the property. The fact that the Birge mansion remains on Symphony Circle is a testament to the grassroots efforts of a few individuals willing to make a difference in the community.
In the 1980s it was converted to office space. The mansion was purchased in 2001 by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra to be used as their future administrative offices, signaling their ongoing commitment to Symphony Circle.
Immediately east of the Birge Mansion, Alexander Meldrum of AM&A’s built a mansion in 1880 designed by the Buffalo architectural firm Holmes & Little. The mansion was demolished in 1965 to build the condominiums at 309 North Street which currently occupy the site.
Southeast Quadrant/Grace Manor Nursing Home, between North and Wadsworth Streets.
In the Victorian era, this site was occupied by two large mansions, one built for George Walbridge Miller and designed by Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb (1890).
A second mansion on this quadrant was the one built for George Wing (1875).
In the 1920s, the Miller home was converted to the Rosa Coplon Nursing Home. The nursing home expanded in 1952 and demolished the Wing mansion to construct the building that currently occupies the site. The original Miller mansion was demolished in 1974 to make room for an expansion which never took place.
After the Rosa Coplon group moved to Amherst in the early 1990s, this location was vacant for several years until it was acquired by Grace Manor and renovations started in 1995. Grace Manor is the first locally owned African American nursing home and the second in the state. The building currently is fully occupied and serves approximately 130 residents. The west side of the building at the edge of the Circle and Wadsworth Street will soon be marked with a “Welcome to Allentown” painted wooden sign.
Pennsylvania Street, Wadsworth to Orton Place (photo shows 1st Presbyterian Church).
The First Presbyterian Church is the oldest religious organization in Buffalo. In the 1880s, the congregation was looking to relocate from downtown where the Main Place Tower (Main and Church Sts.) now stands to a northern location. Mrs. Trueman Avery offered to donate land on the Circle across the street from where she herself was to build a new home. The Church accepted her gift and commissioned the architectural firm of Green and Wicks to design the church where the First Presbyterian Church now stands at the corner of Pennsylvania Street and Wadsworth Street.
The chapel was complete by September 1889 and the church substantially complete by December 1891. The 163 foot tower was finished by 1897. Mr. Edward Green, the architect, stated that when he designed the church he “first studied the position and grade of the lot upon the ground itself.” Green stated that the lot on The Circle is “low, the center of the Circle being raised above it, and care has been exercised to raise the buildings in order to give them the architectural character they require.”
Green specifically designed the tower to be the church’s outstanding feature so that, according to Green, “If one cares to turn about, the stately towers of the State Asylum will be seen at one end of [Richmond Avenue], and this group of ecclesiastical buildings at the other.”
The church has several Tiffany stained-glass windows, including a massive one that overlooks the sanctuary. The interior decoration features Byzantine mosaics created by decorator/artist William C. Francis. A parish house was built in 1925 on Pennsylvania Street which, along with the parking lot, took the site of four homes formerly at 377-383 Pennsylvania Street. Most of the homes built on the block between the First Presbyterian Church and Orton Place were constructed circa 1875-1880. 383 Pennsylvania Street, which stood were the parish house is today, was the home of poet James Nicoll Johnston from the early 1880s until his death in 1918. Johnston was born in Donegal, Ireland and published two books in his lifetime: Poets and Poetry of Buffalo and Donegal Memories. Johnston was a member of the famous Nameless club, the leading club of the city between 1858-1870. Shortly after Johnston’s death, it was written that “Their little home in Pennsylvania Street became a Mecca for the intellects of the city. Poets, artists, men and women of culture flocked to the Johnston shrine.”
The houses at 361, 357 and 355 Pennsylvania are also interesting cottages. They were built about 1875 and originally all resembled 357 Pennsylvania Street, with its Second Empire design. The architect of these homes is Richard A. Waite, who made 361 his abode. Between 1880 and 1881 he added a Queen Anne addition to his home. Unfortunately, the quality of his design is obscured by the 20th century siding that has been applied to the surface. In his day, Waite was a very successful architect. In Buffalo, he designed Pierce’s Palace Hotel, the Music Hall on Main and Edward Streets and the German Insurance Building. Sadly, all his fine commercial Buffalo buildings have been lost. A major commission that he had in the 1880s was the legislative building in Queens Park, Toronto, Canada, which still stands.
Waite’s neighbor at 357 Pennsylvania in the late 1870s and early 1880s was the Cummings family. Homer S. Cummings grew up in 357 Pennsylvania and in his adult years became Attorney General of the United States. 357 Pennsylvania is the best preserved of the trio of homes, and is notable for its unusual proportions and distinctive combination of mansard and hip-roof lines.
Although 355 Pennsylvania began as a Second Empire style cottage like 357 Pennsylvania, it had been extensively remodeled in the 1880s to have its Queen Anne appearance of today.
Back to KCA Current Topics Page