The National Park Service has approved the addition of Buffalo Seminary to the National Register of Historic Places. Three other properties, along with the University Park Historic District, were also added to the list earlier this month.
The approval of Buffalo Seminary comes just two months after the 102-year-old building, which serves as the main campus for Buffalo’s oldest all-girls high school, was named to the New York State Register of Historic Places.
The nomination was prepared by Architectural Historian Jennifer Walkowski of Clinton Brown Company Architecture in honor of Mr. Brown’s mother, Jane K. Egbert, a past student, and his daughter, H. Juliette Brown, a current student who will graduate in 2012. The full nomination packet can be found here.
Founded in Johnson Park in 1851 as the Buffalo Female Academy, the school was later renamed as Buffalo Seminary and relocated to its present home on Bidwell Parkway as the city’s population shifted northward during the early 1900s. The Collegiate Gothic building was constructed in 1909 by Boston architect, George F. Newton, with later additions by Bley and Lyman and Duane Lyman and Associates. Buffalo Seminary, better known as Sem, remains Buffalo’s only nonsectarian, college-preparatory school for girls, and the only all-girls school in the area with a residential program.
“Our students come from different parts of the city, the region and the world,” said Head of School Jody Douglass. “We are fortunate enough to offer them a building for academic study that feels more like a home than an institution, thanks to the beautiful and unique architecture.”
“Obtaining this designation for Buffalo Seminary was not just another assignment for my firm, but a dream come true for my family. Our daughter is one of the many students who benefit from a Sem education, and it’s wonderful to name the nomination in her honor, as well as my mother’s,” commented Clinton Brown, President of CBCA.
Also joining the National Register is the 20th Century Club, 595 Delaware Avenue; Engine House # 2 and Hook & Ladder # 9, 310 Jersey Street, and the Hazard H. Sheldon House, 539 4th Street in Niagara Falls.
Photos Courtesy of Clinton Brown Company Architecture; Historic Photo Above from Buffalo Seminary Archives.