Buffalo

About Buffalo

Buffalo is the second largest city in New York State, set at the eastern end of Lake Erie where the Niagara River begins its run north to Niagara Falls. It grew from a small frontier village into a booming port when the Erie Canal opened in 1825 with its western terminus here, making Buffalo the gateway between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic. Grain elevators, steel mills and railroads followed, and by 1900 Buffalo was one of the richest cities in America, the first to have widespread electric streetlights, powered by Niagara Falls, and host of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition.

That wealth left an extraordinary architectural legacy. Buffalo has buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, H. H. Richardson and Louis Sullivan, a park system designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, and one of the finest art deco city halls in the country. Today the city has about 275,000 residents and has enjoyed a strong revival, with the reborn Canalside waterfront, the restored Richardson Olmsted Campus and a thriving food scene. It is, of course, the birthplace of the Buffalo chicken wing, first served at the Anchor Bar in 1964, and home to the passionate fans of the Bills and Sabres.

Visitors find much to admire. Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House is one of his masterpieces, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum holds a world-class modern collection in a striking expanded campus, and Delaware Park and Forest Lawn Cemetery showcase Olmsted's landscapes. Canalside offers boat tours, kayaking and winter ice skating, the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park displays warships on the waterfront, and Niagara Falls is only a 30-minute drive away.