In 1870, the original two-story dwelling was enlarged to three stories with a mansard roof. It is described as French Second Empire with Gothic details.
Image source: Allithea Lango Estate Collection
Slide show of the corner over time.
In 1850, the land at the northwest corner of Delaware and West Huron was vacant. Dr. Walter Cary, son of Trumball Cary whose fortune was made in real estate, had married Julia Love, daughter of Judge Thomas Cutting Love, in 1848. They lived in an apartment at the American Hotel until it burned, then in one of three townhouses given to the couple by the Judge Love upon their wedding. Beginning in 1851, a grand red brick house began to take shape at this corner, 184 Delaware . In 1853 the couple moved in with their infant son, Trumball. Shortly after, Julia's sisters Maria and Elizabeth, then 14 and 11 respectively, also moved into 184 Delaware. Maria Love, who never married, resided there for the rest of her life. Elizabeth, "Libby," married a Cary cousin and when the marriage ended in divorce, she moved back into 184 and lived there for the rest of her life. In all, the Walter Carys had seven chldren, six boys and one girl. |
Maria Love graduated from the Central High School and went away to Miss Porter's School in Connecticut. When she returned to Buffalo, she began a school in the living room of 184 for neighborhood children which she kept for six years. Her mentor for this venture was Sarah Porter, the headmistress of her alma mater. This was the beginning of Maria Love's social activism. The Carys also sheltered in their stables runaway slaves on their journey to Canada. Years later, Jane Burleigh would write in the Buffalo Times, "These people were alive to their fingertips, and their house was alive, too." |
The house had an immense ballroom, a conservatory, a carved woord or marble fireplace in almost very room. The ceilings on the first floor were eighteen feet high; suspended from them were massive, elaborate chandeliers. The majority of the floors were parquet in an intricate design. After remodeling, the former library became the roomy dining room. The drawing room was not altered in 80 years. According to an reporter granted a rare interview with Maria Love in 1928, the drawing room began "with the oriel window on the Delaware Avenue side and ended with a mirrored wall that doubled its distance. It was a Victorian salon, with soft yellow walls, brown brocade hangings, crystal prismed chandeliers and side lights, a floor of marquetry with well worn rich rugs...On the walls were gilt framed paintings, mostly figures, fine bronze statuary, many chairs of rosewood and mahogany with old gold satin damask and tapestry, tufted sofas, inlaid ornamental and useful tables, a grand piano near the oriel curtained with priceless old Italian lace and, nearby, a phonograph." The house gave the impression of "dignity, mellow age, restfulness - a place that is and has been lived in..." |
The Carys were firmly invested in traveling the world to broaden their understanding. The entire family, including Maria and Elizabeth, went to Europe for a year in 1871, and visited many other countries over the years. The Cary children were all educated abroad. The family also entertained extensively, giving brilliant dinner parties and an annual Christmas night dance. They extended their hospitality to Presidents Millard Fillmore and Grover Cleveland, William Dean Howells, Stanford White, Arthur Brisbane, and the entire Lincoln cabinet. |
But the house was most known as the center of the Cary family for nearly eighty years. Patriarch Walter Cary died in 1881 and after that 184 Delaware was known locally as "Miss Love's house." Her social activism was expanding in the form of the Fitch Creche, which would establish her reputation as Buffalo's premier philanthropist and pioneer in social work. She was recalled by the Cary children as a mother figure as she taught each the value of learning, travel, and support of the poor, especially women and children. Every Christmas over the years, Cary children and their families would return to 184; some years as many as 50 enjoyed Christmas in the family home, known locally as "Cary Castle" because of the distinctive tower. "Madam Cary," Mrs. Julia Cary, died in 1915. Son George, architect of a number of well-known Buffalo buildings, lived at home until he married at age 50 in 1908. Son Thomas, never married, lived on at the house until he died in 1921. Elizabeth Love died in 1924. Maria Love died in July, 1931, at age 91. The last Cary living in the house, son Walter (never married), moved to an apartment after Aunt Maria died. All around the old mansion, the mansions of their peers had been demolished in the preceding years: the Blocher and Sizer homes opposite on Huron, the Meadway, Hazard, Frost, Moseley, Movius homes along Delaware. All had made way for business blocks, or parking lots. The Cary family would retain ownership of the house and property until 1964, but it was not used as a residence again.
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See the southwest corner of Delaware & West Huron here.
Research for this pictorial included "Maria Love, The Life and Legacy of a Social Work Pioneer," by Karen Berner Little
and "Buffalo's Delaware Avenue: Mansions and Families," by Edward T. Dunn