617 Main St.
Hours: VIP Access: 9am/Public: 10am-5pm
Photography and Filming Allowed
Wheelchair Accessible: No
Public Restrooms: No
Offering Self-guided tours; CEPA Gallery and Clinton Brown Company Architecture office will be open for visitors; retail shops will be open
Building Description: The Market Arcade (formerly known as the Palace Arcade), was designed in 1892 by Buffalo architects Edward B. Green and William S. Wicks. The Market Arcade was the city’s first historic covered shopping arcade. The building style is Neo- Classical/Beaux Arts.
Architectural elements important to the building are large expanses of glass, the frosted glass skylight, symmetrical facades made of Yellow Roman bricks and Corinthian Vermont marble pillars, terra cotta ornamentation, including egg and dart, and acroteria crowning the roofline. Built before electric lighting the frosted glass skylight was made to give more natural light to the atrium. The 2nd and 3rd floors have encased glass blocks lining the floors which allow the natural light to penetrate all the way to the basement.
Oil Tycoon G. B. Marshall was the original owner who constructed the building meant as a passthrough from Chippewa Market to Washington street market (the two largest markets in the area at the time). When the markets closed, the success of the Market Arcade dwindled until it was shuttered in the late 1970s . In 1985 the City of Buffalo acquired the property. In 1995 after a major renovation, the building reopened. In 2014 Sinatra and Company Real Estate purchased the building and built it up to 100% occupancy, including taking 8,500 sf for their own corporate offices.
Today, the building boasts creative and office users alike. With art galleries, unique retail, a French bakery, food court along with offices on the upper floors the Market Arcade brings life back to Main Street.