English: The Dorian, 1491 Niagara Street, Buffalo, New York, December 2022. Constructed in 1894 as a replacement for an earlier structure lost to what was described in local papers as "one of the fiercest and most rapid fires that has visited Buffalo in some time", this four-story brick building has a handsome albeit modest and utilitarian design, with a flat roof, exposed Onondaga limestone foundation; stone-silled, segmentally-arched windows, and brick stringcourses crowning the upper two stories. The numerous chimneys along the side elevation at the roofline attest to its status as the only extant purpose-built brassworks in the city. Nonetheless, this is only a portion of what was originally a 13-bay-wide, roughly U-shaped complex surrounding a long, narrow central courtyard, the majority of which was lost to fire in 1976. It was originally home to the Aldrich & Ray Manufacturing Company - a manufacturer of tin and copper goods (specializing in soda fountain apparatus) that was founded in 1879 and later known as the George A. Ray Company after the death of its erstwhile senior partner, the Canadian-born Schuyler Aldrich - and remained as such until the 1950s. Beginning in 1907, the company expanded into a roller mill on Military Road, where it remains in business under the aegis of successor company Aurubis. Later tenants included the Fedders-Quigan and S. A. Day Companies. The aforementioned 1976 fire led to a nearly four-decade period of vacancy and abandonment for the building while also hindering the financials of its intended redevelopment: local developer Karl Frizlen, owner of the Crescendo lofts across the street, declined to consummate his incipient purchase of the property in 2016 when a historic preservation assessment determined the building not to be eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. Despite the fact that the decision was successfully appealed to the Keeper of the Register by current owner Natale Development, the building remains notable as one of a very few cases in New York State (and the only one in Buffalo) of a property that was successfully nominated for the NRHP but declared ineligible to be co-listed on the New York State Register: in correspondence dated October 2022, the state's Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation, R. Daniel Mackay, noted that although the dispute had led to "discussions that have been thought-provoking and prompted us to thoroughly reexamine and reanalyze the entire building", his office nonetheless still does not "believe that the building meets criteria for listing". That same year, Natale cut the ribbon on the completed mixed-use conversion, renamed The Dorian. It's now home to the offices of MVP Network Consulting and the Horvath Chiropractic Center as well as seven two-bedroom loft apartments on the upper floor.