There are three things that any Buffalophile might like to know…
In a documentary on Frank Lloyd Wright’s California years, when he was well-known for his mausoleum-type meso-American-inspired molded concrete residences in LA, it turns out that FLW’s San Francisco office was disassembled and put into storage. The documentary states that the office is stored in Buffalo. The documentary is on YouTube. At the 22:22 mark in the video, the speaker says that the office was purchased by Jim Sandoro, and is indeed located in Buffalo, which is very significant, if true. Is it possible that one day Buffalo will also be home to a reconstructed San Francisco office of Frank Lloyd Wright?
If you go to YouTube and watch a few of the George Burns & Gracie Allen routines they begin with a curtain opening but on the curtain is written the names of the nations top theaters (see image here). Guess what theater is front and center when the curtain opens to reveal George and Gracie? Answer: Shea’s Buffalo.
There is a new biography of Grover Cleveland by Troy Senik. The book review was done by Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institute. Let me tell you that the first 30 minutes are all about Grover Cleveland’s time in Buffalo, where he left NYC with the goal of starting a career in Cleveland where he had relatives. He stops to visit a relative in Buffalo and his relative decides that his plans for starting a career in Cleveland were ill-conceived and didn’t have a good foundation, but that young Grover had enough potential for him to be hired by his law firm. From there, the story continues with him rising to Erie County Sheriff, Buffalo Mayor, and eventually President. If is a very interesting read, which goes on to cover a lot of the issues surrounding his 2 terms. But the thing that is touched on, that is particularly fascinating, is that this is a President whose Presidency covered two almost completely different countries within the same nation. There’s President Grover Cleveland’s rise, in an up-and-coming east-west transportation hub, thanks to the Erie Canal. Then, the nation that was mostly agricultural. By his 2nd term, the nation was more urban, industrialized, with railroads, oil (discovered in Titusville PA), and the car was on its way to replacing the massive problem of horse manure in cities. This period in time was literally like living in two different worlds separated only by a decade or so. If you’re a Buffalophile, this is a good watch on YouTube, and a good read because Buffalo plays a prominent role in our nation’s history.
If you have any other obscure, Buffalo fun facts, let us know in the comment section.
Lead images: Frank Lloyd Wright (public domain), George Burns & Gracie Allen (Flickr), Grover Cleveland (Wikimedia Commons)
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