Temple of Music

The Temple of Music was a concert hall and auditorium built for the Pan-American Exposition which was held in Buffalo, New York in 1901. U.S. President William McKinley was assassinated inside the building on September 6, 1901. The structure, like most of the other buildings at the exposition, was demolished when the fair ended.

The Temple of Music was designed by architects August Esenwein and James A. Johnson for the Pan-American Exhibition, to serve as a concert hall and ceremonial stage. It was built at a cost of $85,000 (well over $1,500,000 in 2008 dollars). It was an eclectic combination of various architectural elements. Its major influence was the Italian Renaissance style, and it complied with the Exposition's Board of Architects' overall plan for the exhibition, called the Free Renaissance style. Like most of the major structures at this World Fair, the Temple of Music was extensively electrified, both internally and externally.

The Temple's dome rose 180 feet (54.86 m) above the ground floor and the hall itself had seating for over 2,000 people. According to Chuck LaChiusa, a Buffalo native and retired City Honors English teacher, "The building was colored in light yellows, with gold and red trimmings, and the panels in the dome were in light blue, producing an extremely beautiful effect." Four ornate sculptures, representing sacred music, lyric music, music of the dance, and heroic music, executed by Isodore Konti, graced the four entrance portals into the building. The Temple's appeal lay in its spacious interior and new use of lighting. Although the exterior was a great sight, the interior was also impressive. The Temple of Music had seating for over 2,000 people and possessed one of the largest pipe organs ever built in the United States. The organ is now at St. Louis Roman Catholic Church in Buffalo.

A popular local legend holds that a stained glass dome in the now-vacant J.N. Adam Memorial Hospital in Perrysburg, New York, was salvaged from the Temple of Music. However, a visual comparison between the hospital's dome and this rendering of the Temple of Music shows no resemblance between the two.

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