121 Ellicott Street at South Division
Buffalo, New York

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Tower is on front of building (west facade) on Ellicott Street. Five pavilions	The major entrance, which faces west on Ellicott Street, contains three deeply recessed arched openings. The projecting entrance is elaborately treated with gables, gallery, and piers	Center gable, capping the center entrance, is topped with a full sculpture of the American eagle.
		Wolf
Rectangular granite faced 245' high tower. Crocketed, with engaged turrets on corners	Hand carved gargoyle on tower		Copper cresting. Pointed Gothic style dormer with decorative finial rounded Romanesque style arch
Mansard roof covered with tile. Finial on top of dormer Copper cresting on the dormer	Crockets		Two windows contained within a Gothic arch.
Quatrefoil ornamentation	Covered loading dock.	Detail

Style	Gothic Revival
Architects	Jeremiah O'Rourke 1894-1897 William Aiken (1897-1901) James Knox Taylor (1897-1901) Cannon Design 1979-1981 Renovation for reuse as Erie Community College city campus
Dedication	June 1901, officially opened with mailing of its first letter to Pres. William McKinley, who would be assassinated in Buffalo at the Pan-Am Exposition several months later.
Status	National Register of Historic Places
Materials	Foundation: Granite-faced Exterior - Pink granite from quarries at Spruce Heat and Jonesboro, Maine, was shipped by the schooners from Vinal Haven, Maine. The walls of granite ashlar masonry have a slightly rusticated treatment on the first floor and elevated basement. All other surfaces are finished with highly dressed granite. Roofs: covered with Spanish green tile laid in concrete Interior - brick wainscoting; terra cotta walls; marble; mosaic tile finishes; principal office rooms and court rooms finished in Mexican mahogany; all other rooms finished in quartered, polished oak. The interior framing system is composed of steel beams.
Porches	The three deeply recessed entrances are contained within projecting porches. Stone stairs extend beyond the enclosure of the porches.
Architectural Feature	By relieving the mass of the block-square building by slightly projecting corner pavilions, the architects have reduced the Gothic revival decorative treatment to a surface exercise.
Notable Features	244 foot tower Skylit 6-story atrium Hand carved gargoyles, pinnacles, finials, animal heads and eagles on each of the facades
Size	225,000 sq. feet on 6 levels 400-seat auditorium
Blueprints	Approximately 39 sheets of blueprints of the original plans are on file at the national Archives.
Photos	The Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society has a minimum of 30 photographs contained within the Iconographic File

The Old Post Office was the subject of controversy before it was even built. The 1893 Tarnsey Act required architectural competitions for major federal buildings. The Buffalo post office was the first major government building to occur aft the act became law. But the Secretary of the Treasury, henry G. Carlisle, who was responsible for the erection of government facilities, asserted that a design by the federal government's supervising architect, Jeremiad O'Rourke, had already been submitted and approved when he act was passed. The brouhaha must have inspired O'Rourke to extraordinary effort, because he designed a monumental building incorporating Romanesque Revival, Chateauesque, and French Gothic features executed in expensive pink Vermont granite. O'Rourke's plan received added design improvements by his successors, William M. Aiken and James Knox Taylor.

With its tall square tower with its many-crocketed spire, fierce gargoyles and glowering eagles, is one of the most visible and familiar sights of downtown Buffalo. Of Flemish Gothic design and made of pink Vermont granite, the monumental former U.S. Post Office encompasses a whole city block. Regarded as having been inspired by H.H. Richardson's great Allegheny Country Courthouse in Pittsburgh, this building possesses a similar dominating tower and clearly defined pavilions on the exterior and a central light court surrounded by galleries on the inside. The Venetian palazzo-like interior space is one of the most impressive in the city. Exterior ornamentation includes an appropriate bison head, as well as an eagle up above the entrance door.

The building is largely credited to architect James Knox Taylor, who designed a sister post office (now bustling with boutiques and ethnic food counters) in Washington, D.C.

The Old Post Office has been magnificently restored and is now thriving as the Downtown Branch of the Erie County Community College.

Buffalo Post Office History

Buffalo's post office was established in 1804 when Erastus Granger received the appointment as Buffalo's first postmaster from Thomas Jefferson. He set up the first post office at a desk in Crow's Tavern on Exchange Street. The nearest post offices were at Fort Niagara and at Batavia. Mail to Fort Niagara went on horseback via the ferry and up the Canadian side to the Niagara River because the roads were better. In those days the the post office moved with the postmaster. It wasn't until 1837 that the first permanent building, a former Baptist church at the corner of Washington and Seneca Streets, was purchased.

Information provided by: http://ah.bfn.org