Statler Towers

107 Delaware Avenue

One of Buffalo’s most notable landmarks, The Statler Towers are not unfamiliar to many who have lived in Buffalo for more than a month. Ever a source of news, the Towers have changed hands plenty of times and now rest with Mark Croce and Buffalo Development Corporation whose ambitious restoration plans are already underway. The Statler Hotel, a Buffalo landmark since 1923, is where Ellsworth M. Statler forever changed American hotel standards. Statler  provided amenities such as telephones, closets, desks with writing supplies and a full-length mirror in every room, all unheard of at that time, even in the nicest of hotels. His biggest innovation was a private bath in every room. He accomplished this by creating the "Statler Plumbing Shaft." Bathrooms were built back to back and on top of one another, creating a direct vertical shaft from the bottom of the building to the top where plumbing and electrical could be housed. This invention dramatically increased the quality of the guests’ experience while only increasing construction costs by thirty percent. This enabled Statler to keep his hotel affordable for the middle class. His slogan was "A room and a bath for a dollar and a half."

     The Statler's Niagara Square site once featured the home    Millard Fillmore occupied from 1858 to 1874, though the                  building was raised in 1921 to make room for the hotel. The  Statler was run as an independent chain until 1954 when it was purchased by the Hiltons. The Statler Hotel’s registry reflects  decades of influential guests including Elvis Presley, Katharine Hepburn, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Elizabeth Taylor, and Richard Burton. Perhaps the building's most interesting guests were the peregrine falcons that occupied nest boxes placed there in 1998. They were constructed by the Audubon Society and the  Buffalo Ornithological Society.