Demolition and Construction

Construction of the new building was not without its own challenges. A large portion of the eastern block that the library would be built on was occupied by the Vendome Garage, a parking garage owned by the Lafayette Hotel Co. In April of 1959, the county Board of Supervisors would move to condemn the garage after failed attempts to buy it at the assessed value. A number of court cases would follow, eventually reaching the State Supreme Court, where Justice Michael Catalano would deny a motion to stop Erie County from taking possession of the Garage site. Catalano would site the importance of public libraries in providing "dynamic education to combat Marxist communism." (Buffalo Evening News, October 4, 1960) The county would eventually come to an agreement on fair compensation with the owners of the lot, allowing them to occupy the site until January of 1961.

In February of 1961, demolition of the buildings occupying the eastern block began. By the end of that year, the majority of the exterior of the new structure was completed. Once the eastern and larger section was completed, plans were made to quickly vacate the old library building and transport all materials and equipment to the completed section. As Joseph Rounds, Library Director at the time, noted in the Annual Report of the Director for that year, this move would be one of the most complex attempted by a large library. 

Despite the difficulties of the move, staffing shortages, and an effort to reclassify the collection from the Dewey Decimal system to the Library of Congress system, the public's use of the Buffalo Public Library and the Grosvenor Library continued to grow that year.