The Knox Mansion

begin the tour

welcome to the

Grace Millard Knox House

Head outside to take a stroll through the Terrace and Garden. Imagine you are Grace Knox, listening to a trickling fountain as you tend your roses.

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The Terrace Garden

Next, visit what used to be the servants’ wing and then the Montefiore Club. In 1969, the Knox Mansion was sold to the Montefiore Club, a private men’s club. The owners added athletic facilities to the rear of the building, including a gymnasium, squash courts, and locker room with shower facilities and spa. The club closed in 1978.

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The Montefiore Club

Head back downstairs to the atrium, and in the left corner you’ll see stairs leading down to the basement. As you arrive at the bottom of the stairs, you’ll instantly realize that this was no ordinary basement or man cave. This was a Grand Ballroom with chandeliers, giant arched mirrors, a draped stage and wall-to-wall carpeting. There’s also a billiards room, a butler’s office and a kitchen. Imagine entertaining your fancy friends here.

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The Grand Ballroom

Seymour Knox’s Bedroom and Study

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Seymour Knox’s Bedroom & Study

Formerly the children’s nursery, it later became a Guest Room.

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The Guest Room

Pass back through the drawing room, music room and back into the foyer. Then climb the tall staircase to see the second floor. The family’s bedrooms were here, including Grace Knox’s Boudoir and Study.

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Grace Knox's Boudoir & Study

Peek past the tall marble columns to admire the Rotunda and gaze up at its neo-classical style painted ceiling. Then revel in the vibrant blues, greens and yellows in the Tiffany stained-glass peacock window above a marble fountain. In this rotunda alone, there are six types of marble used.

The Rotunda

The Drawing Room

The Music Room

Retreat to what was once the Library. Imagine yourself nestling into an overstuffed chair with a favorite leather-bound volume by the crackling fireplace as snow falls quietly outside.

The Library

The Foyer

The Grace Millard Knox House is at 800 Delaware Ave. in Buffalo, New York, an area known as Millionaires’ Row. Construction of this French-Renaissance style mansion began in 1915 and was completed three years later at a cost of $600,000 (about $13.4 million in today’s dollars). The home was built for the family of Seymour H. Knox, co-founder of the Woolworth Co. and Knox department stores. Knox died unexpectedly a month before the home was completed. Grace Knox raised their three children here and the Knox family remained at the residence until it was sold in 1969 to the Montefiore Club. In 1978, it became headquarters for Computer Task Group. In 2020, Ross Cellino of Cellino Law purchased the mansion to serve as its new corporate headquarters.

Enter through the towering glass and iron gated entry to be welcomed into the chandelier and skylight lit marble Foyer. A towering rose gray marble staircase with iron balustrade beckons to the second floor. Notice the rosettes carved into the ceiling and the Corinthian pilasters. Everywhere you look, you can imagine what your life would have been like if you were an aristocrat in the 1920s. Let’s take a trip back in time.

Visit what was once the Music Room and imagine yourself relaxing on a chaise lounge sipping a brandy while a pianist plays “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Then enter the Drawing Room that now hosts a huge conference table for 18 in front of a grand marble fireplace. Don’t forget to look up and around to admire the elegant ceiling and intricate plasterwork.

Today, the Knox Mansion is headquarters for Cellino Law, one of the largest personal injury firms in New York, with offices in Buffalo, Rochester, Long Island and Manhattan. Ross Cellino, founding partner, intends to continue the restoration of the mansion.

Cellino Law

In-person tours benefit the SPCA, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. For more about tours, click here. To donate to the SPCA, click here.

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