(Nims) Blocher mansion, c. 1890. Image source: Chuck LaChiusa, Buffalo as an Architectural Museum
The corner of Delaware and Huron, currently the site of the headquarters of New Era Cap, was vacant until 1869. According to Edward T. Dunn in Buffalo's Delaware Avenue, the land was used by traveling circuses. In 1869, Ozias Nims, a forwarding merchant on the Central Wharf, constructed a mansion on the corner. |
Wealthy Buffalo boot manufacturer John Blocher purchased the mansion in 1878. Two years later, the Unitarian Universalists constructed the Unitarian Church of Our Father adjacent to the mansion, dedicating it in October 1880. Their construction cost was $50,000. |
1904 was a significant year for this plot of land. The Unitarians had decided that their site was "too far downtown" and they constructed a new church at Elmwood and West Ferry on land donated by John J. Albright. The church was purchased by the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Free Masons for their Consistory; they paid $35,000. And John Blocher's wife, Elizabeth, died that year. John Blocher died in 1911 and the Masons acquired his mansion, constructing a connecting walkway between the two properties. |
The Masons utilized their Consistory until they decided to leave what had become an overwhelmingly commercial area. And their membership of over 5, 550 suggested better and more suitable space. Their Consistory was valued at $218,624 in 1915. So, in 1921, they purchased 1180 Delaware, a mansion barely two years old that was constructed by George Franklin Rand, but who died before it was completed. His children, George Franklin Rand, Jr., Evelyn and Gretchen lived there only a short time.* By 1926, the Masons completed their move from the Delaware and Huron property and, in February 1926, both the mansion and church were demolished. The property became a parking lot with a filling station located near the corner. By 1945, the Marine Trust Company, owners of the property, sold it to Huron Associates, and rumors were that a new library might be constructed there. History revealed that the Ford Hotels Company, which already had a Buffalo hotel, had purchased the land. They never developed it and, in 1953, their successor, Sheraton Hotels, sold the lot to the U.S. Government for a new Federal Reserve building, to be the third location for that agency in Buffalo. The Federal Reserve building, 100,000 square feet, cost $4 million dollars to build and opened on May 14, 1958. Forty-six years later, after federal services consolidation, the building was put up for sale for $3.9 million dollars. Ciminelli Development Corporation purchased it in February 2005 for $3.2 million. In April 2006, New Era Cap purchased it from Ciminelli Development for $4.8 million dollars. The company extensively redesigned the interior and updated the facade of the building, opening its world headquarters at the end of November, 2006. |
Research for this pictorial was made possible by generous assistance of Sara Lawrence, BECHS Assistant Librarian; local historian and Buffalo architecture webmaster Chuck LaChiusa; and Anne E. Duggan, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Ciminelli Development Corporation. Also very helpful was Buffalo's Delaware Avenue, by Edward T. Dunn. The 1850 map excerpt above is from the "City of Buffalo 1850" CD-ROM, for sale at WNY Heritage. |
*Rand was president of the Marine Trust Company among other interests, and a 33rd degree Mason. He sold the mansion to the Masons for $ 1 million dollars with a $500,000 gift which would be used to construct a Consistory attached to the mansion. The Masons suffered traumatic membership losses during the Depression and were forced to surrender their Consistory for back taxes in 1942. The Jesuits purchased 1180 Delaware in 1944 for a school, Canisius High School, which it remains in 2008. |