Shelton Square was Buffalo’s miniature Piccadilly Circus or Times Square. It was one of three public squares, alongside Niagara and Lafayette squares, set aside by Joseph Ellicott in his 1804 plan for Buffalo—and is the only one to have been lost. 

This photograph, taken by Wilbur H. Porterfield in 1938, looks north along Main Street from Shelton Square and South Division Street. Shelton Square is shown here at perhaps its development apex—the center of the region’s streetcar network and by far its busiest shopping district. In 1938, more than 64 retail establishments were in operation on Main Street in only the two blocks between South Division Street and Lafayette Square. Signs are visible for the United Cigar Store, Singer’s Cut Rate Drugs, Mathias Cigars, Child’s Restaurant, Posmantur’s Clothing, Harvey & Carey Drugs, and E-Z Credit Clothing, among others. Visible at right, amongst a jumble of projecting signs, is the marquee for the Palace Theatre, 327 Main Street, built in 1915 and, after 1927, operated by Dewey Michaels as Buffalo’s leading burlesque house. Visible at left, a billboard advertises a 1938 Chevrolet—”You’ll be ahead with a Chevrolet, the car that is complete.”

Few buildings in this photograph remain standing today. Even Shelton Square itself has been destroyed, replaced by a widened Church Street and the footprint of Main Place Tower. The west side of Main Street between Shelton Square and the Liberty Building was demolished in 1965 to make way for the Main Place Renewal Project, what is now recognized as a desperate and failed attempt to keep downtown competitive with suburban shopping strips. The east side of Main Street between North and South Division Streets was razed in 1967 for the Church Street Extension Mall, an eight-lane arterial intended to connect the I-190 to a never-built Elm-Oak Expressway. Downtown urban renewal “succeeded” in bringing order to the city center, and most major shopping destinations are now located only in the suburbs.

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