would have been his wonder could he have been told that the society's first building of its own--and a marble palace at that would be beyond the far Scajaquada!

This suggestion bore no fruit; nor was there any tangible building fund until on March 4, 1894, Judge James M. Smith (who had been the society's president in 1881 and never lost his interest in its welfare) gave to it five bonds of the Crosstown Street Railroad, Nos. 19-23, valued at $5,000, "as a nucleus for a building fund." This was a profit-earning property. To it was added $3,000 received by bequest from Mrs. C. L. Fobes, on Oct. 6, 1898. These sums, with accrued interest, amounted to $11,064.39 on May 1, 1899, when the account was closed. Prior to this time the society had begun to direct its efforts in a new channel.

II. A RECORD OF LEGISLATION.

At the session of the Legislature of 1897, Hon. Henry W. Hill, Member of Assembly from the Second District of Erie County, and one of the councillors of the Historical Society, introduced in the Assembly two bills providing for the construction of an Historical Society building on Park lands in the city of Buffalo, both of which were enacted into law.

The first of these is Chapter 239 of the Laws of 1897, and authorizes the investment of the Historical Society trust funds in the purchase of the site and the erection of the building for the uses of the Buffalo Historical Society.

The second of these acts is Chapter 310 of the Laws of 1897, which authorized the construction of an Historical Society building on Park lands in the city of Buffalo, and which also provided that the city of Buffalo might appropriate $25,000, towards the construction of such a building, and should annually thereafter make an appropriation for its lighting and heating, and also a sum of not less than $5,000 for its care and maintenance and for the care, maintenance and preservation of the historical and scientific collections, books, papers and properties of the society in said building;

the act further provided that the mayor, the comptroller, the corporation counsel, superintendent of education, the president of the Common Council, and the president of the Board of Park Commissioners should be ex officio managers of said Historical Society in addition to the managers elected from the membership of the society.

By Chapter 728 of the Laws of 1897, which was superceded and repealed by Chapter 65 of the Laws of 1898 (owing to a clerical error in Chapter 728 of the Laws of 1897), the city of Buffalo was authorized to issue its bonds, among other things to raise funds to the extent of $25,000, to be used in the erection of an Historical Society building.

Anticipating construction under this law, the society took steps for legislation to permit the use of moneys of its permanent fund, which at this time amounted to $36,173, as a building fund; and a committee, consisting of J. N. Adam, George H. Lewis, Hon. James M. Smith, Dr. Jos. C. Greene and President Langdon, was appointed to confer with a committee of the Board of Aldermen, or of the Board of Park Commissioners, or of both bodies, regarding further legislation. Inspection of park sites followed. The Board of Managers of the society were unanimous in expressing their preference for the site then known as the Concourse, now occupied by the Albright Art Gallery. The Board of Park Commissioners were divided, six approving, six dissenting. Mr. Bronson C. Rumsey, not favoring that choice, offered to give to the society a site for its building on land owned by him, adjoining the south line of the Park, on the east side of Elmwood Avenue. This offer the Board voted not to accept, the decision being reached at one of the Board's "open-air meetings" at Delaware Park, May 8, 1897. The Board informed Mr. Rumsey that it did approve of a site on his lands fronting on Lincoln Parkway; but this site the owner did not offer to the society.

Much public interest had been aroused by the legislation above indicated, and by the efforts to agree upon a site. There were those who held that the society was ungrateful to refuse the free site which had been offered it on Elmwood Avenue. Others contended against any removal to park

lands; but the active workers in the society's behalf continued practically unanimous in their view and steadfast in their purpose. The sentiment of the society at this time is embodied in the following paragraph which was written by Judge Smith, appended to a resolution offered by Mr. George A. Stringer, declaring the Concourse to be the society's choice, and adopted, May 27, 1897:

The law enacted by the Legislature commits the selection of the particular site for the building of the Historical Society to two bodies of our citizens, 'the Board of Park Commissioners being one body and the trustees (managers) of the Historical Society the other. These two bodies are to select the site by agreement and to perpetuate their agreement by writing. The trustees of the Historical Society are 20 and are unanimously in favor of the site at the Concourse. Of the Park Board only six have manifested any opposition to the site at the Concourse. The Historical Society respectfully submits that the views of 26 of our citizens, charged by the law with their public duty, should prevail over the opinion of six others, and that equity, justice and duty require that the minority yield to the very strong majority.

The society had had preliminary building plans prepared, and had entertained hopes of going on with the work under the acts of 1897, but the division in the Park Board arrested progress. The way to a consummation of its project continued dubious and uncertain until, in the spring of 1898, a new opportunity most happily was found. On March 14, 1898, Hon. Henry W. Hill, then Member of Assembly, introduced the following concurrent resolution, which was unanimously adopted:

Whereas, Certain prominent substantial and reputable citizens of the cities of New York, Buffalo and Niagara Falls have under the title of the Pan-American Exposition Company, become duly incorporated under the laws of the State and formed an organization for the purpose of promoting and conducting an exposition to illustrate the material progress of the New World during the nineteenth cen

*In September of this year ('97) a formal protest against the removal of the society's collections to a building in the Park was sent to the society, signed by sundry citizens.