“Renewal is a fresh, spring word that is echoing down the streets of most US cities. In its wake, some of the very structure and tradition of a city falls. Only time will tell if renewal justifies itself.” —Ellen Taussig, Buffalo Evening News, 1967

The Main Place Renewal Project, started in 1964, would remake the face of downtown Buffalo. Here, the core of the downtown shopping district is viewed looking south from the upper levels of the Liberty Building. Some of the 81-odd buildings slated for demolition—including the Erie County Savings Bank—are visible at the intersections of Main Street with Eagle and Niagara streets. The renewal project, a clearance of eight blocks, would also begin to dismantle Buffalo’s system of radial boulevards, called “inefficient” by local architect and urban renewal promoter Milton Milstein. Shelton Square itself—one of three squares set aside in Joseph Ellicott’s 1804 plan for the city, and called by Buffalo Evening News writer Ellen Taussig “the primary valve in the heart of downtown”—would be displaced. By 1968, the Main Place Mall would open on the site of Shelton Square, Eagle and Niagara streets, and three of the demolished blocks.