J.J. Albright donated $330,000 at the turn of the century for the construction of an art gallery for Buffalo. The site selected was at the edge of the city's biggest Olmsted
park, The Park (known as Delaware Park today). It was to have been open in time to serve as the Pan American Exposition's Art Gallery but labor difficulties and material delays forced the Exposition Company to construct a temporary Art Gallery. In 1902, the task of landscaping the grounds around the Albright Art Gallery (as it was commonly known even before it opened) fell to the Park Commission. On May 23, 1902, Commission Secretary George H. Selkirk said, "..the grading has been
begun, and the building of terraces and embellishing the grounds around the building will be taken up in due time. It is, I believe, the intention of the commission to place the beautiful building, which Mr. Albright has given to the
city, in a frame in keeping with its magnificence."