The University of Buffalo was incorporated by an act of the New York State Legislature on May 11, 1846. Originally chartered to establish "academic, theological, legal and medical departments," it developed initially as a medical school with Millard Fillmore as its first chancellor. The school began operations in a leased building at the corner of Seneca and Washington Streets on February 25, 1847, with 72 students and a faculty of seven physicians.

UB constructed its first building, a two and one-half story brownstone structure, at Main and Virginia Streets in 1849. At the dedication, Fillmore called for the university to fulfill its original promise and to establish academic branches and a department of law.

Expansion in the spirit Fillmore envisioned eventually gained impetus in the late 1880s and early 1890s, under the chancellorship of E. Carlton Sprague. The School of Pharmacy was organized as the second division of the university in 1886. An independently established Law School, begun in 1887, was incorporated into the university in 1891, and in 1892 the School of Dentistry was opened. In 1893, the medical school moved to a building on High Street. -P.D.