The Grosvenor Room, the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library’s Special Collections Department, will present a speaker series with Explore Buffalo in 2025.

This free speaker series will take place in the Ring of Knowledge in the Central Library in downtown Buffalo at 1 Lafayette Square. Admission is free and no registration is required. All presentations will begin at 1 PM and be approximately one hour in length, including time for Questions & Answers.

Buffalo’s population  grew tremendously with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825.  Quite surprisingly, because a few years before did not even have a harbor, and 2 private citizens , including one early Mayor, Samuel Wilkeson , had to risk his own capital to convince the NYS Legislature to extend the Canal past the Village of Black Rock .  This talk will discuss the activities with the early Canal, and the development of Buffalo, for a time, as the number one grain handling port and flour milling capital of the World.  The talk will also cover ongoing redevelopment efforts in the area now known as Silo City

Speaker: Harry Meyer
Bio: Harry Meyer is a lifelong resident of Western New York who practiced industrial and commercial real estate and environmental law for over 35 years with Hodgson Russ LLP, the Firm which is the owner and sole occupant of the Guaranty Building. Professionally, Harry chaired the NYS Bar Association Real Property Law Section and remains active with the State Bar as a member of their governing body, the House of Delegates, and with the Real Property Law Section where he is both Membership and Diversity Chair. For over 12 years Harry chaired Erie County’s Local Emergency Planning Committee that deals with hazardous material, biological, radiological, nuclear and terrorism incidents. His longstanding interest in architecture was first ignited while in college and working at a summer internship with the National Electric Company of Greece in Athens where he had the opportunity to travel extensively on the Mainland of Greece and to several of the Greek Islands, including Crete. Besides giving tours of Silo City, the Delaware Mansions, and City Hall, Harry enjoys biking from Amherst along the NYS Barge Canal and then along the Niagara River in Tonawanda and Buffalo before returning to Amherst.