To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. I BUFFALO’S FUTURE In 1927 the Peace Bridge had just been built, and Mayor Frank Schwab suggested that a new convention hall could be constructed on the south side of Niagara Square, right across from the grand, brand new Buffalo City Hall. On December 19, 1938, scores of city officials, civic leaders and businessmen gathered at the foot of Main Street (not Niagara Square) as ground was broken for Memorial Auditorium, one of the Public Works Administration’s “make work” projects that was intended to pull Buffalo out of the Great Depression. Of course actual construction could not begin until the following June, when the ground had thawed. The Aud was conceived as a convention center. A billboard at the construction site shouted: “Buffalo Moves Forward” as the “Convention City of the Future.” The $2,700,000 structure replaced the aging Broadway Auditorium and was intended to be the impetus for revitalizing the dicey canal district on the Buffalo waterfront. As Frank … just as 30 years later equipment digs in S. Hershey, president of the Buffalo to begin readying The Aud for expansion. Convention and Tourist Bureau, said in the Courier-Express, “When the new convention hall opens, eyes of the convention-minded world will be turned on Buffalo, and other cities like Cleveland and Atlantic City will have to offer new inducements to keep Buffalo from capturing some of the biggest gatherings of the year.” BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY BUFFALO STATE COLLEGE LIBRARY Heavy machinery takes the “first bite” to begin the building of The Aud… In 1939 Mayor Thomas Holling laid the cornerstone for The Aud and when he left the site he proceeded to the Commodore Perry projects to lay the cornerstone there. In 1940 her dedication was trumped by the dedication of the new Kleinhans Music Hall just two days earlier. Buffalo was still a major metropolitan center then, a happening place. Left: Representations of The Aud, including the architect’s rendering. Few people know that The Aud was designed by Green and James, E.B. Green’s architectural firm. 2