We’re Going In: The Decorators' Show House
Where History Meets Whimsy .... And One Room Has a Shark
The George Urban Mansion in Cheektowaga once welcomed the likes of President Grover Cleveland, brewer Gerhard Lang, and other Buffalo legends. These were men of power, grain, and grit —the kind who probably closed deals over bourbon and lager.
Fast-forward to 2025, and the Junior League Decorators’ Show House, open April 26 to May 18, transforms this fabled house to give us spaces that appear made to toast those bygone giants. Among them:
The Urban Lounge, all wood and whiskey, complete with a tiny hidden bar carved out of an old doorway.
A kitchen that pays homage to the Brothers Grimm, with fairy-tale charm and a witchy whisper.
And a bedroom called “Under the Sea,” where a giant shark juts from the wall over a seashell bed.
We’re going in.
A home with surprises
Dating to 1869, the Cheektowaga landmark is the oldest of the 23 Show Houses the Junior League has created. You’ll find the mansion tucked near Villa Maria College, amid acres of historic cemeteries—the first Show House in this vicinity.
Built by Buffalo flour milling magnate George Urban — who started his fortune with a simple grocery store — this farmhouse-turned-mansion was where Grover Cleveland, in 1883, declared his first presidential bid. Urban’s friends also included Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, and brewery king Gerhard Lang, whose generosity graced churches like St. Gerard’s and St. Louis.
It has an unusual and arresting feature — a Miami-themed indoor pool, in the back of the house.
The pool, celebrated with whimsical flair, was added in the 1980s. The rest of the house is full of vintage vibes.
The Urban family had barns and bred racehorses on the property. There were ponies for the clan’s many children, and a pond with rowboats.
The woodwork and carvings reflect a the house’s German-American roots. Gemuetlichkeit the antiquated German inscription over the fireplace.
“It means, ‘Go forth and serve others with the gifts you have been given,” said the Show House chair, Eileen Hall.
Humor and elegance
Hall spoke in the front parlor, a space that radiates color and warmth. Outside on the patio — decorated by Mark Taylor Interiors — a table was set for two, with vintage chairs from the 1940s.
The house was handsome even before the Junior League’s transformation. Though it is 7,200 square feet, it has a homey welcoming vibe. The decorators strove to make it so.
And it seems to have come naturally. Instead of the grand spaces other Show Houses have boasted, the George Urban mansion has modest rooms. Seven bedrooms are in this house, and five bathrooms. Many of these spaces are tiny.
Even the kitchen on the main floor, designed by Lauren Schulte, is the size of an average Buffalo kitchen. There is a swoon-worthy pantry, but that is separate.
“I wanted to keep it very period-friendly,” Schulte said.
She said she had found an age-old oven in the wall, to the left of the fireplace. and when she reached in, she found a baking tray. That baking tray — so appropriate, in the home of a miller — is now on proud display, right where she found it.
However, she was not afraid to introduce new elements, balancing them with the old. The owner of Monarch Kitchen Design Studio, Schulte placed a transparent piece of butterfly art in moss on the mantel, resting on old books beside a massive antique-style mirror.
The moss and other woodland touches give the room a fairy tale, Brothers Grimm feeling. Schulte hopes her imagination will inspire others.
“Everyone doesn’t have a pool room,” she laughed, glancing toward the back of the house. “But everybody has a kitchen.”
Also on the first floor, Michael Michalski of Ethan Allen Design Services dreamed up what he dubbed the “Urban” Lounge, a space where you could imagine gentlemen gathering. Was it here that Grover Cleveland announced his bid? Could be, Michalski laughed.
Like Schulte, Michalski found his challenges as he aimed to honor history. One such challenge was a narrow door in a corner, a door that had once led to the outside, and now led nowhere.
“It was just five inches in depth,” he said. “What do you do? Create a bar!”
And he did, filling the space with bourbon bottles such as George Urban and his friends would have enjoyed after dinner, as they talked over the affairs of the day.
He also sought to update the fireplace — but not permanently.
“How do you be creative within these parameters?” he said. The answer was a fireplace cover that could be removed. “It allowed us to change the room’s aesthetics, and still respect its original bones.”
Ascending the Stairs
The rooms on the second and third floors tend to be smaller than on the first. This is where the decorators really let loose.
“The blue fishy room is interesting,” Hall had promised.
“Interesting” did not begin to describe it.
A bed shaped like a giant seashell lay beneath a big shark jutting out of the wall. Sea vegetation, giant-sized, appeared on the walls. Translucent jellyfish shimmered, suspended from the ceiling. Some of them had — be still my heart — twinkle lights.
What fun, to ponder this unusual space!
The second floor is full of small bedrooms, which invites this kind of creativity. If you are tasked with decorating one of a number of smaller bedrooms, you can feel more free than if you are charged with an important first-floor room. That is what I think anyway, after visiting a number of these Show Houses.
I always feel a special excitement upon entering these smaller rooms!
The best are pocket-sized bathrooms, of which the George Urban mansion has plenty. This house, which I understand is still for sale, would make a beautiful B&B. I will be surprised if it does not end up as one.
Small bathrooms bring out the best in designers, and these showed imagination. A whirlpool tub sported a swan faucet. A claw-foot antique tub was painted black and gold.
A cute touch in an avocado green bathroom: a cool leaf rug.
Into the Clouds
Up we went, following another staircase. There awaited one of the most charming sights in the entire mansion — a meditative sanctuary.
High above the streets, things are quiet. A table was set as if for tea.
Around a corner I beheld, and coveted, a mini writing haven.
I love that the designers imagined the third floor as a haven for adults, not kids!
This top floor also included — heaven! — a kitchen. It has a retro pink and white color scheme, accented by green glasses. It’s a small kitchen, the size many of us have.
“And then I go home to my hovel.”
I always say that as a joke leaving a splendid house. The truth is, though, that this Decorators’ Show House sends you home with special inspiration. It is not a grand manse on Lincoln Parkway. It is a large — albeit a very large — family farmhouse with small spaces and simple touches. This house does not look like a museum. This house looks lived in. Let us call it a Show House for the Common Man. Or, to use current parlance, the People’s Show House.
George Urban would be happy with that.
The 2025 Decorators’ Show House is open April 26 to May 18. Find details here.
Follow the saga of how the 2025 Decorators’ Show House influences Mary’s efforts to improve her own hovel — er, home — here.
Known for her years of writing for The Buffalo News, Mary Kunz Goldman is the author of the book “Pennario,” about her bittersweet friendship with the Grammy-winning piano virtuoso Leonard Pennario in the last year of his life. She is also the author of “Sketches of Buffalo,” a book of drawings of her hometown.
An impressive monument to awesomeness! Oh, how I envy these threads oh history!
Gemuetlichkeit ... I mentioned on another Substack that the Germans have the BEST words! My fav? Panzerschwein. AKA Tank Pig.That's what they named the armadillos when they invaded the US from Mexico during WWII. Hysterical.