Iroquois Hotel / YMA

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Young Men's Association, Iroquois Hotel, M&T Bank

Location

345 Main Street Buffalo, NY 14203
On Shelton Square
Southeast corner Main & Eagle Streets
Google Bird's Eye View
Ellicott Council District
SBL: 111.13-16-1
Erie County Property Info
County Tax Map (loads GIS page)
City of Buffalo Parcel Viewer

Next to: Bank of Buffalo at Shelton Square
Across from: Adam Meldrum & Anderson Department Store, J.N. Adam / AM&As Department Store, AM&A's Warehouse, and Kremlin Block

Owner

M&T Bank owns the entire block the hotel was located on
NYS Corporation and Business Entity Database

Physical Description

An 8 story luxury hotel with a terra cotta cornice, that later had 3 additional floors added. The additional floors had a Renaissance style roof. Its lower floors were Medina sandstone, with a granite substructure. It was heavily advertised as fireproof.

Current Condition

YMA Building lost to fire in 1887.
Iroquois Hotel demolished in the 1940s. The buildings that replaced it were demolished in the 1960s. The M&T Plaza building replaced everything on that block in 1966.

History

The Young Men's Association (not YMCA) was founded in 1835 as a private subscription library. Samuel Clemens was a member. It would later be known as Richmond Hotel and St. James Hall. It was destroyed by fire in 1887 and replaced by the Iroquois Hotel.

The Iroquois Hotel, designed by Cyrus L.W. Eiditz and billed as absolutely fireproof, opened August 3, 1889. Throughout its life as a hotel, H. Montgomery Gerrans was a part-owner.

A three story addition, designed by the Buffalo firm of Esenwein & Johnson, was added in 1899. It was intended to capitalize on the expected tourist traffic for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition.

In 1922, Ellsworth Statler purchased the Iroquois in order to shut down its hotel and eliminate competition with his new Statler Hotel. The building became known as the Gerrans Building and was converted into office space on the upper floors. Bond's clothing store occupied the street level. It was demolished for newer office buildings in the early 1940s.

Recent Events and Actions Taken

Other Pertinent Facts

  • The original shampoo formula manufactured in the Wildroot Building was developed by two barbers at work in the Iroquois Hotel

Links


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Added 2013-01-08 • Last changed 2020-01-13

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