Fidelity Trust Building

The site of the current building was once referred to as "The Weed Block", (located at Main & Swan) and was built in 1857. The block was home to Millard Fillmore's law office and other prominent Buffalo businessmen.[2] In May 1893, John J. Albright, along with George V. Forman, John Satterfield, and Franklin D. Locke, founded The Fidelity Trust and Guaranty Company of Buffalo, New York.[3] The block was demolished in 1901 to make room for the Fidelity Trust Building.[2]

In 1909, the officers of the Fidelity Trust company commissioned Green & Wicks to build the Fidelity Trust Building. Anson Goodyear described George V. Forman in the following way: "every morning left his house at a certain hour and met George Williams at his house just above North Street, to walk to the Fidelity Building together. Mr. Forman boasted a very prominent corporation and leaned backward to achieve his balance. Mr. Williams was emaciated and bent forward to achieve his. It was a procession on which people checked their watches."[2] In December 1925, the Fidelity Trust Company, with $35 million in assets, merged with Manufacturers and Traders Bank, founded in 1856, with $64 million in assets, under the new name Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company. The $100 million company was headed by Fidelity's President, 36-year-old Lewis G. Harriman. Harriman and a group of investors including A. H. Schoellkopf and James Forrestal, who would become the first United States Secretary of Defense, owned enough shares to control both Fidelity and M&T.[4]

In 1926, the building was expanded with the addition of the west wing. E. B. Green completed the addition.[2] The Fidelity Trust Building is adjacent to the White Building, a double sided building facing both Main and Erie streets, at 298 Main Street.[5]

"Manufacturer's & Traders National Bank" on the left and "Fidelity Trust Company" on the right, 1916

The exterior of the building features many decorative details including: Leaf-and-dart molding with "F" (for Fidelity) carved in stone, a protruding cornice, block modillions, egg-and-dart molding, dentil molding, volutes in Roman Ionic columns, and bay leaves in spandrels.[2] Above the entrance has fluted end brackets with guttae and dentils support broken pediment.[2]

The interior of the building also features decorative details including: plaster ceiling ornamentation with Arabesques, Corinthian capitals, brass acanthus vines and flowers, and brass guilloche.[2]