Henry Hobson Richardson designed and built the William Dorsheimer House in 1868 for William Dorsheimer, a local lawyer and Lieutenant Governor of New York, and its ochre brick and gray sandstone bands face you now. This house announces the profound influence of French ideas on the arts in the post Civil War period: notice the dignified simplicity, the incised rosettes and triglyphs carved into the masonry, and the horizontal bands of gray sandstone that march across the warm ochre brick facade. Vertical stone anchors each corner while the windows sit in perpendicular rows and are framed by the same gray sandstone bands.
Look up at the mansard roof, covered in slate, and its large dormers that punctuate the skyline. This was Richardson’s first building in Buffalo and a significant commission that helped lead to some of his greatest achievements. The house was recognized for its importance when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Picture the horizontal bands of gray sandstone crossing the warm ochre brick up to a slate mansard roof crowned with large dormers.