Buffalo, is an American city in western New York. With about 300,000 residents, it is the state's second-largest city, after New York City, and is the county seat of Erie County6. The Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan area has a population of 1.1 million. Despite its cold, industrial image, Buffalo is home to a diverse population and thriving arts, cultural, and nightlife scenes.
Buffalo has gathered several nicknames over the years. The most common - The Queen City refers to its position at the turn of the 20th century as the second-largest city on the Great Lakes, next to Chicago. Buffalo has also been called The Nickel City due to the appearance of a buffalo on the back of american nickels in the early part of the 20th century. The City of Good Neighbors and Tuffalo both refer to the spirits of its inhabitants.
Distancing itself from its industrial past, Buffalo was named by Reader's Digest as the third cleanest city in America.
Also, in 2001 the USA today named Buffalo the winner of it's "City with a Heart" contest proclaiming it the nations "friendliest city."
Naming Dispute
Curiously, the city's name arose not from the same-named animal, but from its location at the origin of the Niagara River. Some claim the name comes from the French "beau fleuve" ("beautiful river"). Other historians cite the fact that Buffalo Creek was so-named long before the naming of the city, and they suggest that the city's name more likely honors the Seneca Indian after whom this small waterway was named.
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Early history of Buffalo
Most of western New York was granted by Charles II of England to the Duke of York (later known as James II of England), but the first European settlement in what is now Erie County was by the French, at the mouth of Buffalo Creek in 1758. Its buildings were destroyed a year later because of an impending British attack. The British took control of the entire region in 1763, at the conclusion of the French and Indian War.
The first American to settle in present day Buffalo was Cornelius Winney, who set up a log cabin store there in 1789 for trading with the Native American community. Dutch investors purchased the area as part of the Holland Land Purchase, and parcels were sold through the Holland Land Company's office in Batavia, New York, starting in 1801. The village was initially called New Amsterdam. In 1808, the new Niagara County, New York was formed (including what is now Erie County), and newly renamed Buffalo became its county seat. By 1811, the predominantly Anglo-American village had grown to 500 people.
The 19th century
Around 1804 the future city was planned by Joseph Ellicott, a principal agent of the Holland Land Company. His plan for the city included a radial street and grid system that branches out from downtown and is one of only three completed radial street patterns in the U.S.A. In 1810 the Town of Buffalo was formed from the western part of the Town of Clarence while still part of Niagara County. On December 30, 1813, during the War of 1812, British troops and their Native American allies captured the village of Buffalo and burned much of it to the ground. Buffalo was rebuilt and re-established as a town in 1816. In 1818 the eastern part of the town was lost to form the Town of Amherst, and in 1839, the northern part of the Town of Buffalo became the Town of Black Rock.
Upon the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, Buffalo became the western end of the 524-mile waterway starting at New York City. At the time Buffalo had a population of about 2,400 people; with the increased commerce of the canal, the population boomed and Buffalo became a city in 1832. Buffalo was re-incorporated as a city in 1853, at which time it had some 10,000 people. The re-incorporation included the Village and Town of Black Rock, which had been Buffalo's early rival for the canal terminus.
Buffalo was a terminus of the Underground Railroad, an informal series of safe houses for runaway slaves who had escaped from the U. S. South in the mid-19th century. After hiding at the Michigan Street Baptist Church, the slaves could take a ferry to Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada and freedom.
Several U.S. presidents have connections with Buffalo. Millard Fillmore took up permanent residence in Buffalo in 1822 before he became America's 13th president; he was also the first chancellor of the University of Buffalo (later University at Buffalo). Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, lived in Buffalo from 1854 until 1882, and served as Buffalo's mayor from 1882–1883. William McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, and died in Buffalo on the 14th. Theodore Roosevelt was then sworn in on September 14th, 1901 at the Wilcox Mansion (now the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site), becoming one of the few presidents to be sworn in outside of Washington, D.C..
John Roberts the Chief Justice of the United States was also born in Buffalo. Other historical personages of note include Nobel laureate Herbert Hauptmann, Iroquois leader Red Jacket, Wells Fargo founder William G. Fargo and Wilson Greatbatch, Inventor of the Pacemaker.
The 20th century
At the turn of the century, Buffalo was a growing city with a burgeoning economy. Immigrants came from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Poland to work in the steel and grain mills which had taken advantage of the city's critical location at the junction of the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal. Hydroelectric power harnessed from nearby Niagara Falls made Buffalo the first American city to enjoy widespread electric power.
The opening of the Peace Bridge linking Buffalo with Fort Erie, Ontario on 7 August 1927 was an occasion for significant celebrations. Those in attendance included Edward, Prince of Wales (later to become Edward VIII of the United Kingdom), his brother Prince Albert George (later George VI), British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Canada's Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, US Vice President Charles G. Dawes, and New York governor Alfred E. Smith.
Buffalo's new City Hall was dedicated on July 1, 1932.
The city's importance declined in the later 20th Century for several reasons, perhaps the most devastating being the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1957. Goods which had previously passed through Buffalo could now bypass it using a series of canals and locks, reaching the ocean via the St. Lawrence River. The city, which boasted over half a million people at its peak, has seen its population decline by some 50 percent, as industries shut down and people left the Rust Belt for the more moderate winters and air-conditioned summers of the South and Southwest. The metropolitan area as a whole has not shrunk by nearly as much, but it is still one of the few metropolitan areas of over 1 million population that has been losing population.
Famous Entertainers
Buffalo has a thriving theater and music scene that has spawned several national acts worth noting. Famous historical musicians of note include Jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., seminal 1940s harmonic group the Modernaires, singer-songwriter Willie Nile, and songwriters Harold Arlen and Jack Yellen. (Arlen didn't care much for his home town; he once quipped that "to commit suicide in Buffalo would be redundant.") Popular modern musicians from Buffalo include funk singer Rick James, bassist Billy Sheehan (of Mr. Big and Talas fame), folk singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco, and The Goo Goo Dolls (colloquially known as "The Goos"). Musical theatre director and choreographer Michael Bennett is also from Buffalo, as is Vincent Gallo, who cast a jaundiced eye on the city and its sports obsession in his film Buffalo 66.
Television news hosts Tim Russert and Wolf Blitzer were raised in the greater Buffalo area, as were Howdy Doody host Buffalo Bob Smith and political satirist Mark Russell. Several prominent actors and actresses also hail from the Buffalo area, including William Sadler, James Whitmore, Gary Sinise, Christine Baranski, Chad Michael Murray, Wendie Malick, Nick Bakay and both John Schuck and Amanda Blake, both of whom were graduates of nearby Amherst High School. Noted TV writers Tom Fontana and David Milch also hail from the Buffalo area. Lucille Ball hails from nearby Jamestown.
Several well known authors hail from the Buffalo area, including Paul Horgan, Joyce Carol Oates, Taylor Caldwell, and playwrights Ruben Santiago-Hudson ("Lackawanna Blues") and A.R. Gurney (The Dining Room and Love Letters).
Mark Twain lived in Buffalo as a part-owner and managing editor of The Buffalo Express from 1869 to 1871. While not technically a Buffalonian, he's remembered by his readers for his time in Buffalo due to his stories "A Day at Niagara Falls" and "The Diaries of Adam and Eve", the latter being a humorous play on the nearby town of Eden.
Other writers who lived in Buffalo included Leslie Fiedler, John Barth and Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee.
In addition, Charles Burchfield, among the most important water color painters, lived in Buffalo for many years.
Buffalo's best-known athlete is probably Hall of Fame lefty Warren Spahn.
Points of interest
Erie Canal
Martin House
McKinley Monument
Niagara Falls
USS Little Rock (CG-4) in Buffalo Naval and Servicemen's Park
Sports teams
Current Teams
The Buffalo Bills, of the National Football League.
The Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League.
The Buffalo Bisons of Minor Leauge Baseball's International League, AAA team for the Cleveland Indians.
The Buffalo Bandits of the National Lacrosse League.
The Buffalo Rapids of the American Basketball Association.
Former Teams
The Buffalo Braves played in the NBA from 1970–1978
The Buffalo Destroyers of the Arena Football League from 1999–2003
The Buffalo Blizzard of the defunct National Professional Soccer League from 1992–2001.
The Buffalo Stallions of the defunct Major Indoor Soccer League from 1979–1984.
The Buffalo Bills from 1947–1949 and Buffalo Bisons in 1946 of the defunct All-America Football Conference.
