J.N. Adam-AM&A Historic District is a national historic district

Historic district (United States)

In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...

 located at Buffalo

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

 in Erie County, New York

Erie County, New York

Erie County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,040. The county seat is Buffalo. The county's name comes from Lake Erie, which in turn comes from the Erie tribe of American Indians who lived south and east of the lake before 1654.Erie...

. The district resulted from the agglomeration of commercial structures over many years of commercial growth and still reflects conscious decisions made by the original planners of the J. N. Adam & Co.

J. N. Adam & Co.

The J.N. Adam & Co., commonly referred to as J.N.'s was a department store located in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1881 by James Noble Adam, a brother of Robert B. Adam, a founder of AM&A's, another Buffalo based department store. The co-founder of the store was William H. Hotchkiss who,...

, and later AM&A's

AM&A's

Adam, Meldrum & Anderson Company was a chain of department stores based in Buffalo, New York. It was an institution to generations of shoppers in the Buffalo area. The company remained family owned until its sale to The Bon-Ton in 1994....

 department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

s. The main department store was designed by Starrett & van Vleck

Starrett & van Vleck

The architectural firm of Starrett & van Vleck specialized in the design of early 20th century department stores primarily in New York City. The partner Goldwin Starrett had worked for four years in the Chicago office of Daniel Burnham. Included in their designs were the New York City flagship...

 and built in 1935, with additions made in 1946-1948. The service building and entrances date to 1909 and is a six story, brick flat roofed commercial structure. Two six story, brick commercial structures fronting on Washington Street were designed by Green & Wicks

Edward Brodhead Green

E. B. Green was a major American architect from New York State. He was born in Utica, NY. He attended Cornell University, and moved to Buffalo, NY in 1881, where he was active through about 1930...

 in the 1890s. A five story steel frame warehouse building fronting on Washington Street dates to 1911-1912. Connected to it are a warehouse building dating to 1882, one dating to 1906-1907, and one fronting on Ellicott Street and dating to 1912-1913. Plans announced in January 2010 are for the complex to be converted to apartments and offices.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

in 2009.