USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > Memorial of the city and county hall opening ceremonies, Buffalo, N.Y. > Part 2
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The main cornice of the tower is on a line with the base of the pedestals, and is finished with projecting parapets, sup- ported by corbels. Next above the cornice, and between the statues, are the pediments containing the clock faces, nine feet in diameter,
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one on each side of the tower. The clock section has a curved slate roof, 27 feet in height, and next above is the lantern, or observatory, 200 feet above the ground. Upon the observatory is a pointed, curved roof of slate, similar to that on the turrets at the corners of the pavilions.
The bell section of the tower is 120 feet above the ground, and has three openings on each side, five feet wide and eighteen feet high, finished with heavy molded louvres.
In the first story, in the center of the building, both on the Frank- lin and Delaware street fronts, are the entrances, consisting of double-arched openings, enriched by detached columns with carved capitals. Each opening is nine feet wide and seventeen feet high. In front of each entrance is a fine flight of stone steps, rising six feet from the ground to the principal floor. The steps are flanked on either side with abutments and pedestals for lamps, and at the top of the steps, just outside of the building, is a stone platform 16 × 25 feet.
THE INTERIOR.
Entering the Franklin street front, the visitor is admitted to the lobby, which consists of the first story of the tower, and is 28 x 30 feet, entirely of stone. From the lobby he passes, through sash doors, to the main corridor, 24 feet wide and 150 feet long, running longitudinally in the building. The second and third stories also each have a corridor of the same dimensions, extending in the same direction ; and with these corridors all of the rooms and offices communicate directly.
THE BASEMENT
of the building is intended chiefly for the storage of fuel and the apparatus for ventilating and heating, the latter being done by steam. There are rooms for the temporary detention of criminals awaiting trial. The basement is eleven feet high, dry, and well lighted. In the hall or entrance-way from Delaware street in the first story, is the grand stairway, occupying a space 36 x 40 feet, starting on either side, and passing two-thirds of the way up, towards the west, to a landing 10 × 36 feet, and returning thence, in the center, towards the main corridor. There are two intermediate landings in the stairs, each nine feet high. The stairs continue to the third story on the same plan, and are constructed of iron.
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FIRST FLOOR.
The offices with which the public have the most to do are located on the first floor, as a matter of convenience. As will be seen by the diagram on page 18, the county offices of Sheriff, Clerk, Treasurer and Surrogate, are grouped in the northern end of the building on this floor, while the City Treasurer, Comptroller, Clerk, Street and Water Commissioners, occupy a corresponding position at the other end. The number and designation of the offices are given upon the tablet in the vestibule, or lobby, as follows:
No. 1. Water Commissioners 19 × 38
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2. City Treasurer
43 × 49
3. City Comptroller 43 × 63
4. City Clerk . 43 × 49
5. Street Commissioner 19× 38
6. Witnesses 19 × 38
7. Grand Jury 19 × 38
8. Sheriff. 19 × 38
9. County Clerk
43 × 94
10. Surrogate
43 × 49
11. County Treasurer 38 × 38
SECOND FLOOR.
The second floor is chiefly given up to the courts and court officers. There are no less than five large and commodious court rooms, most elegantly furnished with all the modern improvements and conveniences of halls of justice. Connecting with these are private apartments for judges' chambers, while the Clerk of the Superior Court, and the City and District Attorneys are con- veniently by, as well as the necessary jury rooms and the Law Library. The Mayor, City Assessors and City Engineer are also upon this floor.
The diagram on page 19 will show the location of the several offices on this floor, which are in size and numbered as follows :
No. 12. Mayor's Office. 38 × 38
" 13. City Engineer. 43 × 49
"
14. Superior Court. 43 × 63
15. Assessors' Office. 43 × 49
16. District Attorney 19× 38
18. City Attorney 19 × 38
21. County Court 43 × 49
22. Supreme Court. 43 × 49
23. Law Library 43 × 63
26. Superior Court. 19 × 38
27. Clerk Superior Court 28 × 28
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STEPS
CITY. CLERKS OFFICE
PRIVATE ROOM
GRAND JURY
SHERIFE
4
STREET
COMMISSIONER
WITNESS ROOM
STAIR
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COUNTY CLERKS OFFICE
18
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COM
VAULT
WATER
WATER
COMMISSIONERS
COUNTY TREASUBEB
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VAULTS
VAULT
LOBBY.
SURROGATES OFFICE
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STEPS
PLAN OF FIRST FLOOR.
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COMPTROLLERS OFFICE
CORRIDOR
COBRIDOB
COMMISSIANCAS
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CITY TREASURERS OFFICE
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ASSESSORS
COUNTY COURT"
DISTRICT
ATTORNEY
JURY ROOM
DOWN STAIRS
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ATTORNEY
JUDGES
SUPREME
COURT
SUPERIOR COURT Criminal Term
CORRIDORS
WELL HULE
WELL HOLE
WELL HOLE
CORRIDORS
SUPREME COURT CIRCUIT
19
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MAYORS R
Superior Court Chambers
JUDGE OF SUPERIOR COURT
CITY ENCINEER
PRIVATE ROOM
Jury Room
CLERK OP SUPERIOR COURT
LAW LIBRARY
22 .08.92
PLAN OF SECOND FLOOR.
County Judge
CITY
COMMITTEE ROOMS
SCREEN SPECTATORS
General Term
Supt Pub Bgs
Park
DOWN
Superior Court
·Special Term
Superior Court
General Term
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ALDERMEN
PLATFORM
CORRIDORS
WELL WOLE
WELL HOLE
CORRIDORS
SPECTATORS
Superior Court Civil Trial Term
PLATFORM
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Supervisors, Committee Room
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SUPI.OF EDUCATION
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CLDAPRO
Clerk Board Supervisors
C oak Room
SUPERVISORS ROOM
SPECTATORS SCREEN
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COMMITTEE NOUMS
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PLAN OF THIRD FLOOR.
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COMMON
Jury Room
Supreme Court
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Commissioners
WELL HOLD
20
COUNCIL CHAMBER
21
THIRD FLOOR.
Upon the third floor are found the Common Council Chamber, which for elegance, beauty and elaborate finish, is not excelled, if equaled, by any similar room in the country, and the Board of Super- visors' Chamber, together with two large court rooms, and the office of the Superintendent of Education, the Park Commissioners, and Clerk of Board of Supervisors. The diagram on page 20 will show their location. They are numbered as follows :
No. 28. Superintendent of Education 38 × 38
29. Common Council.
43 × 145
30. Superintendent of Buildings 11 x 17
31. Park Commissioners. 38 x 38
32. Superior Court, General Term. 38 x 38
43 × 49
33. Supreme Court, " "
34. Superior Court, Civil Trial " 43 × 63
35. Supervisors. 43 × 49
" 36. Supervisors' Committees. 38 x 38
37. Clerk of Board of Supervisors 28 × 28
COURT RECORD.
A fourth tablet on the wall in the vestibule gives the following information for those having business with the several courts:
SUPREME COURT.
Circuit.
No. 22, second story.
Special Term.
32, third story.
General Term
" 33, third story.
SUPERIOR COURT.
Judges' Chambers No. 26, second story.
Criminal Term .
14,
"
Civil Trial Term
34, third story.
General Term.
" 32, "
COUNTY COURT.
Court Room No. 21, second story.
SURROGATE.
Room
No. 10, first story.
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THE BOARD.
A marble tablet similar to those in the vestibule is placed upon the wall at the second intermediate landing of the grand stairway, and bears the following inscription :
CITY AND COUNTY HALL.
Commenced, 1871
Completed, 1876.
BUILDING COMMISSIONERS.
JAMES M. SMITH, Chairman (resigned).
GEORGE S. WARDWELL, Chairman.
JAMES ADAMS,
PHILIP BECKER,
DENNIS BOWEN,
GEORGE W. HAYWARD,
A. P. LANING,
JOHN NICE,
ALLEN POTTER,
J. B. YOUNGS.
A. J. WARNER, Architect.
S. H. FIELDS, Superintendent (resigned).
C. S. CHAPIN, Superintendent.
J. DRUAR, Assistant. Superintendent.
The floors of the corridors, and parts of rooms intended for pub- lic use are paved with marble tiles. In the floor of the main corri- dor, in the second and third stories, is an octagon well-hole, 20 feet in diameter, in the center of the building, and one 8 x 36 feet on each side of the same, affording light to the space below from large. sky-lights, placed above them in the roof. The first story is plas- tered on the brick arches of the floor above, with plaster moldings run on the trains. The second and third stories have plaster cor- nices in all the rooms, with molded panels in the ceilings.
LAYING THE CORNER-STONE.
The corner-stone of the new building was laid on the afternoon of June 24, 1872, with appropriate ceremonies, on which occasion there was a grand turn-out. A procession, consisting of the Mili- tary, Masonic lodges, the Building Commissioners, Judges of the Courts, members of the Common Council and Board of Supervisors, City and County officials, &c., formed at three o'clock, and marched along Franklin street to the Terrace, across the Terrace to Main, up Main to Tupper, down Tupper to Delaware, and down Delaware to the scene of the ceremonies.
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THE CORNER-STONE,
which is located in the south-east corner of the tower, is of granite, two feet eight inches by five feet, and two feet deep. It bears the following inscription :
A. L. MASONIC
A. D.
5872. EMBLEMS. 1872.
JUNE 24.
The ceremonies commenced with prayer by the Rev. Dr. Lord. The band then played "Hail Columbia," after which came an eloquent and appropriate oration by the Hon. Geo. W. Clinton.
ORATION BY THE HON. GEORGE W. CLINTON.
This mighty concourse of people of our city and county marks an epoch in our history ; and the solemn ceremony which it is about to witness will be long remembered with pride and pleasure. The laying of this corner-stone and the completion of this Hall can afford no aliment to vanity, and must redound but incidentally to individual honor. The people of our county and city have decreed the performance of this most necessary and creditable work, and to them collectively are due the glory and the praise. The voice of an indignant people, jealous of its reputation, and incensed by long delay, has burst forth in command, and this great fabric is founded and will soon attain its carefully prescribed perfection.
Excuse me for remarking that we mistranslate, irreverently, I think, the Roman saying, Vox populi vox Dei. The Romans, like all the heathen ancients, had their Dii majores and Dii minores, their greater and their lesser gods. They did not know and worship the one true God. They recognized and sacrificed to a host of deities, both male and female, personifying the phenomena and forces of nature, and her productions, and the genius of every human avocation, and art and science. The voice of the people was not to them the voice of God-of the Divinity, but that of a divinity-majestic, solemn, fearful, full of portent and of power. Its utterances, like the souls of their deities, might be swollen by fury and by malice. Is there in the world's history a recorded cry so fiendish as that one, priest-prompted, of the Jewish populace : Release to us Barrabas. Crucify him! Crucify him! What utterance was ever so God-like as the exclamation of our Saviour in his mortal agony : Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. The motive, the occasion, the soul that finds expression in it, determine the quality of the voice. I am not, I never have been, I believe, a flatterer of the people. Seldom have I recognized the voice of a God in the voice of a people. By our compact,
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majorities govern, and their behests are entitled to obedience though they fail to command respect. At the dread outset of those times which, more thoroughly than those of the revolutionary war, did try men's souls; when crafty rebellion, fully prepared, broke out into insulting war; when treason threw off all disguise and ap- peared, like Satan, vast and threatening-then the voice of the true men and women of the North and East and West, unanimous for war in defense of the Union and of liberty, had a tone and compass and majesty, such as the Roman might imagine in the thunder of his fabled Jove. But when that weary, cruel war was over, and the last hope of traitorous ambition was blasted, and the foul rebellion was crushed by our armed heel-when the joy of the crowning triumph was tempered by pity, and, from the very soul of our wounded, exhausted, suffering people, gushed forth the cry for am- nesty-was not that magnanimous cry prompted by the spirit of Christ himself ? Did not the still small voice within, inform us that the voice of the people was indeed the voice of God ?
I cannot say, my friends, that you have done grandly, for you have made no memorable sacrifice to attain this point of honor. Your voice in this was worthy; but I pray that you may speak further and in the same noble strain. Much, very much, remains to be done to secure to Buffalo the good and glory she should aspire to. She looks not like a queen upon the lakes; but she has yet to win the crown. With the most moderate exertion, wealth must flow to her, and she is now very strong, and must grow stronger and stronger. May she never use that strength tyrannously ! . May she never confound money with wealth, nor rate anything higher than true honor. Her true glory is to be sought in the happiness of her citizens, and that happiness can be assured only by virtue and by knowledge. The dangerous classes must not only be deterred by swift condemnation and inexorable punishment, but must be led from their evil courses by scholarly and priestly hands. How can this rich, proud city deride and condemn the coarse pleasures of the poor, while it does not freely extend to them purer, higher ones. No duty is more exalted, none, in this city, is more urgent, than the extension of pure pleasure and its free diffusion among all classes. It may be mainly sensuous, and it may inform the intellect, but, whatever its character, it tends to regulate the passions and to chasten the heart.
OUR PARK IS A GRAND STEP
in this direction. But this generation, I am free to say, cannot confidently claim that it has done its whole duty while Buffalo re- mains so undistinguished in science, in learning, in taste. There yet remains to be laid, in order to insure true glory, and, so far as possible, internal order and peace and safety, to our dear city, more corner stones than I can think of; free libraries, and churches, and schools of learning, of art, of the fine arts, of science. The His- torical Society should be made assur dly permanent and have a
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building of its own. The Academy of Fine Arts should have a building of its own, augment its examples of painting and sculp- ture, secure copies of all the antique statues, and branch forth into schools. The Society of Natural Sciences deserves to be sustained. It can have no assurance of safety for its possessions, no security for its own existence, while it lives at sufferance in the Young Men's Association building. It has been said to me-it is a bitter shame, if true-that the General Hospital languishes for want of an ade- quate endowment. Speak out my friends, and declare that these weak beginnings of good things shall, for the honor of our city, be saved. And then why has not Buffalo an university? But I am weak and weary with longings for the good of my people and the honor of my city, and I can do nothing. Speak ont then, O my people ! Be assured that the voice of the people is the voice of God, of our God, only when it is Christian-and is most glorious when it commands works and deeds of charity.
But I will dismiss these vain regrets and idle longings, and rejoice with you, my people, in this auspicions beginning of a long series of popular triumphs. Thank Heaven, we are at least relieved from a most just reproach. When this building is completed, the great county of Erie and our unfinished city will cease to be accused of parsimony and meanness, and want of a proper pride, and of a just sense of the magnitude and worth of their own public and cor- porate affairs. A noble and commodious edifice will rise here, not by force of a wish, nor in a single night, like Aladdin's palace-but by the persistent toil of swarms of skilled free laborers. Its propor- tions seem just and beautiful.
IT WILL BE A TRUTHFUL BUILDING.
It will not present to the public eye a splendid front, and hide from it a shabby rear. Standing, as it will, in this ample space, it will show on every side, a truthful face. From turret to founda- tion stone it will be an honest building. Its construction gives no opening to the plunderer of the public. No slave, no taskmaster, no enforced labor will disgrace this work; no unrewarded sweat will temper its mortar or bedew its ponderous stones. It will bring content and happiness to many willing workmen; it will result in well-won fame to the architect and his assistants; it will impose no unnecessary or unfitting burden upon the tax-paying public; it will confirm and heigliten the respect and esteem in which our people hold the Commissioners.
This is not a fit occasion for many words; and if I err in recalling briefly some facts in our history which seem to me fruitful of hope and incentives to humble and energetic action, you must pardon me ; and you will please to remember that, in referring more particularly to the city, I bear in mind the fact that the residue of the county has, from the beginning, been so intimately connected with it, that they have acted and re-acted upon each other, and have felt alike and to- gether the changes of the times. 3
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Here was the western end of the long house of the Iroquois. Here the Senecas kept the western door while the Mohawks guarded the eastern. That house remained continuous and unbroken in 1776; and, excepting only the villages of the Senecas, and the patches of land rudely cultivated by the squaws, our country was nearly all dense forest. A few armed explorers had passed through its outer edge, a petty trading post had been planted near it, and few, if any, white intruders had built log huts within our bounds. The country west of us was a wilderness, and our lakes were coasted only by in- frequent canoes of the Indians, and by the batteaux of traders; they were, indeed, but desert wastes of water. Councils were usually held in the open air, though their fires, on some occasions, were lighted in a wigwam. The matters of debate were few, and gave but rare occasion for a rude eloquence scarcely worth recording. Romance depicts the red man as noble, and his life as poetical and happy. In truth his life is brutal, and his character far from heroic. I have no tears to shed for him. Unless he becomes civilized, he is not worth preserving, and, in the course of nature, must give way to the wiser, stronger, more energetic white man.
In 1796 there were four houses in Buffalo. In 1801 a small por- tion of what is now Buffalo was surveyed into village lots, called New Amsterdam, and offered for sale. In 1807 it contained about twelve dwellings. In April, 1813, it was incorporated as the village of Buffalo. Its charter as a city was enacted in 1832. Its popula- tion, in 1830, was 8,868; in 1835, 15,561; in 1845, 29,973; and now it exceeds 120,000 largely. In 1822 it was a petty village, and, so far as we can judge, would, at this time, be but little more, had it not been for the
COMPLETION OF THE ERIE CANAL IN 1825.
The growth of half a century has been marvelous; a growth not merely in population, but in everything that adorns and exalts indi- vidual life, and gives influence to a municipality. What, if it puts its advantages to use, and exerts its enormous strength judiciously, may we not reasonably hope from the next half century ?
But in all this progress, in the very hurry of it, and in the look- ing forward to more favorable times, nothing creditable was done in the way of providing buildings for municipal purposes. The people were contented with disgraceful make-shifts, probably because they looked upon them as mere temporary expedients, and anticipated the coming of this good time. What a noisy, incon- venient abomination the old Court House is ! Time has not made it, cannot make it, venerable. And there is our jail-a thing to be mentioned, but not discussed. And what can be said of the so- called new Court House, except that it is of brick, that it is said to have been constructed with an eye to close economy, and that it gave to the courts and county officers more room, and temporary relief from an almost insufferable pressure. What honorable citizen
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of Erie County has been able, for many years, to look upon these buildings without blushing ?
I do not know where our village fathers held their councils ; but very likely they held them, sometimes, in the old school-house, and sometimes in some store or office. In 1836, the city offices and the Council Chamber were upon the Terrace, in the wooden market, which abutted on Main street, and which was, by the judgment of a competent court, abated as a public nuisance. It was a long and indescribably ugly building. The basement was devoted to the sale of vegetables and poultry, the next floor to butchers' stalls, and the attic to our city fathers. This fragment of a mean market was our City Hall, until the corporation acquired full title to this fine square, and adapted the dwelling-houses on the east side to its own proper uses. The square was, in great part, a cemetery, and contained the remains of many well-remembered dead, but of far more of whom no name nor memory survived. All were reverently removed to and interred in other places, and the city took full possession.
In 1848, when our population exceeded 30,000, I, in my impa- tience, wrote this paragraph : "Our city has no buildings for judi- cial or civic purposes worthy of its position, or adequate to its wants ; but the times seem fully ripe for planning and commencing a City Hall commensurate with the present palmy condition, and worthy of the assured destiny of Buffalo." The times were not ripe for such an enterprise. It was necessary that, from that day to the enactment of the law under which this building was com- menced,
WE SHOULD GROAN AND SUFFER AS WE HAVE
under almost intolerable inconvenience and unbounded shame. We counseled and agitated, and devised abortive schemes to secure fit public buildings. But strong men among us were wisely patient. In the fulness of time they appealed to a people who scarcely needed to be persuaded, and the result is the commencement and assured rapid completion of a building worthy of the city and the county.
We must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground that cannot be gathered up again. Our material works must follow us. They must decay and perish. Flatter not yourselves then that you are building for eternity. You may reasonably doubt whether you are building for a remote posterity. In the early ages of the world men thought to defy time in their works, and to cope with Heaven. Hence the impious attempt at Babel; hence the massive pyramids. Such vain ambition, such foolish hope, no longer stir the souls of men. The great truth is now admitted that time (edax rerum) will eventually destroy all our material works, and that he who would build for eternity must build with the spirit. Matter is earthly and evanescent; the spiritual immortal. Prospero spoke truly in saying:
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"And like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind."
True it is that the plan of this great building concurs with its materials to resist decay; that it will combine, in an extraordinary degree, architectural beauty and massive strength. Built, as it will be, of brick, of iron, and of granite, fire cannot consume it, and it would seem that the tooth of time itself can hardly waste or weaken it. But, though the lightning may not rive, nor the earthquake shatter it, and though the tornado fail to dislodge its topmost stone, the ever-wasting hand of time must wear, disfigure and destroy it. The little lichens will eat into the solid rocks, however smooth; mosses will rest npon and draw sapping moisture to it; and wild grasses will find place for their roots in its crevices and crannies. And then, too, no art can stay the invisible forces which war against our works, and, sooner or later, drag them to the ground. Varying moisture and unequal temperature, expanding here and contracting there, the faces and parts of the strongest building, grind, loosen, disintegrate; and it is folly to believe that the wit and strength of man can give birth to an edifice which will effectu- ally resist those powers which are continually degrading the solid hills and casting down the mountains, and which would make the whole earth a plain were they not counteracted by the volcano and the earthquake. But I anticipate the desolation or the abandon- ment of this great building from no such causes. In fancy I rejoice in the coldness, and perchance the scorn with which a near poster- ity will regard what we look upon as a wonder-the eagerness with which they will demolish or surrender it to humbler uses. Pro- gress, eternal progress in everything that ennobles and purifies, is the law of every portion of our race where civilization rests upon Christianity. No generation can make assured provision for the needs and tastes of its successors. Were it otherwise there would be stagnation, corruption, moral and intellectual death.
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