Buffalo’s Olmsted Parks and Parkways System

The Frederick Law Olmsted designed parks and parkways system of Buffalo, New York, is America’s oldest coordinated system of public parks and parkways. Buffalo’s Olmsted parks and parkways system was created by the renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), in concert with his partner Calvert Vaux (1824–1895), and their other subsequent partners.

The pioneering design Olmsted and Vaux prepared for Buffalo consisted of three public grounds: a very large park featuring a naturalistic landscape; a public ceremonial space; and a military drill ground. All three grounds were connected by broad “parkways” which excluded all commercial traffic. They form green corridors which extended the park experience throughout the city. Olmsted began his work in Buffalo in 1868. He continued to design public grounds for the rapidly expanding city’s Board of Park Commissioners during the remainder of his career. After Olmsted’s retirement due to ill health in 1897, his firm continued a relationship with Buffalo. That relationship ran through 1915, when the city’s governmental structure was altered and its independent Board of Park Commissioners was dissolved.

Today the majority of Olmsted’s designs in Buffalo are substantially intact. They represent one of the largest bodies of work by the master landscape architect. The Olmsted designed portions of the Buffalo park system are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

  • Original Park and Parkway System:
    • Parks and Pleasure Grounds:
      • The Park (now Delaware Park)
      • The Front (now Front Park)
      • The Parade (redesigned by Olmsted as Humboldt Park in 1896, now Martin Luther King, Jr. Park)
    • Park Approaches:
      • Parkways:
        • Humboldt Parkway (destroyed by highway construction)
        • Lincoln Parkway
        • Chapin Parkway
        • Bidwell Parkway
        • The Avenue (now Richmond Avenue)
        • Porter Avenue
        • Fillmore Avenue (partially completed, but removed from Parks Board control and opened to commercial use in 1906)
      • Circles and Places:
        • The Circle (now Symphony Circle)
        • Soldier’s Place (now Soldier’s Circle)
        • Bidwell Place (now Colonial Circle)
        • Chapin Place (now Gates Circle, central portion and fountain redesigned in 1902 by Green & Wicks)
        • Agassiz Place (now Agassiz Circle, heavily modified with the center island lost)
        • Ferry Street Circle (at Richmond Avenue, center island restored in 2002)
        • “The Bank” (at Niagara and Wadsworth Streets and Massachusetts and Busti Avenues, lost)
    • Smaller Grounds:
  • Later Olmsted-designed additions to the system:
    • Minor Parks:
    • Southern Parks:
      • South Side Parks:
      • Southern Park Approaches: (conceptual design by Olmsted, implemented by Buffalo Parks Board staff)
        • Southern Parkways:
          • South Side Parkway (now McKinley Parkway)
          • Red Jacket Parkway
        • Southern Circles:
          • Woodside Circle (now McClellan Circle)
          • South Side Circle (now McKinley Circle, partially constructed, completed in 2002)
      • Northern Parks:
        • Riverside Park
        • Northern Parkways: (conceptual design by Olmsted, partially implemented by Buffalo Parks Board staff)
          • Scajaquada Parkway (destroyed by highway construction)
          • Roesch Avenue (not constructed)

Frederick Law Olmsted and his firm were also involved in a number of other projects in and around Buffalo. They produced designs for parks which for various reasons the Park Board decided not to construct; and they undertook a number of projects in Buffalo which were unrelated to the work with the Board of Park Commissioners. They were also active in designs for nearby cities, including the design of the Niagara Reservation at Niagara Falls, N.Y., Point Chautauqua community in Chautauqua County, N.Y., several Rochester, N.Y. public parks, and Montebello Park in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

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