J.J. Albright donated $330,000 ($6,741,616.63 in 2001 dollars) at the turn of the century for the construction of an art gallery
for Buffalo. The site selected was at the edge of the city's biggest Olmsted park, The Park (known as Delaware Park today).
It was to have been open in time to serve as the Pan American Exposition's Art Gallery but labor difficulties and material delays
forced the Exposition Company to construct a temporary Art Gallery. In 1902, the task of landscaping the grounds around the
Albright Art Gallery (as it was commonly known even before it opened) fell to the Park Commmission. On May 23, 1902,
Commission Secretary George H. Selkirk said, "..the grading has been begun, and the building of terraces and embellishing
the grounds around the building will be taken up in due time. It is, I believe, the intention of the commission to place the beautiful
building, which Mr. Albright has given to the city, in a frame in keeping with its magnificence."