Richmond Avenue is a street of extraordinary houses from Buffalo’s halcyon days. Standing out as extra-extraordinary among the extraordinary on this street is the Shea Mansion. The blocky palazzo like house, at 356 Richmond rendered in intricately carved pink stone, makes a dramatic statement even in this setting of extravagant wooden Queen Annes. The house was built by Frederick Schmidt, probably around 1898 who sold it to Thomas Shea in 1909 who conveyed it to Michael Shea in 1919. It remained as the longtime residence of the famous Buffalo showman and his family well into the late 20th century. Its showy appearance marked a good match to the elaborate theater palaces that powered Shea’s fortune.
[Turns out this history above is not quite correct—see the update at the bottom of the page]
After a long period of decline the house has recently undergone a high quality top to bottom renovation. The Shea family owned the house through various sales and transfers over time up into the 1990s. Starting with ownership change in 1998 the house entered its darkest period, when the owner allegedly stripped original fireplaces, chandeliers, and other valuable architectural treasures for sale to local architectural salvage companies. The bank foreclosed on the house in 2005, likely saving it from complete destruction.
It sat empty for about 3 years until was purchased from the bank by its current owners 2007. During this vacant period, vandals had gotten into the house and cut out much of the copper plumbing. They also had started removing the leaded glass windows. Fortunately the windows were so solidly painted shut that they weren’t able to remove them. The new owner recounted how their neighbors, who happen to be handy-men and were watching out for the place, saw flashlights inside one night, and called the police. While they were waiting for the cops to show up they took their screw guns and some deck screws and screwed the doors shut with then thieves inside! When the police showed up they pulled the screws and caught the vandals! They re-screwed them shut to help preserve the place.
The current owners went to work immediately, bringing this Buffalo treasure back to life. Some of the work included the mundane such as a new water line, new gas line, 2 new chimneys, new heat and AC, and electrical service. Then they got into the good stuff like adding a second floor laundry, adding a new roof, restoring the leaded glass front door, renovating 3 bathrooms and a third floor apartment, among many other things. Then they got into the really fun stuff like rebuilding the missing front and porch, new stone countertops in the kitchen, refinishing the wood floors, adding thee new fireplaces. and many more improvements that make this one of Buffalo’s most stunning residences.
There was a time when a large percentage of Buffalo’s gilded age houses were in decline—rotting on the city’s grand boulevards in plan sight. rotting mansions was seen as the inevitable thing in Buffalo—normal. Today the opposite is becoming the norm. Week after week we hear of another of these amazing edifices getting new life through the love and investment of people who understand the real value of these treasures.
These pictures show the work in progress. The owners promise me a full set of professional photos of the completed project in the near future. We will share them as soon as we have them. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to own a house like this without all the work? Maybe you can. Stay tuned to BRO for more on this as well.
[UPDATE]
Allow me, if you will, to update this story – BuffaloRising commenter DonataAhern left a response below that corrects and clarifies the history of the house. She says:
…To clarify a misconception: the house belonged to my great-uncle, Tom Shea. My grandfather, Michael Shea, his wife, and my mother, Mary, never lived here. Their home was on Vermont St. My mother spent a great deal of time in her childhood here with her many cousins. She and my father, Emile Giffioniello, bought the house from cousins in the mid 1940’s and I lived here most of my life. After my marriage, my family did live here and two of my sons continued to own the home after my mother’s death until they sold it in the 90s.
I wonder what happened to the dining room chandelier. My parents purchased one of the three original crystal chandeliers from Michael Shea’s dinner theater on Court St. when it was torn down. It was adapted (made smaller) for the Richmond Ave. house. The other two were purchased for the parlors at D’Youville College.
When we moved into the house all the wood was natural – honey oak. I thought it was gorgeous! My mother didn’t and some of the panels in ceiling of hall needed to be replaced, so my mother had all the wood painted, including the fireplaces and their tiles. It was the ’40s…… When we moved in the front porch roof was in serious need of repair so it was simpler to remove it. Nice to see it back on. The renovations look terrific!
Thank you Donata for that bit of history!