Parks and recreation in Buffalo, New York

Hoyt Lake in Delaware Park, with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

The public parks and parkways system of Buffalo, New York was originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux between 1868 and 1896. It was inspired in large part by the parkland, boulevards, and squares of Paris, France. It includes the parks, parkways and circles within the Cazenovia Park–South Park System and Delaware Park–Front Park System, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places and maintained by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy.

Parks

Historical postcard illustrating a bridge in Delaware Park.

• Bennett Place (later Bennett Park, lost)
• Cazenovia Park
• Day's Park
• The Park (now Delaware Park)
• The Front (now Front Park)
• The Parade (AKA Humboldt Park, now Martin Luther King, Jr. Park)
• Masten Place (lost)
• Riverside Park
• South Park
• The Terrace (lost)

Park approaches

Parkways

• Bidwell Parkway
• Chapin Parkway
• Fillmore Avenue
• Humboldt Parkway (lost)
• Lincoln Parkway
• South Side Parkway (now McKinley Parkway)
• Porter Avenue
• Red Jacket Parkway
• The Avenue (now Richmond Avenue)

Circles

• Agassiz Place (now Agassiz Circle)
• Bidwell Place (now Colonial Circle)
• Ferry Circle
• Chapin Place (now Gates Circle)
• Woodside Circle (now McClellan Circle)
• McKinley Circle (only partly constructed, finally completed in 2002)
• Soldier's Place (now Soldier's Circle)
• The Circle (now Symphony Circle)

External links

• Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy
• Olmsted and Vaux in Buffalo, New York
• "Municipal Parks and City Planning: Frederick Law Olmsted's Buffalo Park and Parkway System" by Francis R. Kowsky, reprinted with permission from the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, March 1987.
• The Best Planned City, an online film about Frederick Law Olmsted and the Buffalo Park System
• New York Heritage - Buffalo Olmsted Parks postcards and stereoviews