The Hotel Lafayette was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places and if all goes as planned will be reborn as a mix of banquet and restaurant space, a boutique hotel and apartments by Rocco Termini. When the hotel opened for business in 1904, the one-million-dollar structure designed by Bethune, Bethune & Fuchs was touted in the national press as “one of the most perfectly appointed and magnificent hotels in the country.”
Under National Register Criterion C, the Hotel Lafayette is nationally significant in area of architecture as the most prominent and highly styled design of Louise Bethune. Locally the building is significant under Criteria C as one of the finest examples of a grand early-Twentieth Century hotel in the City of Buffalo and a remarkably intact example of the French Renaissance style of architecture.
Nationally, the period of significance has been set from 1902, the beginning of Louise Bethune’s involvement in the building’s design, until 1929, when the last alteration to the building was completed in harmony to the original Bethune design. Locally, the building’s period of significance begins in 1900, when the foundation was laid in preparation for the Pan American Exposition, until 1946, when the hotel underwent a series of interior updates during the World War II period.
While very few alterations have been made to the exterior since the building’s construction, the same cannot be said of the interior. Renovations, neglect and water damage have taken their toll on the interior.
WWII-era Modernization Program (1942-1946)
One of the most dramatic changes to the hotel’s interior occurred in 1942, when an Art Moderne lobby was installed. A transformation of the lobby was probably under consideration by the end of the 1920s, when the present elevators were installed, but was likely too expensive an undertaking during the Great Depression. The plans were revived in 1941 in the current Art Moderne style, and went forward despite the entry of the United States into World War II in December 1941.
Lobby
The hotel lobby is the most significantly altered space in the building. The lobby of 1902-1904 originally occupied the northwest corner of the main floor and measured 72 by 84 feet, with the main entrance through the chamfered corner facing Lafayette Square. It received natural light from the large windows of five bays along Washington Street and six along Clinton. A pair of widely separated cage elevators stood northwest of the location of the present elevators, and was fronted by a grand staircase, which utilized the same balusters still found on the upper floors. The decoration consisted of high wainscoting of Numidian marble with murals above; the numerous structural columns were painted in Numidian scagliola to harmonize with the wainscot, with a richly decorated ceiling above. (The lobby’s decorative scheme can still be seen in the corridor of the 1909-1911 addition, which retains its identical ceiling and marble wainscot.)
The lobby received minor alterations when the rest of the hotel’s main floor was remodeled in 1909-1911. During the 1924-1926 remodeling, the south wall of the lobby was moved one bay southward, expanding the space. In 1928-1929, the present elevators were installed, placed on axis with the Washington Street entrance, and the old elevator shafts filled in. In 1942, the lobby was completely remodeled in the Art Moderne style under plans drawn byRoswell E. Pfohl and Design, Inc. The grand staircase was removed and a smaller staircase installed to the north, and the original decoration was removed or covered. Very few alterations have been made to the space since its reconstruction.
Both of the present main entrances lead directly to the lobby through short passageways. The present hotel lobby is an Art Moderne style space created in 1942. It is a largely symmetrical space bisected by an west-east axis extending from the main entrance on Washington Street to the pair of guest elevators at the east end of the space. The floor is polychromatic terrazzo laid in an abstract geometric pattern. Eight large smooth columns on octagonal bases of red Numidian marble dominate the room. This colonnade extends through the space from east to west.
The center of the ceiling is recessed and flat, and is lit indirectly by a decorative ledge that extends around the room, rounded at the corners. In the center of the ceiling is a stalactite chandelier. The walls at the west end of the room have rounded corners of large radii.
The hotel front desk is located along the south wall of the lobby, and there were commercial spaces along the north wall. There are two large murals of inlaid wood (a medium known as intarsia) on the north and south walls, with doors leading into the adjacent spaces, flanked by banks of windows. The south wall intarsia mural features the Buffalo River, with lake freighters within a canyon of grain elevators, while the north wall intarsia mural features a fighter aircraft flying above the Buffalo Airport (right).
On the east side of the elevators is a lounge room with a similar decorative treatment to the lobby; originally open to the lobby, it is now walled off but is largely intact. The lobby passageways to the streets were remodeled at the same time as the lobby itself, and still retain the natural finish Art Moderne woodwork and circular light fixtures suspended by decorative brackets. The passage from Washington Street is flanked to the north by a small shop and a store in the northwest corner of the main floor and to the south by a former coffee shop; both of these commercial spaces have been closed for some time.
The former lobby space at the northwest corner of the building became a drugstore, a contemporary account praised the change for “brightening the corner of the Lafayette Hotel where once were a dozen or so overstuffed lounges and guests and a décor more fashionable during the early part of the century than in the forties.” The new corner drug store measured 43 feet on Washington Street and 55 feet on Clinton Street, and had about 3000 square feet of floor space. Lit by over a mile of neon tubing fixtures, it featured a stainless steel soda fountain and lunch counter. This up-to-date equipment was installed only days before the government restricted the use of such metal to the war effort. The drug store space has been considerably altered by subsequent tenants, although he original ceiling details remain visible above the present drop ceiling.
Grill/Lafayette Room
On the south side of the Clinton Street entrance corridor is a room now identified as an office, subdivided into small soundproof booths for a radio station within the last forty years. This was the Dutch Grill Room in 1904 and was somewhat remodeled as the Lafayette Room in 1909-1911. Despite many modifications, it retains a high degree of its original integrity and is by far the best preserved public space from the original 1904 Bethune designed hotel. The original appearance of the space was described in 1904:
The woodwork in the grillroom and bar is Flemish oak. The decorations are on genuine leather, representing different studies of Falstaff, the execution of that work being hand tooled, divers colors being inserted. The drapings are of leather, and the windows have obscure leaded glass.
The remodeled space was given a more extensive description in 1912 by the Buffalo Express:
The principal public parlor or conversation room of the hotel for the comfort and convenience of men and women guests. It is a room 40×50 feet, with three large plate-glass windows opening high enough above the street to prevent intrusion. The room is designed in late English domestic style of the Elizabethan period and executed in English oak of soft brownish tint, which is reproduced in the furnishings. The draperies are deep antique blue. The ceiling is massive elliptical groins… The decorative scheme of this essentially English room commemorates America’s emancipation from British rule.
The massive carved oak fireplace from Knole House, Sevenoaks, the ancient seat of the Archbishops of Canterbury, has its large center panel occupied by a fine painting of the coat-of-arms of the Marquis de La Fayette… The lofty frieze which occupies the elliptical lunettes between the groins commemorate other Revolutionary patriots who were the young Lafayette’s instructors in the principals of liberty.
Although the fireplace appears to be gone, much of the plasterwork on the walls and ceiling is intact though damaged, the ceiling preserved above a later drop ceiling (right). Two freestanding columns and pilasters along the walls support this vaulted ceiling. The warren of booths and offices below were constructed largely without disturbing the wood and plasterwork of the original space. The original quarry tile floor of the original space appears to be intact.
Corridor
This space, part of the 1909-1911 Bethune addition, extends eastward from the lobby, with the grill/Lafayette room and dining room opening off the north side. The treatment was identical to that in the original lobby, with a high wainscot of red Numidian marble, some of which appears to be intact beneath white paint (entry image and right). The rich plaster ceiling features heavy beams with rich classical ornamentation, also identical to that in the original lobby. The floor is of mosaic tile, while above there is one large leaded glass skylight visible near the west end of the corridor (last image), another near the east end has been covered over. The space was originally described as “a spacious promenade, at once a picture gallery and reception-room,” and there remains one large painting attached to the wall on the north side of the corridor.
Along the south wall of the corridor are a large ladies room, the foyer to the ballroom, and two coat rooms; one of these is richly paneled in dark natural wood, and may be what was once referred to as the Mahogany Room, possibly a private dining or meeting room (right).
Dining Room
This large space, on the north side of the corridor and east of the grill/Lafayette room, is part of the 1909-1911 Bethune addition. Although significantly modernized after World War II, the room retains much detailing from its original appearance. It is bisected by three freestanding square columns and lit by large widows facing Clinton Street. The Corinthian capitals of the columns and pilasters as well as the richly detailed cross beam ceiling rendered in plaster are original, as are the chandeliers; featuring an “L” for Lafayette, ones like these hung in most of the public spaces of the hotel, both original and addition. Sections of the original mosaic floor are also intact.
The space received a festive postwar Art Moderne makeover in 1946: two freestanding columns were faced with mirrors for most of their height, while the pilasters and another column received high relief decorative detailing (right). The floor level was slightly raised on the south and west sides of the room, and separated from the lower floor by solid curving balustrades. To the east of the dining room, at the northeast corner of the principal floor, is a space most recently used as a serving kitchen, but details such as the mosaic floor suggest that it was originally a public space. Though closed for years now and considerably run down; it looks today much as it did in the 1940s.
Automobile Club Room
South of the later service kitchen space, fronting on Ellicott Street, is a large room with a rich architectural treatment in plaster similar to the dining room, also part of the 1909-1911 Bethune addition. Now subdivided into small rooms with a drop ceiling, the room features pilasters supporting a beamed ceiling rendered in plaster. When the hotel addition opened this space was used as the downtown office of the Automobile Club of Buffalo, later part of the American Automobile Association (AAA), and served as such for several decades.
Ballroom Foyer
This space links the western end of the ballroom with the corridor. It is probably an adaptation of a room in the 1909-1911 addition that was built for a different purpose. Its most distinctive features are the large octagonal pilasters with Corinthian capitals supporting a heavy beamed ceiling, and the large scale broken pediment framing an urn above the entrance to the ballroom. The spaces between the large pilasters are divided in a way to suggest a two-story space, with smaller pilasters rising to a cornice two-thirds of the way up the wall.
Ballroom
The largest public space in the building, the ballroom is situated in an addition constructed southeast of the hotel in 1916-1917. Unlike the other large spaces on the main floor, it is unobstructed by columns, as there are no guest room floors above. The ceiling features large beams supported by fluted Corinthian pilasters along the side walls. The upper sections of the walls between the pilasters swag decoration in plaster relief. At the western end of the space is a small stage in the form of a semicircular exedra, which was added within the westernmost bay of the original space during the alterations to the hotel during 1924-1926 (right). Three large windows on the south and one on the east originally lighted the space, but these have been filled in, and now contain small sash windows.
Lafayette Tap Room
Located in the southwestern corner of the building, this was actually three spaces: a bar and restaurant to the west and a cocktail lounge to the east, linked by a foyer. This was the main floor of the 1924-1926 addition, and the entire space was originally the billiard room, but was immediately converted into a bar at the end of prohibition. The barroom features a long bar along the north wall, backed by neoclassical woodwork, while the south wall has a wainscot of Travertine marble. The adjacent foyer features a large fireplace of Travertine marble. To the east is the lounge, dominated by a gold shallow vault ceiling supported by slender fluted pilasters. Important feature of this space are two large wall murals depicting the life of Lafayette (below right).
Basement
The basement extends beneath the entire building, and is now devoted to service uses; it extends beneath the sidewalks out to the street line. The original building of 1904 featured public spaces on this level, including a men’s room, barber shop and a billiard room in the northwest corner. Although last used for that purpose in 1911, some elements of this space remain, such as sections of wall paneling. The men’s room immediately to the east also retains some original elements, although both spaces are significantly deteriorated. To the south of these spaces are the boilers and physical plant of the hotel. This is the same location as when the hotel opened in 1904, but from 1910 to 1961, these facilities were located in a stand-alone building to the south.
The hotel kitchen was located on the north side of the basement, directly beneath the dining room. Although some floor and wall ceramic tile are intact, the space has largely been stripped of equipment, and, like most of the basement, is used for storage.
To the east of the former kitchen, at the northeast corner of the basement, is a former public dining room. This space featured natural wood paneling (much of it now painted) and was lit by large leaded glass windows facing the streets; these windows appear to be intact beneath plywood panels.
Upper Floors
The second through seventh stories (known as the first through sixth floors) contain the guest rooms of the hotel. The plan of each of these floors is nearly identical, with five wings extending southward, separated by four light courts. The corridors are double loaded, allowing each room daylight exposure. The floors are accessed by two passenger and two service elevators, and by three staircases. These staircases retain their rich ironwork (below right) and the original reversible wood sash windows; the windows in the guest rooms are all replacements.
The corridors are wide, most notably at the spot where the original passenger elevators were once located. The original six-panel doors are nearly all intact, although they were all updated by attaching plywood to each side to cover the paneling. All of the guest rooms have heavy porcelain built-in bathtubs and sinks, with tile wainscoting, although the original surfaces are now covered by a flecked substance that was intended to make them appear to be more modern. Most of the rooms contain only a bedroom and bathroom, but the accommodations at the northwest and northeast corners are two room suites. Several of those on the northwest corner have fireplaces, while those at the northeast corner have pocket doors.
Source: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, prepared by consultants Martin Wachaldo & Frank Kowsky and Daniel McEneny, New York State Historic Preservation Office.
Part One: The Lafayette Takes Shape
Part Two: The Lafayette Grows