File:William Dorsheimer House by night, Buffalo, New York, April 2015.jpg

English: A nighttime view of the William Dorsheimer House at 434 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, New York, as seen in April 2015. Though the Dorsheimer House is one of the most pre-eminent examples of the French Second Empire style in the city, its designer - Henry Hobson Richardson - later went down in architectural history as the namesake pioneer of the Richardsonian Romanesque style. A handsome two-and-a-half-story brick building dating to 1868, the Dorsheimer House's slate mansard roof slopes straight downward to the bracketed cornice at its base and is perforated by three pedimented dormers on each of its sides. Sandwiched between the paired windows on each floor are ornamental brick panels delineated by horizontal and vertical bands of gray sandstone and incised with relief sculptures. Owner William Dorsheimer (1832-1888) was one of Buffalo's most prominent mid-19th century residents. A lawyer, politician, jurist, philanthropist, and (later) journalist, Dorsheimer's contributions to Buffalo history include his status as a founder of the Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts (now the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) and the Buffalo Historical Society and his indirect shaping of the city's architecture through H. H. Richardson and Frederick Law Olmsted, both of whom were Dorsheimer acquaintances whom he invited to Buffalo and went on to create some of their most renowned works in the city. On the state and national level, Dorsheimer was distinguished for his service as Federal Prosecutor for the Northern District of New York (1869-1871) and as Lieutenant Governor of New York (1875-1879). The house has served as offices since the 1950s and was one of the earliest Buffalo buildings to be inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places.