Main Place Tower, 350 feet tall, fills your view at 350 Main Street in Buffalo. This skyscraper, rising 350 feet (110 meters), is the fourth-tallest building in the city and today houses many technology and communication firms. Built in 1969 as part of an urban renewal project, the tower anchors a complex whose shopping center is called the Main Place Mall.
Pause and imagine the block before the tower was rebuilt: this was once Shelton Square, a busy city block known for traffic and, in 1955, a notorious publicity stunt. Disc jockey Tom Clay climbed a billboard in the square and repeatedly played "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets over a loudspeaker, a disruption that led to his firing and arrest. The building itself began life as the Erie County Savings Bank headquarters, later became One Empire Tower when Erie County Savings Bank became Empire of America, and was renamed Main Place Tower in the 1980s with the demise of Empire of America.
The land was previously home to the Richardsonian Romanesque castle-like Erie County Savings building. Picture this block as Shelton Square, where a disc jockey's 1955 billboard stunt famously got him fired and arrested.