“The building presented a brilliant picture when the current was switched on, lighting up every window from basement to dome, and the flashes of the powerful searchlight began to sweep the city. The lighted windows gave the effect of immense shafts of mellow light and these were capped by the pure white lights of the arcs around the dome that rivaled in brilliancy the silvery light of the moon in the sky above. The white marble in the supporting columns completed a picture that, except for the massiveness of the structure, was suggestive of a scene in fairyland.” —Buffalo Morning Express, September 26, 1912

The Electric Building, 20 East Huron Street, was opened to the public on September 25, 1912. That night of its first illumination is captured in this photograph by Frederick Pohle. The Electric Building, at 14 stories and 327 feet in height, was the tallest skyscraper in Buffalo and its first permanent building to employ electric light for architectural effect. The building was constructed under the direction of Charles L. Huntley of the Buffalo General Electric Company, which occupied its first four floors. The building was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Esenwein & Johnson, and the lighting orchestrated by skyscraper illumination pioneer Walter D’Arcy Ryan of the General Electric Company of Schenectady. In 1912, the building consisted of the octagonal tower and a four-story wing along East Huron Street, was expanded in 1924 with a four-story wing along Genesee Street, and, in 1926, an additional three stories along the entire rear wing. Iskalo Development purchased the building in 2004 and completed restoration in 2007. The Electric Building is best known today for hosting the annual Buffalo Ball Drop on New Year’s Eve.

Image courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum. Used by permission.