File:Dr. Ernest Wende House, Buffalo, New York - 20220413.jpg

English: The Dr. Ernest Wende House, 473 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, New York, April 2022. The oldest of the residences on Delaware Avenue's tony Midway, and the southernmost extant one (the adjacent Dr. Floyd Crego House was demolished in 1977), this floridly decorated three-story row house was designed by local architect George Cary in the Beaux-Arts Neoclassical style. The façade is divided unusually into a quartet of boxy compartments: on the left, the segmentally-arched main entrance is flanked by terra cotta Corinthian pilaster strips decorated with ornate foliate reliefs and topped consecutively by an entablature with medallion reliefs, dentil row, cornice, and deeply recessed enclosed porch with spindle balustrade. The right side is dominated by a two-story rounded bay window flanked with brick Doric pilaster strips and studded with still more reliefs. Dr. Ernest Wende (1853-1910) was a dermatologist and University of Buffalo Medical School professor who, during two separate stints as Buffalo's city Health Commissioner, innovated a raft of policies which were credited with greatly reducing the local death rate from infectious diseases and earned him national renown. Dr. Wende lived in the house until his death. The iconic mural on the house's south side, depicting a reposing lion and titled Grace, was painted in 1997 (and restored in 2021) by local artist Chico Cravotta.