Louise Bethune

Louise Bethune

Louise Bethune (1856-1913) The first woman to become a licensed architect in the United States, Ms. Bethune’s contributions to the land- scape, including her iconic Hotel Lafayette, would have been widely visible to Mr. Hitchcock on his Buffalo trip, but none are...
John Brent

John Brent

John Brent (1889-1962) The first African American registered architect in Buffalo, Mr. Brent shaped our city in many ways, from his architecture to his involvement in the Niagara Movement and the Buffalo Urban League. His best known building, the YMCA he designed on...
Robert T. Coles

Robert T. Coles

Robert T. Coles (1929-2020) Native son and prolific Buffalo architect Robert Coles was a child when Hitchcock’s original 1940 exhibition took place. However, forty years later, he was highly involved in the re-hanging of 1982, as well as with the publication of...
Mary Talbert

Mary Talbert

Mary Talbert (1866-1923) Ms. Talbert was a pillar of the community, active in so many things that shaped Buffalo and beyond, physically and civically. In addition to her activist work here at home, Ms. Talbert led the charge to save Frederick Douglass’s Antacostia...
Mariah Love

Mariah Love

Mariah Love (1840-1931) Not all who shaped the City were architects, although the Encyclopedia of Social Work does refer to Ms. Love, founder of the first day care for the young children of working mothers in the United States, as a “social architect.”  By opening the...
Eliza Quirk

Eliza Quirk

Eliza Quirk (1812-1868) An Irish immigrant who crossed the Atlantic Ocean on her own as a teenager, Ms. Quirk would make her way to Buffalo and use sex work in the notorious canal district to sup- port herself. She managed to work her way up to become a property...