Buffalo's hidden jewel (PartI)

8 April 2013

Hotel Lafayette, 391 Washington St. Buffalo, NY

     For the past two decades, downtown Buffalo has had the aesthetic appeal of a zombie apocalypse. Many of the area’s historic buildings stand neglected and forgotten, but one building-- Hotel Lafayette-- has been reincarnated to its former glory, thanks to the efforts of Rocco Termini.

     From the outside, it appears out of place with the soulless urban concrete offices, but the hotel has been developed multiple times over the past century.

Martin Wachadlo, at the Pan-American

    Built in the late 1890s, the hotel was meant to be a grand location for visitors attending the Pan-American Exposition in 1904. Unfortunately, travelers were less inclined to stay in Buffalo, and the building slowly lost significance. Martin Wachadlo, a local architectural historian, reveals the rich and extensive history behind Hotel Lafayette’s walls.

Q: What year was Hotel Lafayette built?

A:      It was built in several stages. The original portion of the building was completed between 1902-1912. It opened for business in 1904, and its current state was finished after World War II. In 1912, construction picked up, doubling it in size, and ever since then it has been altered to fit the taste of the eras.

Q: Who owned the hotel through the years?

A:     Millionaire Walter B. Duffy bought it in 1902, and for over 60 years it belonged to Buffalo’s Yates family (Duffy’s daughter married into the family) from its grand opening in 1904 to 1970. It was purchased by a Vietnamese family afterwards, then in 2009 it changed hands with Rocco Termini, who is the current owner.

The Green Room, one of the banquet halls

Q: Who designed the building?

A:      It was designed by a local architectural firm: Bethune, Bethune, & Fuchs. It was one of the most significant firms in Buffalo’s history, as it was founded by the first professional female architect  in America, Louise Bethune. She was responsible for the original section and the first expansion. The hotel stands as one  Bethune’s last buildings left in existence. During the 1920s, Essen Whine & Johnson took over expansions.

Q: What architectural styles does the hotel have?

A:      What makes the exterior distinct is its French Renaissance style. The interior is a blend of styles from each era, including French Renaissance. Hiding beneath the Art Modern style crafted in 1942 is the delicate beauty of the old Neo-Classical décor. Today the last vistiges of the original style is preserved in the hotel’s boutique, Anatomy.

Q: What aspects of the hotel have been changed?

A:     There have been numerous additions. A grand ballroom was installed in 1917. The grand staircase in the lobby was removed (a check-in desk sits in its place). When the additions were built in 1926, the lobby was expanded and the elevators were moved. The radio station that once operated near the lobby was removed and converted into a portion of one of the hotel’s dining rooms.  The sections that are now a part of The Tap Room bar and the Pan-American Grill restaurant had secondary levels added to them for extra seating.

Q: What aspects were preserved?

A:    Most of the original design is preserved underneath the current décor. The Crystal and Grand ballrooms still retain their awe-inspiring beauty. Many of the tiny tiles that dominate the banquet halls and the first floor are from the initial construction. The tiles are about one square inch and each one was painstakingly placed by hand.

      One of the more interesting architectural designs left behind are the four light courts. They were essentially holes built into the building to provide natural lighting to interior rooms. At the bottom of the courts were stained glass skylights, but today the skylights have been replaced with regular roofs. One light courts has been converted into an outdoor patio on the second floor.

A view of one light courts, (now a patio) from the third floor.

Q: What sort of people stayed there?

A:    The average everyday Joe back in the early 1900s seldom traveled like we do today. During its heyday, the hotel catered to businessman during that golden era of the traveling salesmen. At one time, there was a floor dedicated to sample rooms where a salesman could display his wares for potential buyers to browse.

Q: How popular was the hotel?

A:    Had it been opened for business during the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, it still would not have had many guests. In fact, the only hotel in Buffalo that generated  any money at that time was the Statler Hotel (located just a few blocks away). Though it did not have a huge flow of guests, the hotel was a choice spot for banquets, weddings, conventions and large business meetings. Hotels have always served as a public space for miscellaneous uses and to this day Lafayette hotel hosts these events.

Q: When did the hotel begin to decline?

The Grand Ballroom with its bandstand at the rear, maintains its historical beauty.

A:     During the 1950s and ‘60s, hotels in the city began to slump as middle-class travelers began to prefer smaller, more casual motels. The age of the American road trip killed the inner city hotels; people wanted to avoid the cumbersome city traffic, so they preferred the convenience of suburban motels. Places like Hotel Lafayette began to be viewed as too formal and “stuffy” compared to the retro style of motels in that era. Just try to imagine the Cleaver family vacationing in a posh, luxurious place like Hotel Lafayette. Seems slightly out of sync, doesn’t it?

Q: How did the hotel survive until recently?

A:     Surprisingly, it was poverty. Because hotels weren’t making a lot of money, there wasn’t enough money to spend to tear it down. For a time, the hotel operated as cheap lodgings for people who were down on their luck. People could rent single rooms as an alternative to an apartment. It also provided short-term housing for professionals temporarily working in the city.

Q: How did Rocco Termini save the hotel?

The Tap Room bar. Notice the ornate ceiling 

A:     Termini used a historic tax credit from the federal government to renovate the building. The tax credit is meant to encourage developers to reuse old, existing structures. Termini hired Wachadlo and Francis Kowsky as consultants to help place the hotel on the National Register of Historic Places in August 2010.

 He had the hotel renovated so that it now has 34 hotel rooms, one- and two-bedroom apartments and more than its share of dining and entertainment space. Visitors can also browse the shelves of the charming boutiques, Room2 and Anatomy, or lace together an eye catching bouquet at Woyshner’s Flower Shop.

A proud centurion of the city, Hotel Lafayette is proof that some things get better with age.