Erected in 1907 in commemoration of the assassination of President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition exactly six years prior, this gleaming 96-foot (29 m) obelisk of Vermont marble anchors ”’Niagara Square”’ at the focal point of Joseph Ellicott’s 1807 radial street plan. The McKinley Monument was designed by Carrere and Hastings, the same architects in charge of the Exposition, the lions and turtles resting at its base (symbols, respectively, of strength and eternal life) were carved by well-known sculptor A. Phimister Proctor. The monument was also the subject of Carl Sandburg’s poem Slants at Buffalo, New York.