Thursday at the Square

Lafayette Square (formerly Court House Park or Courthouse Square) is a park in the center of downtown Buffalo, Erie County, New York, United States that hosts a Civil War monument. The block, which was once square, is lined by many of the city's tallest buildings. The square was named for General Lafayette, who visited Buffalo in 1825.The square was part of the original urban plan for the city as laid out by Joseph Ellicott in 1804. Its eastern edge has long been defined by important civic structures; first, the Erie County Courthouse, followed by the original Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Presidential history was made in Lafayette Square when former United States President Martin Van Buren received the Free Soil Party nomination for the 1848 election. President-elect Abraham Lincoln also spoke at the square.Today, the square offers a clear view of Buffalo City Hall, an Art Deco building three blocks to the west. A granite Civil War monument, titled Soldiers and Sailors, gives a strong vertical and ceremonial definition to the space. Conceived by Mrs. Horatio Seymour, the monument's dedication ceremony was attended by Grover Cleveland and other prominent figures. Until 2011, Lafayette Square hosted the annual Thursday at the Square summer concert series and is occasionally the site of rallies and demonstrations.

Soldiers and Sailors Monument is a war monument located in Lafayette Square, Buffalo, New York. It was the work of sculptor Casper Buberl and architect George Keller. It was unveiled in 1882.The monument's shaft supports a 10-foot-6-inch (3.2 m) female figure, and four 8-foot (2.4 m) bronze statues, representing the infantry, artillery, cavalry and navy, sculpted by Caspar Buberl, which face the four cardinal points. Bronze bas-reliefs encircle the column above the statues. The female figure is a "nameless stone lady, "emblematic of Buffalo."The dedication on the west (Main Street) side honors those who laid down their lives "in the war to maintain the union for the cause of their country and of mankind." Half of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address graces the east side of the monument. Several bas-relief panels feature scenes of Lincoln's original cabinet: Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase, Secretary of State William H. Seward, Attorney General Edward Bates, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, Secretary of the Interior, Caleb Smith, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, Major General Winfield Scott, and Secretary of War Simon Cameron.

The Rand Building is a skyscraper and the second tallest building in Buffalo, New York. At the time it was built in 1929, it was the tallest in the city at a height of 405 feet (123 m). The building was built on the site of the 1903 Olympic Theatre and it has been suggested that the Rand Building was the inspiration for the Empire State Building.

WYRK (106.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in Buffalo, New York, and serving Western New York. It is owned by Townsquare Media and it broadcasts a country music radio format. The studios and offices are on Lafayette Square in Buffalo in the Rand Building, 12th Floor. WYRK has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 50,000 watts. The transmitter is atop the Rand Building.

WMSX (96.1 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in Buffalo, New York, calling itself 96.1 The Breeze. WMSX has a soft adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and December. It is owned by Townsquare Media and has its radio studios in the Rand Building on Lafayette Square in downtown Buffalo. WMSX has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 47,000 watts. The station's transmitter is on the roof of the Rand Building.

WBLK (93.7 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Depew that serves Western New York, the Buffalo metropolitan area and the Niagara Region of Ontario. WBLK is owned by Townsquare Media and has an urban contemporary radio format, featuring hip hop, R&B and soul. The station carries the syndicated Steve Harvey Morning Show. WBLK can be classified as a "heritage" station, holding the same format and call letters since its debut. It is the oldest urban FM radio station in the U.S. The station also regularly ranks in the top 5 radio stations in Buffalo's Nielsen ratings. It has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 47,000 watts. The transmitter is atop the Rand Building in Downtown Buffalo and the studios are on a lower floor of the building.

Lafayette Square (officially Evans Bank @ Lafayette Square since November 8, 2019 for sponsorship purposes) is a Buffalo Metro Rail station near City Hall and is near the center of the Buffalo Central Business District at Lafayette Square located in the 400 block of Main Street (between Lafayette Square and Mohawk Streets) in the Free Fare Zone, which allows passengers free travel between Erie Canal Harbor station and Fountain Plaza station. Passengers continuing northbound past Fountain Plaza are required to have proof-of-payment. Lafayette Square station is the closest to the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, located one block east at Washington and Clinton Streets. On February 28, 2019, The Buffalo News announced that Evans Bank, which opened its downtown headquarters in the Main-Court Building the previous October, bought the naming rights to the station for nearly $161,000 for five years and nearly $352,000 if extended to 10 years.

The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library is located on Lafayette Square, Buffalo, New York. The current facility, designed by Kideney Architects and built in 1964, replaced the original Cyrus Eidlitz Buffalo Public Library Building dedicated in February 1887. The first Buffalo Public Library, in turn, replaced the Erie County, New York courthouse, which occupied the parcel from 1816-1876.Founded ca. 1835 as the Young Men's Association (not to be confused with YMCA), prominent members included Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who was the editor of the Buffalo Express from 1869-1871. The Young Men's Association was a private subscription library, meaning that paid membership was required in order to borrow books. In 1883, the Association began a fund-raising campaign for a new building and held an architectural competition, which culminated in Eidlitz's 1887 design. Upon completion, the Association turned over its collections to the citizens of Buffalo and the Buffalo Public Library was born, with no requirement for dues or membership.Significant library collections include the original, hand-written manuscript of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which Twain donated to the library in 1885; and the Milestones of Science, a collection of first editions announcing major advancements in Western science.

The Liberty Building is located at 420 Main Street, across the Buffalo Metro Rail from Lafayette Square in Buffalo, New York, USA.

Sinclair, Rooney & Co. Building, also known as the Remington Rand Building and Sperry-Rand Building, is a historic building located in downtown Buffalo, Erie County, New York. It was designed by the architecture firm Esenwein & Johnson and built between 1909 and 1911. The building is representative of Commercial Style architecture. The six-story, steel frame and concrete, "L"-shaped building is clad in yellow brick and consists of a rectangular main block, approximately 60-feet by 164-feet, with an extension of approximately 30-feet by 63-feet. It features brick pilasters that extend to the sixth floor, where they are capped by ornamental brick brackets and dentil molding below the roofline. It was built for Sinclair, Rooney, & Co., wholesale milliners, and later occupied by Remington Rand Corporation and its successor Sperry-Rand. The building housed offices and light manufacturing activities.: 3 It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

J. N. Adam–AM&A Historic District is a national historic district located at Buffalo in Erie County, New York. The district resulted from the agglomeration of commercial structures over many years of commercial growth and still reflects conscious decisions made by the original planners of the J. N. Adam & Co., and later AM&A's department stores. The main department store was designed by Starrett & van Vleck and built in 1935, with additions made in 1946–1948. The service building and entrances date to 1909 and is a six-story, brick flat roofed commercial structure. Two six story, brick commercial structures fronting on Washington Street were designed by Green & Wicks in the 1890s. A five-story steel frame warehouse building fronting on Washington Street dates to 1911–1912. Connected to it are a warehouse building dating to 1882, one dating to 1906–1907, and one fronting on Ellicott Street and dating to 1912–1913.Plans announced in January 2010 are for the complex to be converted to apartments and offices.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

Hotel Lafayette, also known as the Lafayette Hotel, is a historic hotel building located at Buffalo in Erie County, New York.