Charles D. Arnold

Charles Cary Rumsey’s uncle, George Cary (1859-1945) had a brief apprenticeship with McKim, Mead and White before going to study architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1886-1889). In 1891 he returned to Buffalo and set up practice. For the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo in 1901, he won the competition to design the New York State Building, as well as The Ethnology Building and The Old Spanish Mission. The New York State Building is the only permanent Pan-Am structure that remains; it now houses the Buffalo History Museum. Made of Vermont marble instead of plaster like all the temporary Pan-Am structures, the building was enlarged by Cary in 1925 with identical wings on the east and west sides.

Cary married Althea Birge, daughter of the president of the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company, and designed the elegant car company’s Administration Building (1906-1907) at 1695 Elmwood Avenue as well as a number of homes and industrial buildings. He designed his own home at 460 Franklin Street in the Italianate style.
C. D. Arnold was the official exposition photographer, having previously been the official photographer of the world’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893.