Exploring Buffalo

BUFFALO CITY HALL

A while back I was able to tag along with yet another Earth Spirit adventure. Last time I was able to shadow the 1st grade. This time the fourth grade visited Buffalo's City Hall and other historic buildings. Once more, Mr. Scott served as our faithful guide and taught us quite a bit about the history of city hall and of Buffalo.

Did you know? At a cost of nearly 7 million dollars to build in 1929, Buffalo's city hall is one of the most expensive city halls in the country. It is also one of the tallest city hall buildings in the nation. There is quite a bit of artwork to be found around the Art Deco building, including a frieze of a historian ready to record the next 100 years of Buffalo's history. (Click here to find out more).

THE MAYOR'S OFFICE!

While we just missed Mayor Brown, his staff was gracious enough to let us visit his office for a few minutes! We very much enjoyed all the history on the walls and spending a few minutes with his fish. We also had a nice chat with the President of the Common Council, Mr. David Franczyk. and the visited the council chambers.

THE COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBERS

We ate lunch at the top of City Hall and were treated to wonderful views of the city. Then we took a walking tour, including a visit to the Grover Cleveland's statue outside City Hall.

STATUE OF GROVER CLEVELAND
34th Mayor of Buffalo (1882)
28th Governor of New York (1883-1885)
22 and 24th President of the United States (1885-1889)(1893-1897)

I very much enjoyed the field trip, and was delighted to discover that a few days later the downtown Buffalo skyline began to take shape in the 4th grade room. Note the radial "hub and spoke" layout upon which the city is founded (as is Washington D.C.). A very powerful way of making our local community come alive for our fourth grade friends.