SEM History - version 2017

A Short History of Buffalo Seminary

Prepared by Harry B. SchooleyJanuary 2017

SEM’s Bidwell-Potomac Campus

Buffalo Seminary was founded in 1851 as the Buffalo Female Academy.

◄Buffalo Seminary Today

◄Johnson Park: Buffalo Female AcademyBuffalo Seminary LocationsJohnson Park, 1851 - 1900623 Delaware Ave, 1900 - 1909Bidwell Parkway, since 1909

◄ 623 Delaware Ave

Evergeen Cottage in Johnson Park was formerly the home of Ebenezer Johnson, the first Mayor of Buffalo

Buffalo Female Academy’s first building

Ebenezer Johnson (1786-1849) was elected to two one-year terms as Mayor, 1832-1833; 1834-1835.

Goodell Hall, built in 1852, would serve as the BFA / SEM classroom building until 1900. (It would be demolished in 1924.)

Buffalo Female Academy, 1851- 1889 Evergreen Cottage and Goodell Hall

Evergreen Cottage remained the residence and office of the Head of School and also housed student borders who took their meals with the Head’s family.

Chapel / Auditorium

Library

Goodell Hall1852-1900

Classrooms

A wintry Buffalo Female Academy!

Dr. Charles E. WestHeadmaster, 1851-1860

Albert T. ChesterHeadmaster, 1860-1887

Sem’s first Heads of School: West and Chester

Before coming to SEM, Dr. West had served 12 years as the first Head of the Rutgers Female Institute in Brooklyn, NY. We see him here with the RFI Class of 1851.

From Dr. West’s Farewell Address to the Rutgers Female Institute, July 1851.

s

In addition to being Principal, Dr. West also taught Chemistry!

“An institution must be a power. Its blood must be living – its circulation brisk. It must not be content with a respectable fossilization. Nor must it live on its past reputation. It must be up with the time and in advance. It must lead … seeking new methods of assault on ignorance.”

- Dr. Charles E. WestOn the occasion of SEM’s 25th anniversary, 1876

Among SEM’s first Trustees was Joseph Dart!

Dart (1799 – 1879) was a Buffalo businessman who in 1842, along with engineer Robert Dunbar, developed the world’s first steam-operated grain elevator. By 1865 Buffalo was the world’s largest grain port. Clearly, Mr. Dart saw virtue in women’s education. His daughter Harriet was in the class of 1853.

It is also interesting that the Honorable George W. Clinton was on SEM’s first Board of Visitors.

G. W. Clinton (1807 – 1885) was the former Mayor of Buffalo (1842-1843) and son of DeWitt Clinton, former Mayor of New York City and Governor of New York State. DeWitt Clinton played a decisive role in the building of the Erie Canal.

In 1847 President James K. Polk appointed George W. Clinton as US Attorney for the Northern District of New York State.

Buffalo Female Academy Tuition, 1852 $8 to $10 per term!

With an additional $6 if one wanted to take French, German, or Drawing

an additional $10 for Painting!

and, an additional $15 for Piano!

So, if you were an artistic, musically-inclined student taking French, it would cost you $ 41 per term!

(It looks really inexpensive, but that $41 then would be $850 in today’s currency and that was a great deal of money in 1852!)

Who’s who in the Class of 1853.

Mary Shumway

Frances Sternberg

Elizabeth Beecher

Clara Hadley

Harriet DartEmmaline Guild

Harriet Robinson

Mary Blogett

Sarah Haynes

(from the SEM archives)

Class of 1853 (Daguerreotype in safe )------------------------------------------------In order from right of picture

Sarah T. Haynes (Mrs. Sarah Schuyler)Mary F. Blogett (Mrs. G. H. SeymourHarriet N. Robinson (Mrs. John S. Newberry)Emmaline A. Guild (Mrs. Horace Winan)Harriet E. Dart (Mrs. A. H. Plumb)Clara HadleyElizabeth BeecherFrances E. Sternberg (Mrs. George Wheelwright)Mary H. Shumway (Mrs. George F. Lee)-----------------------------------------------Dr. West, Principal

Given by Miss Florence Lee

Dr. West with the Class of 1854

Dr. Albert Tracy Chester, DD(1842-1895)

Principal, Buffalo Female Academy1860-1887

Portrait by Ammi Farnham, c. 1885Commissioned by Dr. Chester’s daughter, Georgiana (Class of 1875) and given to the school with the provision that it be hung beside the portrait of Dr. West in West-Chester Hall.

(mystery: West-Chester Hall did not exist until 1929.)

The above information is in the handwritten note (below) on the back of the portrait.

Charlotte MulliganClass of 1863

Founder of the Buffalo Seminary Graduates Association

(today, the Alumnae Association)

Founder of the Twentieth Century Club

During the Civil War, Charlotte, concerned that the Confederacy might invade Buffalo, organized a student drill team to train for defense of the school! Semper FI!

Beware, you secessionist rebels! (No, this isn’t Charlotte’s defense force. These are SEM girls taking aim in the 1940s.)

The Graduates Association

Founded by Charlotte Mulligan in 1876, the 25th anniversary of the founding of the school.

The Charter House is today the New Phoenix Theater on The Park.

In 1884 The Graduates purchased their first clubhouse at 95 Johnson Park. They named it the Charter House. This clubhouse was the first such building in the country to be owned by a women’s club. One of its larger rooms was used as a lecture hall for both club programs and SEM classes. In 1894 the Graduates sold the Charter House and relocated to their new headquarters on Delaware Avenue, the Twentieth Century Club.

The Charter House

The Delaware Avenue Baptist Church (constructed 1883) was purchased in 1894 by Ms Mulligan to be the headquarters of the Graduates Association.

In that same year the Graduates Association formed the Twentieth Century Club, a women’s club, dedicated to education, cultural enrichment, and tradition. The club was renovated in 1896 with addition of a new clubhouse to the original church building.

Charlotte Mulligan was founder of both the Buffalo Seminary Graduates Association and the Twentieth Century Club.

The Twentieth Century Club (1911) and today. One can see part of the original church on the right of the building.

Delaware Avenue Baptist Church

In 1870 Mark Twain, then editor of the Buffalo Express, chaired a committee judging a literary contest at the school and wrote about it in his “Report to the Buffalo Female Academy”

In concluding his report, Twain wrote …

The dead weight of custom and tradition have clogged school method and discipline …(for) so long that they unconsciously continue to wear them in these free, progressive latter days. For lingering ages, seemingly, the seminary pupil has been expected to present, at stated intervals, a composition constructed upon one and the same old heart-rending plan….

To the high credit of the principal and teachers of this academy, however, it can be said that they are faithfully doing what they can do to destroy it and its influence and occupy their place with something new and better.

Still (even though much of the traditional conventions of writing persist in) this unquestionably excellent Female Academy, we feel that we are more than complimentary when we say that the compositions we have been examining average well indeed.

When the old sapless composition model is finally cast aside and the pupil learns to write straight from his heart, he will apply his own language and his own ideas to subjects and then the question with committees will not be which composition to select for first prize, but which one they dare reject.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(It is a sign of traditional patriarchal custom that Twain refers to “the pupil” using “his” in regard to a school for women.)

Louis Agassiz (1807 –1873)

Swiss-born and European-trained biologist and geologist recognized as an innovative and prodigious scholar of Earth's natural history.

Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) Former President Millard Fillmore attended Sem’s 1854 commencement. Later he was on a committee thatconducted special oral reading and elocution examinations.

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

American poet, journalist, editor, best known for the poem “Thanatopsis,” which he wrote at age 17.

Other 19th Century notable figures to visit Sem included …

(Source: Buffalo Currier-Express, Feb. 12, 1961.)

Speaking of famous (infamous?) visitors to the school ….

In 1972 actress Jane Fonda visited SEM and spoke to students in the Chapel.

Her visit to SEM was highly controversial because of her active resistance to the American war in Vietnam.SEM was the only school she visited when in Buffalo for an anti-war rally at UB.

1889 The Buffalo Female Academy becomes Buffalo Seminary!

Lucy Cornelia Lynde Hartt, Class of 1863

Principal, 1887 - 1899It was under Mrs. Hartt’s leadership that in 1889 the school was renamed.

She also restructured the curriculum to meet college entrance requirements.

A few years following her graduation from SEM (BFA back then) in 1863, Lucy Cornelia Lynde married (1868) Charles Frederick Hartt, a young Professor of Geology at Cornell University. They had two children, a son and daughter.

In 1875 her family relocated to Brazil where her husband headed a major geological survey of that country’s natural resources. In 1877, Lucy, being pregnant with twins, and her children returned to the US. (Sadly, she lost both babies.) She would never see her husband again. He died of disease in Brazil in 1878.

Lucy then began a career in education, teaching at the Brooklyn Heights Seminary. Her experience took her to school administration. In 1887 she was principal of a school on Staten Island when she received the invitation to return to her Buffalo alma mater. She would be at SEM until 1899.

In 1889 The Board of Trustees voted to change the school name to Buffalo Seminary!

The change of name must have been quite disappointing! (Actually, this is the 1907 yearbook staff!)

The 1907 Seminaria staff back at work!

A newspaper advertisement

“The Seminary is enabled by its endowment and large day school to maintain the highest efficiency in equipment and faculty. Excellent opportunities for study in vocal and instrumental music, drawing, and art. Library, laboratory, physical culture. The home, for a limited number of girls, is beautifully situated in the finest avenue of Buffalo, overlooking a park in the rear, and is adapted throughout to the greatest health and comfort. For illustrated circular address Mrs. C. F. Hartt, Principal.”

“The home, for a limited number of girls …” indicates that SEM was taking residential students.

Ms Jessica E. BeersPrincipal, 1899-1903

We do not know about Ms Beers’ educational background and experience before she came to Sem. We do know that on retiring from SEM, she relocated to New York City and became head of the Normal (teacher) Training Department of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.

The responsibility of running two schools proved exhausting for Ms Beers, and she retired in 1903.

Ms Beers did, however, provide SEM with a significant legacy, a woman who was hired in 1899 to teach Math and Poetry. Her name was Lisbeth Gertrude Angell.

(Elmwood and SEM would remain in partnership until 1909. In 1941 the Elmwood School would combine with the Franklin School to form the Elmwood-Franklin School.)

1913 portrait

We also know that in 1899 Buffalo Seminary combined with the Elmwood School and that Ms Beers was Head of both institutions. The Elmwood School was a primary school for girls. It was located on Bryant Street.

The Elmwood School1913 photograph

The Elmwood School was founded in 1889. In 1941 the Elmwood merged with the Franklin School, a boys’ elementary school. The Franklin School had been founded in 1891 and was associated with the Department of Pedagogy at Buffalo Normal College (today Buffalo State College). The new school was named Elmwood Franklin. With the merger, the boys relocated to the Elmwood School’s Bryant Street campus. In 1951 Elmwood Franklin moved to its present campus on New Amsterdam Ave.

Ms. Jessica E. Beers was Principal of both SEM and the Elmwood School from 1899 to 1903.

With the Johnson Park campus proving no longer adequate for SEM’s needs, the school in 1900 relocated to the upper floors of the new Twentieth Century Club and the Heathcote School nearby on Delaware Avenue. This relocation was temporary, pending the building of a new school building. It’s interesting that the school moved out of its home campus without first having a new building. It would be nine years before SEM had a new permanent “home.”

Buffalo Seminary, 1900-1909

Twentieth Century Club Heathcote School *

* This location – 623 Delaware Ave – is today a parking lot.

Miss L. Gertrude AngellHeadmistress, 1903 – 1952

1905 photo The 1933 Library portrait

Let’s take a look at SEM’s academic program for 1905-1906.

This is what would be called today the school’s catalogue or view book, or, maybe even its Website.

In 1905 SEM and the Elmwood School were still in partnership.

This is SEM’s “Announcement,” that being its program as separate from Elmwood’s elementary educational program.

SEM faculty, 1905-1906

Miss Angell taught Math and Psychology.

SEM’s College Preparatory curriculum, from the 1905-1906 Catalogue.

Seminary Diploma and College Entrance Certificate

SEM’s English Course Curriculum, from the 1905-1906 Catalogue.

Seminary Diploma

SEM’s Elective Course Curriculum, from the 1905-1906 Catalogue.

Seminary Certificate

From the Illustrated Buffalo Express, October 14, 1906

SEM’s new building plans were announced in 1906.

Boston architect and Harvard architectural professor, George F. Newton’s 1906 plan for the building was in the Collegiate Gothic style.

It’s interesting that of the figures in this illustration of the future building, only two appear to be female!

SEM relocated to its new building on Bidwell Parkway in 1909.

In 1909 classrooms were called recitation rooms.

There was a “Club Room” at the end of the main hallway.

Library “Study Room”

First Floor, 1909

In the 1909 the gymnasium was where the cafeteria is today!

The 1909 Lunch Room is today’s locker room.

The school’s janitor (maintenance man) lived in the building in a basement apartment.

Basement, 1909

The 1909 Science Lab was where today’s Advancement Office is.

Today there is an office and classroom where the 1909 art studio was, and Mr. Hopkins’ room was the “Domestic Science” room, complete with cooking ovens!

Gallery

Chapel

Second Floor, 1909

The third floor spaces that are today Ms. Miller’s and Dr. Joplin’s rooms and the Music Studio were “unfinished,” meaning available for future use.

Third Floor, 1909

The Chapel

Notice that there is no door at the front left of the room. That door would not be cut until 1964.

The Glee Club in the Chapel, 1914

At the piano is SEM’s Music Director, Seth Clark.

An organ was later installed as were stairs to the stage.

The lancet windows on the sides of the stage are actually screens for the organ pipes.

Prior to the installation of the organ

In 1964 the pews were installed, the organ was moved to the other side of the stage, and a door was cut to the back hallway. The organ, its pipes ruined by a water leak, was removed and sold in the late 1970s.

The Chapel today

SEM’s organ was manufactured at the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company’s plant in North Tonawanda and was dedicated in honor of Miss Angell.

Hans and Ruth Vigeland were SEM’s glee club directors for many years.

Hans is at the organ keyboard.

Debra Reilly, Class of 1974Online photo of an organ with similar stop tabs.

The Social Room – today, The Gallery

We are looking towards what is today Mr. Hopkins’ classroom. Back then the large room beyond was the Art Studio and beyond the closed doors was the Domestic Science Room (today, Mr. Hopkins’ room).

The Science Lab on the second floor. This is where the Advancement Office is today. Notice that the seats are on tiers.

The Music Studio was relocated to the third floor

The Study Hall

Library

This photograph is post 1933 as Miss Angell’s portrait is above the fireplace.

Library

This photograph is post 1933 as Miss Angell’s portrait is above the fireplace.

The school assembles for an all-school photograph on the chapel balcony and fire escape!

This photo pre-dates 1929 as the gymnasium and West-Chester additions have not yet been added. Once the gym and West-Chester were built, this open space would become the Senior Courtyard.

Today this space is the Atrium!

SEM before West-Chester Hall was added.

The house at 34 Soldiers Place belonged to James Wilson and was purchased in 1928 as part of a $100,000 campaign to add a major addition for a new gymnasium, art studio, classrooms and West-Chester Hall.

West-Chester Hall, the headquarters of the Graduates Association was added to the building in 1929.

Abutting West-Chester were a new gymnasium, classrooms, and the third floor art studio.

Lower West-Chester, 1929 (Today this space is the Admissions Office.)

Upper West-Chester, 1929(Today this space is the Colby Room.)

West-Chester Hall today

West-Chester

Gymnasium

Classrooms

Courtyard

1929 additions

Potomac Ave

Bidwell Ave

Potomac view

West-Chester

Courtyard

1929 additions

Potomac Ave

Bidwell Ave

Bidwell view

Art was relocated from the second floor to a new studio with north-facing skylights on the third floor.

The new Art Studio was part of the 1929 addition.

Today this is the floor of the PAC. West-Chester is at left and one of the Art Studio windows is at upper right. The houses beyond are today’s Oishei and Wendt residences.

The Gymnasium Roof

OisheiWendt

This house would be torn down in 1964.

From the 1978 Seminaria

the gym roof

This was not

added until 1964.

Back to Miss Angell!Headmistress, 1903 – 1952

1905 photo The 1933 Library portrait

Miss Angell’s Yellow Slips!

Life is just one damn thing after another.

Three minutes to think.

Three minutes to write.

Miss Angell’s guidelines for life.

She would expect students to know and live by these “slogans,” as she called them.

In conversation with a student she might begin a “slogan” and the student would be expected to complete it as if it were part of a natural discussion.

Cult of Personality? Miss Angell’s portrait was hanging in the library long before she retired! The 1940 Seminaria editors.

The Miss Angel Portrait

Painted by Serge Ivanowski1933

It made its Library debut in the 1933-1934 academic year, 18 years before Miss Angell retired.

Ivanowski’s daughter Irenka graduated from SEM in 1919.

The portrait was a gift to SEM from Mrs. Harold Esty, Sr.

(Mrs. Esty was Frances “Daisy” Larkin, daughter of John D. Larkin. She did not attend SEM.)

An 1892 photograph of the Wellesley College Banjo Club! Miss Angell is at center.

The first senior class to use the new building was the Class of 1910.

This 1910 senior remains a significant part of our SEM lives! Why?Because of something she wrote in her senior year.

Mary Gail ClarkClass of 1910

To Alma Mater as published in the (1910) Seminaria.

Mary was captain of the basketball team, a member of the Glee Club, and Editor in Chief of the Seminaria.

Composer of To Alma Mater (1910)

It was during Miss Angell’s administration that a very special time-honored tradition began at SEM.

In 1916, the basketball league to which SEM belonged cancelled its season. To fill the void for the SEM team and the rest of the school, the Graduates Association created a cup to be competed for by intramural basketball teams. The two teams became the Hornets and the Jackets. The rest is history!

The 1916 Basketball Team!

HORNETS! JACKETS!

Before we leave Miss Angell, here’s another little-known Fact!

She was instrumental in the founding of a new Buffalo PUBLIC school!

Miss Angell graduated from Buffalo’s Central High School in 1891 and from Wellesley College in 1894. Before her 1899 appointment to SEM, she taught English and math in the Buffalo public school system.

In 1900 it was determined that Buffalo needed a third high school. Even though by that time she was already on the faculty at SEM, Miss Angell, as a member of the Buffalo School Association, was instrumental in the founding of that new school. It opened in the fall of 1903, the same year that she became SEM’s headmistress. The school? Lafayette High School at the corner of Lafayette and Baines Avenue. The school, with its iconic 120-foot ornamental tower, is today the oldest Buffalo high school in continuous use as an educational institution.

(from the 1952 Seminaria)

Her spaniels in this photo are Minx and Rogue.

Miss Angell loved dogs!

James W. Donnelly, Headmaster, 1966 -1967 Mr. Donnelly later served for 11 years as Headmaster of the Severn School in Maryland.Richard W. Davis

Headmaster, 1959-1966

In 1966 Mr. Davis became Headmaster of Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut, retiring in 1975.

Marian W. SmithHeadmistress, 1952-1959

Miss Angell’s successor, Miss Smith came to SEM from Barnard College where she had been admissions director.

Heads of School since Miss Angell

Mr. Davis was the only Head of School to have been included in the Seminaria as a member of a senior class!

Robert A. FosterHeadmaster, 1967-1992

Mr. Foster joined the Sem English department in 1959. He continued to teach English through to his retirement in 1992. Seminaria, 1991

Sarah K. BriggsHead of School, 1992-1995

Marjorie BarneyHead of School, 1995-2001

Mrs. Barney taught Math at Sem from 1979 to 1995.

Sandra GilmorHead of School, 2001-2007

Jo Ann DouglassHead of School, 2007 – 2016

Ms Douglass with Mr. Schooley’s Napoleon, 2010.

Helen Ladds MarletteHead of School, 2016 -

Mrs. and Mr. Marlette on the occasion of her induction ceremony, October 2016

Some Events Along the Way!

In 1953 SEM acquired Larkin House and Larkin Field.

In 2007 Larkin House was sold, but SEM retained ownership of the Field.

Larkin Field

2008 SEM’s new mascot, the Red Tailed Hawk!

William Blake, 1757-1827

Sir Hubert Parry, 1848-1918

“Jerusalem” was written in 1804 by the English poet William Blake.

The music for “Jerusalem” was written by the English composer

Sir Hubert Parry in 1916.

SEM’s descant for “Jerusalem” was written

by Hans Vigeland.

“Jerusalem” became part of SEM’s musical tradition in the late 1960s.

Atrium2004

In 1964 the Science Wing was added.

In 1985 the PAC was built on the roof above the gym and behind West-Chester.

PAC

1985

In 2003 - 2004 the Atrium was added by excavating and enclosing the former courtyard.

West-Chester

The Science Wing dates from 1964.

The Science wing, 1964

Third Floor: Lecture Room * (with a raised dais) and a classroom.

Second Floor: Chemistry Lab

Ground floor: Biology Lab and Science Library.

* In the early 70s the Lecture Room was converted to a Crafts Room with a kiln! It is today the Physics Lab.

-

Biology Lab

Science Library

Chemistry

Classroom

Lecture Room

Classroom

Potomac Ave

---------------------

Closet with ladder to roof

G 2 3

hallway hallway hallway

raised dais

Oishei House

1969 Back in the day when Nichols was not a SEM rival!

SEM girls were the cheerleaders for Nichols!

SEM

SEMSEM

SEM

SEM

SEMSEM

SEM

Ah! … That’s better!

In 1971 -1972 SEM considered a Coordination relationship with the Nichols School. Nichols was then an all-male school.

We would relocate to the Nichols campus but still have our own building. SEM would coordinate its curriculum with that of Nichols yet somehow retain its separate identity. This is how the architect envisioned the new Buffalo Seminary!

A new SEM?

Architectural design by Duane Lyman and Associates, Buffalo

The new SEM would be on the Nichols campus at the corner of Amherst and Colvin where the Nichols Middle School building is today.

The Gallery, originally the Social Room (restored 2002)

Renovations, 2002

Prior to its renovation, the Gallery had been “filled” with, first, the Headmaster’s and, later, other administrative offices behind a glass wall and a false ceiling.

From the 1970 Seminaria

From the 1965 Seminaria

These were the Study Hall desks until 2002. All trimester or semester exams were taken here.

The Study Hall from the front hall, 1965

The Performing Arts Center was built atop the gym roof, 1984-1985.

The PAC being transformed into a Japanese Noh theater for the 2008 production of “At the Hawks’ Well.”

The Mugel Atrium (constructed, 2003 – 2004)

Between 1929 and 2003, the space that is now the Atrium was an open area known as the “Senior Courtyard.” Student access to the courtyard was a senior privilege.

The Senior Courtyard (from the 1980 Seminaria)

This stringcourse was originally at ground level!

The atrium serves as an extension of the dining room, an area for

receptions, and a gallery for artwork.

The Atrium was once the Senior Courtyard.

This is the Senior Courtyard as “prepared” for excavation. The fountain foundation can be seen at bottom right.

The Atrium was constructed between October 2003 and June 2004.

Ground surface level

The entire excavation of the courtyard was done bucket-by-bucket lifted over the building and emptied into waiting trucks.

Excavation complete! The courtyard is gone.

The ground surface level

The archways are complete. Work on the roof and walkways is underway.

The wall of the PAC had to be raised to support the atrium roof.

Construction of the roof and walkways.

Construction took place over the winter. It was cold!

The fountain was relocated to the Atrium wall.

Chunhui Xu from China and Da Som Kang from South Korea with their host parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Ivins

In 2008 SEM began a host-family program for residential students.

SEM’s first residences were at 130 / 132 Bidwell Parkway

2010 photo

SEM’s Oishei and Wendt residences at 678 and 682 Potomac

The Wendt residence at 682 Potomac

The Soldiers Place residences

16 Soldiers Place: The Lipke House

30 Soldiers Place: The Niscah House

26 Soldiers Place: The Douglass House

Renovation of the Chapel 2016

2017

1929

A lost mystery!

When the Chapel was renovated in the summer of 2016, the corbels along the walls were repainted. In so doing, SEM lost a fun mystery. At some unknown date and year, one of the ornamental heads at the corbel base was “decorated.” It gazed down on us, possibly for decades, and no one noticed until 2015.

Magavern-Sutton Courtyard 2016

Named in honor of the Magavern family and Gary Sutton.(gift from Linda Robertson Magavern ‘73 and Bill Magavern)

Magavern-Sutton Courtyard under construction, summer 2016

Wendt and Oishei Houses

The red lines are heating coils.

June 4, 2016

SEM residential students, 2014-2015

SEM’s Sesquicentennial Parade, 2001

2016 Hornets Win!

100 Years of Hornet-Jacket Competition!

166 years !

The Bidwell Parkway building dates from 1909; renovated in 2001 and 2002.

The midsection (including the gymnasium and art studio) and West-Chester Hall date from 1929; renovated in 2001and 2002.

Larkin House and Larkin Field were acquired in 1953; dedicated in 1954.

The science wing dates from 1964; renovated in 2000.

The Performing Arts Center dates from 1985.

The Gallery was restored in 2002.

The Mugel Atrium was completed in 2004.

The Bidwell Residences opened in 2009.

The Squash and Athletic Center opened in 2009.

The Potomac Residences opened in 2010.

The Soldiers Place residences opened in 2012 and 2013.

The Magavern-Sutton Courtyard was completed in 2016.

Sources

The Buffalo Seminary 125 Years (1976) a publication of the school compiled by the art faculty.

Christian, Diane. “The Buffalo Seminary: 150 Years Old and Radiant,” June 2001 (Art Voice article, appearing in full in the Semaphore.)

Ito, Gwen. “From Johnson Park to Bidwell Parkway and Beyond: A Short History of Buffalo Seminary.” Western New York Heritage, Volume 17 number 3, Fall 2015, pp. 18-26.