Link to December 31 Buffalo News article.Excerpt: Closing the 20-story structure on Niagara Square would continue a decline that started four decades after its opening on May 19, 1923, as the 1,100-room Hotel Statler, flagship of the high-end chain developed by Buffalo’s Ellsworth M. Statler.
By the time ownership passed to the newer Hilton chain in the 1960s the landmark was showing its age, and the conversion of several floors to office space could not stop the slide into disrepair.
A ceiling leak that disrupted a 1976 Chamber of Commerce luncheon in the Golden Ballroom, chasing businessmen from their tables, symbolized the decline.
At least for a night — Jan. 28, 1977 — it seemed like old times in the grande dame of Buffalo hotels as office workers, businessmen and women, lawyers and government officials stranded downtown packed the lobby, mezzanine and any other standing or sitting space to wait out the monster Blizzard of '77.
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