Hidden Treasure

Last week I wrote about a couple of Buffalo's small-scale architectural treasures that had been lost.  The Buffalo Crematory - one of the subject buildings in that story - houses another treasure that remains in place, but is mostly hidden and hopefully waiting for the day it can once again be revealed.  The good news about this treasure is that it is hidden in plain sight and can be experienced with a little work. 

As I noted in the last story, I was passing by the Buffalo Crematory a few months ago and was shocked to see that a wonderful piece of sculpture had been removed from the entry portico.  To find out more about this unfortunate event I went inside where I was greeted by the building caretaker and a local squirrel that regularly stops in to get a bite to eat (I am not kidding).  The caretaker was a friendly (unfortunately I cannot recall his name), and he showed me around the main room and gave me a brief history of the building.  

The Crematory is one of Buffalo's least known great buildings and is somewhat of a hidden treasure in itself as it is tucked a bit off Delaware, on Delevan, behind a gas station.  It was designed by Buffalo's master architect E. B. Green.  Green was a true master architect and is highly underrated on a national level (read completely unknown).  He was extremely facile, producing buildings of the exquisite quality in any style he chose to work within.  Green may not have pushed architecture into new areas but he had a complete understanding of what architecture was all about and knew how to use its tools at the highest level.  The Crematory was designed in what became known as Richardson Romanesque (after H.H. Richardson who pioneered the style), and it could easily pass as something done by Richardson himself.

The hidden treasure within this building is an amazing fresco painted onto the entire surface of a barrel vault at the south end of the main ceremonial space.  Frescos are created by painting directly onto wet plaster, so that the pigments become part of the plaster.  In this way the work of art is not simply paint applied to the surface but is actually an integrated part of the building.  

Perhaps the most famous fresco is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.  The fresco technique is very durable.  It will not peal off like paint, but it is susceptible to other forms of damage.  The over 400-year-old Sistine fresco was meticulously cleaned in the 1980's at a cost in the millions.  Restorers labored for over 12 years to reveal brilliant color that few realized was there.  Similarly, the fresco in the crematory is quite magnificent but is barely visible because of a coat of shellac that has blackened from age and grime. The mural is very dim except for a small patch that was cleaned as an experiment.  The small patch measuring just a few inches took several weeks to complete.  It was done as an experiment but there are no plans to completely restore the ceiling.  

Apparently there just is not enough money in the cremation business to pay the high cost of work that will take many hours of painfully slow work. Still, the fresco remains, and even in its diminished state is an extraordinary sight to see.  These are the little treasures that Buffalo needs to become more aware of and take pride in; they don't exist everywhere.