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Ellsworth Statler's Buffalo to be featured

by jmaloni
Mon, Oct 10th 2011 07:00 am

The Town of Porter Historical Society announces its October meeting and program will feature a presentation by Sue Eck illustrating the parallel evolution of Ellsworth Statler and his adopted city, Buffalo, from 1896 through 1925. The meeting takes place Monday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. in the Cora Gushee Room of the Youngstown Red Brick School Village Center.

"We have all recently read and seen the great things that are happening to the Buffalo Statler's Tower's under the capable hands of developer Mark Croce as Buffalo prepares for the four-day conference hosted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Buffalo," said Tobey Jewett of the Porter Historical Society. "Here's a chance to learn more about Ellsworth Statler, the man who built the towers and created an international hotel chain.

"Statler arrived in Buffalo in 1896 from Wheeling, W.Va., brimming with confidence and ideas. He saw a booming city with the same attitudes as he, and decided to grow with the Queen City. Like most Buffalonians of the time, he was an outsider, but by 1923 he was acclaimed 'Buffalo's First Citizen.' Before he died, he was nationally recognized as the 'father of the American hotel industry.' Everyone knows the Statler Hotel in Niagara Square. Few know that he built two other hotels in Buffalo, a ground-breaking restaurant, and a grand estate on Soldier's Place."

Eck is a native Western New Yorker, who taught English for 10 years at Akron Central and then moved into administration at the University at Buffalo. There, she became technologically literate and, as she retired, applied those skills to illuminating local history on the Web. She currently assists the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society and the Western New York Heritage Press with their websites and maintains her own site on the Pan-American Exposition (http://panam1901.org/). 

The program is open to the public and refreshments will be served. For more information, call 745-1271.

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