Before any big event, there are always last minute details – finalizing the menu, putting out extra chairs, some light cleaning, etc. But what happens when a key piece of your event has been lost in the mail? That’s the position that the Site was in when, less than a week before its opening on September 14th, 1971, a large box of custom-made ceramic tiles for the fireplace in the library where Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office still hadn’t arrived.

The original fireplace tiles had been removed along with the rest of the fireplace in the late 1930’s when the building was being transformed into the Kathryn Lawrence Dining Rooms. Oral histories claimed that the restaurant distributed the tiles to some of their customers, but during the restoration process in the 1960’s, none of the tiles were found (sidenote: as of 2026, we still haven’t found any). In the absence of an original tile to reproduce, historic photographs were studied and preliminary sketches of the tile design were created to attempt to identify the tile. Various experts, including those from the Smithsonian, were consulted and it was determined that the tiles were likely created by the Low Art Tile Company in the 1880’s. Personal recollections indicated that the original tiles were green, but there was much discussion about what shade of green would be most historically accurate (sidenote: did you know that the human eye can see more shades of green than any other color?). After many discussions, the decisions were made and the Vontury company of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, was selected to reproduce the tiles. The tiles were completed at the end of July and packed in two boxes to be shipped to Buffalo at the beginning of August. One box was received mid-August, but the other one never showed up.

As the days passed with no delivery, everyone was getting understandably nervous about the missing tiles. The fireplace would be a focal point of the newly restored historic library and having it unfinished was unthinkable. On September 8th, the head of Vontury wrote a strongly worded letter to UPS, indicating the gravity of the situation and that time was of the essence to find the lost tiles. Shortly thereafter, the tiles were found, having been accidentally sent to Pittsburgh, where the box sat unnoticed for six weeks. They were quickly shipped to Buffalo and installed less than 24 hours before the official ribbon cutting. At which point, I’m sure all of the people involved in the restoration breathed a huge sigh of relief.

— Amy Sanderson, Collections Manager

P.S. Our gratitude goes out to Lauren Becker, whose research originally brought the newspaper article about the missing tiles to our attention. Lauren also uncovered additional documents about the tiles in the papers of Olaf William Shelgren Jr., at The Buffalo History Museum.