File:Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY - 52686067780.jpg

English: Created with the initial plat of what is now Downtown Buffalo in 1805, this square was laid out by Joseph Ellicott, and was originally named Courthouse Square, later being renamed for Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, in honor of his visit to Buffalo in 1825. The square is home to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, designed by George Keller, and dedicated in memory of veterans and those killed in the Civil War in 1866. The monument’s cornerstone was laid by then-Buffalo mayor Grover Cleveland, who was later the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. The monument was rebuilt after the settling of the rubble and mortar that was inadequate to support the immense weight of the granite cladding and statuary caused it to lean precipitously in 1889, and was destabilized by a high-speed motor vehicle impact by a reckless driver in 1973, damaging the monument and destabilizing it, which led to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority calling for its demolition well into the 1980s. However, public support led to a successful campaign to repair and restore the monument, which occurred in the late 1980s. The square has evolved over time, being home to the first Erie County Courthouse between 1818 and 1876, which stood on the east side of the square, and was replaced with the old Buffalo Public Library in 1887, with the present Buffalo and Erie County Library being built on the east side of the square in the 1960s. The north and south sides of the square were residential early on, becoming home to the Arcade Building on the south side and the Lafayette Presbyterian Church and Buffalo German Insurance Company anchoring the north side in the 19th Century, the Olympic Theater, Park Hof Restaurant, and Brisbane Building in the early 20th Century, and the Rand Building and Tishman Building in the mid-20th Century. The square itself also evolved from a park covered in trees to a grassy lawn with a few trees surrounded by an iron fence by the turn of the 20th Century, changing massively when Broadway was extended eastward from Ellicott Street to Main Street in 1912 to better connect the city’s east side to downtown, widening the roadway on the north side of the square, reducing the space for vegetation and pedestrians, and funneling massive amounts of traffic around the square, which was reduced to a smaller traffic circle, much like the present configuration of Niagara Square, with four small triangular medians and smaller streets around the perimeter of the square. The square was reconfigured again in the late 20th Century around the time Main Street was converted into a transit mall for a light rail line, with far more space for landscaping and pedestrians, restoring the park-like nature of the square that had been absent for decades. As the Interstates and depopulation of the city’s east side made Broadway a less important thoroughfare, and Main Street no longer carried automobile traffic, the square no longer needed to function as a traffic circle, with it instead becoming a funnel for traffic heading from Court Street to Broadway Avenue. The square today is a major cultural and social center for the city, along with nearby Niagara Square, and is often filled with people socializing or relaxing.