House History

Architecture

Dr. Alexander Main Curtiss built the House in 1895; the architect, James A. Johnson, designed the House in a Neoclassical Revival style. This brick house’s style reproduced a style popular a century earlier at the end of the American colonial era. The use of simple, solid, symmetrical forms, generously proportioned and elegantly detailed, reflects the rationalism and confidence of the American Enlightenment.

The focus of the House’s symmetrical facade is a generously arched entranceway. A heavy wooden door is separated from a broad brick archway by a continuous arch of leaded glass. The entrance is framed and sheltered by a full-height semicircular portico supported on simple Ionic columns. The small, richly detailed vestibule opens on an interior of free flowing space. A large light-filled central hall is flanked by balanced front parlors. The parlor to the left contains a magnificent fireplace with red and gray marble within a Sheraton style mantelpiece. The carved corner-blocks of the windows contain rosettes like those on the woodwork of the entrance. The repetition of design elements continues throughout the house. A magnificent staircase, the dramatic focus of the interior, dominates the center hall. A single broad flight of stairs divides into a double flight at the landing. Curved, clear leaded glass windows on each of the semi-circular landings amply light the entire stairwell, which rises through three stories. The stair railings are set on very tightly spaced square spindles that terminate without newel posts in spiral designs reminiscent of the Ionic column capitals of the portico.

History of the Buffalo House

From 1940-1954, the House was subdivided as a boarding house.

From 1955-1981, developer Hugh Perry and architect Gordon Hayes rehabilitated the House into elegant apartments.

Since 1983, the gracious structure at 780 West Ferry Street has been the Ronald McDonald House of Buffalo, offering comfort and protection to families with sick children receiving treatment at area hospitals. In its former life, several prominent Buffalo families called it home.

West Ferry Street between Delaware and Elmwood Avenues was one of Buffalo’s most prestigious addresses at the turn of the century. The enormous estate of John J. Albright at 730 West Ferry (still marked by the extensive brick wall along the street), with grounds landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted, was only a few houses away. This was the neighborhood that Dr. Alexander Main Curtiss chose to build a new home in 1895. (The date appears on the conductor heads at the top of the downspouts.)

Dr. Curtiss was the son of Charles Gould Curtiss and Amelia Lent Main Curtiss. Charles Curtiss, a self-made man, was a close friend of Grover Cleveland. Alexander Curtiss grew up in the family’s large stone house at 63 West Huron Street, graduated from Old Central High School, Cornell University and New York Homeopathic Medical College. He practiced medicine in Buffalo for many years and also served as a director of the Third National Bank of Buffalo and as a trustee of Fidelity Guaranty and Security Company. Dr. Curtiss’ family consisted of his wife, Sophia Jane Coleman Curtiss and three sons, Coleman, Geoffrey and Charles. Family members recall that in an attempt to keep order in the house, Mrs. Curtiss required her three energetic sons to use the back stairs instead of the elegant main staircase, which was reserved for special occasions.

Hollister Family 1913-1922

Hollister familyThe Evan Hollister family lived at 780 West Ferry from 1913 until 1922. Mr. and Mrs. Hollister were both from prominent Buffalo families. Ruth Albright Hollister was the daughter of industrial and art patron John J. Albright who lived on the estate nearby. Evan Hollister’s paternal grandfather, James Hollister, founded Hollister Bank of Buffalo and built a stately home on the Niagara Square site of the present Statler Towers. (Millard Fillmore occupied the house after returning to Buffalo following his U.S. Presidency.) Evan Hollister was an outstanding trial lawyer and civic patriot who worked to promote Buffalo business, intellectual and cultural life. Mr. Hollister counted three U.S. Presidents among his wide circle of acquaintances: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. In his leisure time, Mr. Hollister enjoyed reading and big game hunting. Mrs. Hollister was also active in the community, carrying on her family’s leadership in the Albright Art Gallery as well as involvement with the Red Cross, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, General Hospital, and the Boy Scouts. To keep in mind what it took to manage a home and life-style of this kind in the early part of the century. The 1915 census indicates that four domestic servants and a chauffeur served the four-member Hollister family!

Adam Family 1923-1939

BrideFrom 1923-1939, Robert B. Adam II, his wife Lena Stevens Adam and their three children lived in the home. Wedding receptions for the two daughters, Harriet and Florence, were held under large tents, which filled the lawn on the east side of the house. Born in 1863, Adam came to Buffalo at the age of 9 and was adopted by his uncle, Robert B. Adam Sr., whose name he acquired. A distinguished merchant who served as president of Adam, Meldrum, and Anderson for 38 years, Mr. Adam was also a noted scholar in the field of English literature. His library held a renowned collection of the works of Dr. Samuel Johnson and John Ruskin, which his father began and he expanded upon. In 1930, Yale University conferred on Adam an honorary degree in recognition of his scholarship in the field of literature.

The Adam library was located on the west side of the house, just behind the parlor on the left as you walk in. When the Adam family moved in 1939, the home stood vacant for a year and then was subdivided as a boarding house. In 1955, developer Hugh Perry and architect Gordon Hayes rehabilitated the structure into elegant apartments. It became the Ronald McDonald House in 1983 with an initial seed grant from the McDonald’s Corporation and the support and leadership of Western New Yorkers. Current funding comes from the generosity of the community.

The Architect: James A. Johnson (1865-1939)

the ArchitectThe architect of 780 West Ferry Street was one of the most accomplished and prolific architects of Western New York. Born in Brewerton, N.Y., James A. Johnson came to Buffalo in the late 1880’s as an architect who had worked for two of the most prominent architectural firms in the nation: McKim, Mead & White and Richard Morris Hunt. In the late 1890’s, he formed a partnership in Buffalo with August Carl Essenwein. The firm of Essenwein and Johnson was the architect of the Temple of Music and the Alt Numberg of the Pan-American Exposition, the first Statler Hotel (a glazed Art Noveau building modeled on the Guaranty Building), the gleaming white terra-cotta Electric Tower, the Calumet Building, Lafayette High School, the Museum of Science and the building now called the Clarence Town Park Clubhouse. In Niagara Falls, the firm designed the Niagara Hotel and the United Office Building. After the death of Essenwein in 1926, the retired Johnson became and advisory architect to the restoration of Old Fort Niagara.