Buffalo Place

Old Erie County Hall
92 Franklin Street
Buffalo, New York 14202

Architect Andrew J. Warner designed Old County Hall. Giovanni F. Sala sculpted the Central Tower figures. County Hall, where Grover Cleveland began his political career, is the only remaining important example in Buffalo of High Victorian Gothic, the preeminent style of the Gilded Age. County Hall is a conservative version of Gothic Revival. The boldest and most prominent feature of the design is the bulky Central Tower topped with huge figures representing Justice, Mechanical Arts, Agriculture and Commerce. On the inside of the building the registry of deed room features tall, cast-iron columns decorated with incised ornament. The deed room remains unchanged from Warner’s original design. The remainder of the building underwent extensive renovation in 1925 by Harold Jewett Cook, a local architect renowned for his bank designs. This building is on the National Register of Historic Places.