I knew the Buffalo Savings Bank building (now a branch of M&T Bank), diagonally across the street from my hotel in the city’s downtown, would be special when I climbed the three steps to its entrance, the middle step bearing “Steps to Success” in metal letters attached to its riser.

I was already impressed just by looking at the bank’s exterior. Competed in 1901 on a corner lot, this neoclassical, Beaux-Arts–style building features giant arched windows, fluted Corinthian pilasters, garlands, and a nine-foot clock above the main entrance. Its signature feature is the beautiful dome, measuring 23’ tall and 56’ wide, and covered with 13,500 terracotta tiles. The dome’s last restoration used 140,000 wafer-thin sheets of nearly 24-carat gold leaf to cover the tiles, at a cost of $500,000—more than the initial cost of the entire building.

I’ve never received as warm a welcome at a bank as when I stepped inside. Not only did the staff encourage me to take photos (just not the security cameras) upon learning I was visiting Buffalo for the first time, they also handed me a complementary, nicely produced souvenir booklet about the bank’s illustrious murals, completed in 1924, in the grand main banking hall. All around me, Ionic columns hold up balcony-level passageways with marble balustrades as well as pediments with acroterions over doors. Above, gorgeous murals on the ceiling feature grotesques, Greek fretwork, scrolling acanthus leaves, fishermen, a bounty of grain, mythological creatures, and medallions depicting a mother and children, and a couple working at a water wheel.

The massive mural on the east wall, The Founding of Buffalo, immediately captured my attention. This pastoral scene, depicting a late afternoon in September 1798, tells the story of the acquirement from the Indians of the important tract of land around the mouth of Buffalo Creek (a total of two square miles), which would become the nucleus of the city. The most important figure is the Seneca chief Red Jacket, who stands apart from the other little clusters of people, mutely appealing to the Spirit of the Great Tree as he holds up the Covenant Belt of George Washington, which commemorated the peace treaty between the United States and the Iroquois Confederacy, of which the Seneca were one of the tribes.

The mural’s partner, on the north wall, is Buffalo Harbor, 1846. In this busy piece, sailing ships, steamships, sloops, schooners, brigs, square-rigged ships, and passenger boats crowd the harbor—evidence of the economic boom the city experienced once the Erie Canal opened.

Then I looked up into the magnificent dome. Nestled between the dome’s supporting ribs are 16 arabesques filled with mythological and symbolic figures representing the successive stages of upward human endeavor, from aspiration and struggle to growth and crowning achievement, as well as the 12 signs of the zodiac, suggesting the passage of time.

Each of the four pendentives contains a mural:

• Commerce shows an aerial view of downtown Buffalo in 1926, populated by the harbor light, ore and freight boats, railway terminals, grain elevators, and, if you look hard enough, the Buffalo Savings Bank tucked into the upper right-hand corner.
• Industry shows a view of the Buffalo River flanked by a steel plant, factories, railway lines, ships, docks, and bridges.
• Power portrays the Niagara River and Niagara Falls, complete with its mighty mist, depicted as a source and symbol of power, a previously unharnessed natural force now controlled by man.
• The Arts shows, among prominent streets and parkways, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, SUNY Buffalo, the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, and the Buffalo Museum of Science.

If you find yourself in downtown Buffalo (and you inevitably will if you’re visiting the city), make sure you check out this City of Buffalo Landmark. It’s almost guaranteed to make you displeased with your current bank branch.

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