File:Former Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie No. 46; Buffalo Christian Center - Buffalo, New York - 20211010.jpg

English: The Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie No. 46 at 512 Pearl Street (corner West Tupper Street) in Buffalo, New York, as seen in October 2021. Erected in 1916, this is one of the signature works of George F. Townsend, one of the lesser-known figures of the golden era of architecture in Buffalo. In this era, the Renaissance Revival and other Neoclassical strains of architecture were almost universally used in the construction of meeting halls and other buildings connected to fraternal societies, and here we see it in high style especially on the second floor and near the roofline, with exquisite terra-cotta panels decorated with bas-relief eagle and swag designs situated both above and below the projecting cornice, as well as circular medallions in the spandrels of the large arched upper-story windows, which are also interspersed by elegant Ionic pilaster strips. Sculpted eagles in high relief proudly flank the sides of each façade on the second floor. As you may have gathered, the recurring eagle motif symbolines the building's original identity as Aerie No. 46 of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Western New York's earliest and largest chapter of this fraternal society established in 1898 by a consortium of theater owners, and in Buffalo's case appropriately located in what was and is the geographic nexus of the city's theatrical community. Buffalo's Eagles aerie was founded in 1900 and met in this building from 1916 until 1954, when a combination of rising property taxes and declining membership forced the lodge to sell the building. It was purchased by Youthtime Evangelism Fellowship in 1958 and was used by them as a faith-based youth and recreation facility, the Buffalo Christian Center, until 2014. The building now makes up part of Ellicott Development's 500 Pearl Street complex, which uses many of the features added to the building by the Christian Center - gymnasium, bowling alley, swimming pool, and former Forbes Theatre - into the Aloft hotel that occupies the bulk of the space.