This month I am asking readers, what are the undiscovered gems in Buffalo and the surrounding area that I need to visit this year?
Buffalo’s Garden Walk is always fabulous…
In July, I will spend a couple of weeks in a cozy little cottage that’s a stone’s throw from Lake Erie. It’s not far from Point Breeze, where my family rented a similar cottage while I was growing up, and oh, it brings back memories!
While I’m staying there, I like to invite friends and relatives to visit and enjoy the beach, they in turn invite me to visit them in Buffalo, and I never fail to take a drive through the old West Side. This year I have several big reunions to attend on the weekends, so it will be a happy, but very busy time.
But the Open Gardens just outside of Buffalo are equally beautiful. Photos by Moxie Gardiner.
I was delighted to learn about the one and only Kazoo Factory and Museum in Eden, NY, from a reader.
During the week though, when everyone goes back to work, things get quieter and I try to carve out time to explore the Western New York area and all it has to offer. I have my favorites of course—the Buffalo Garden Walk, the Italian Festival, and the Explore Buffalo tours that are always on offer.
But I’m on the lookout for new things and places to write about, and for old things that somehow I’ve missed before. My readers have always been so helpful when it comes to suggestions, so this month I am asking, what are the undiscovered gems in Buffalo and the surrounding area that I need to visit this year?
I’ve been going to Delaware Park since I was a child, but every time I go I find something new….
You’ll see from the photos that I love Buffalo’s parks and gardens, lively waterfront, unusual museums, historical places, and local festivals, among other things. While writing a recent blog about fossil hunting, I learned for the first time about the Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Preserve in Blasdell, so that will be a priority. One of my blog readers suggested the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum in North Tonawanda so I’ll check that out too.
There is lots to see and do at Buffalo’s Italian Heritage Festival, but I go for the food!
Also for the first time, I’ll have a fish fry at the Swannie House restaurant (the oldest in Buffalo) and tour Frank Lloyd Wright’s historic Darwin Martin House. But that still leaves time for plenty of other excursions!
Does Scajaquada Creek have its secrets, aside from the beautiful lily pond shown in the featured photo? Well, I only recently learned that British writer Shadrack Byfield was wounded there during the War of 1812, and ended up having his arm amputated. I’m sure there is more to learn (especially from the Buffalo History Museum which sits on its banks).
Kayaking is my favorite way to see Buffalo’s waterfront. Photo by Dean Gallagher.
I should mention that when my book, Virgin Snow, is published, (with any luck this summer, fingers crossed), I will be back again, probably more than once, to meet with book clubs and readers who like discussing what they read. Hopefully, those trips should afford me additional opportunities to visit places I’m not able to see in July.
Do you have a favorite, little known place in Buffalo, one that others might like to know about? Send me your ideas and suggestions in the comments below. I love to hear them, and you just might see your recommendation mentioned in a future blog!
And yes, I take time to enjoy the beach, and never, ever miss a Lake Erie sunrise, or sunset, if I can help it.
Moxie Gardiner is a writer, gardener, and traveler who grew up on the West Side of Buffalo, NY. In a previous life she was a journalist, magazine editor, speech writer, and policy wonk. Back in the day she made three solo parachute jumps, flew in an F-15 fighter jet, and crawled through mud pits at the Jungle Operations Training Course in Panama. She now meditates and practices yoga. She is almost ready to publish her first novel, set in Buffalo.
I spent many childhood days in Buffalo’s city parks. Little did I know then they were designed by America’s first and greatest landscape architect.
We loved to climb up and visit President Lincoln back then.
In the mid-Atlantic region where I now live, August, not April, is “the cruelest month.” With routine temperatures in the ‘90s, oppressive humidity, and near-nightly thunderstorms that make the days wetter but not cooler, August is the time when everyone either stays inside or leaves town. It’s as if the earth is scolding us for our sins with its hot, fetid breath.
In the Buffalo of my youth, August, on the contrary, was my favorite month. It was that golden slice of time before school started; the last days at the neighborhood swimming pool and evenings sitting on the porch, listening for the familiar melody of the ice cream truck, calling us kids into the streets like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Although we spent most August days within walking distance of our house, on weekends our parents would often load us into the car to visit one of Buffalo’s city parks, where we would scramble out to explore the Buffalo Zoo, climb on the statues in Delaware Park, or roll down the hills in Front Park. The parks gave us room to run, yell, and be as wild as children want to be in the waning days of summer.
Olmsted believed city dwellers need green spaces like this in South Park, for physical and mental wellbeing.
I was thrilled to see that the old stone statues still guard the gates of the Buffalo Zoo in Delaware Park.
I loved the parks, but little did I know at the time that they were carefully designed by America’s first and greatest landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, a man most famously known for designing Central Park in New York City, and the grounds around the US Capitol in Washington, DC. However, his work in Buffalo – the first park and parkway system designed and built in the US – is considered by many to be his best.
Oliver Hazard Perry maintains his vigil over the waters of Niagara from his perch in Front Park.
Buffalo’s Olmsted Park System, created over 150 years ago, includes six major parks, multiple parkways, circles, and small spaces. Each park was to have a unique identity that defined its role in the overall system. Delaware Park, with its large lake and majestic trees, was envisioned as a peaceful natural environment. Front Park, with its majestic view of the Niagara River and Lake Erie, highlighted the water and its military and historical connections. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park (formerly Humboldt Park) was originally intended for public ceremonies, while South Park’s conservatory and botanical gardens emphasized the area’s native plants. Cazenovia’s lake-and-island system was to be surrounded by trees and grasslands, and Riverside’s formal gardens were originally situated along a series of shallow ponds known as the Minnow Pools.
One of my favorite spots in Cazenovia Park.
The wading pool in Martin Luther King, Jr. park is reportedly one of the largest in the country
The minnow pools at Riverside Park are now rock gardens surrounded by flowers.
By the time the 1970s rolled around, decades of neglect, lack of investment in urban centers, and insufficient city budgets left these beautiful parks in sad shape. Fortunately, a group of citizens organized the Friends of Olmsted Parks in 1978 to advocate for them, and in the decades since, the parks have slowly begun to recover.
Olmsted once said, “A park is a work of art, designed to produce certain effects upon the minds of men.” Never have his words been more prescient than during our current pandemic. According to the National Recreation and Parks Association, time spent in parks and green spaces can help individuals fight against mental health issues like depression, anxiety and stress, and enjoy the benefits associated with decreased health complaints, improved blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and a greater ability to face problems.
Young and old enjoy a round of golf at South Park.
Aware of this recent research, I decided to visit all six Olmsted parks this summer to see how they were faring, and observe whether Buffalo urbanites were out seeking the benefits of these natural environments during stressful times. I am pleased to report that all six parks were full of people, even though I visited most of them in the middle of a workday. There were ball games underway, kids running through wading pools, people of all ages walking dogs, sitting on benches, and paddling boats on Hoyt Lake. I have recently read that more than a million people are visiting Buffalo’s parks every year.
Plenty of baseball games at Cazenovia Park.
The cannons at Front Park reflect Buffalo’s role in military history.
Yes, there is more work to be done but the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, charged with the management and operation of these parks since 2004, has developed a “Plan for the 21st Century” to restore the parks to Olmsted’s original vision and complete the system originally conceived as a “city within a park.” The Conservancy says its goal is to restore the parks and parkways “in ways that respect their status as important neighborhood, regional, national, and international resources.”[1]
The Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy is working hard to improve the condition of the parks.
Call me a wimp, but I spent more of the sweltering “dog days” of August inside my mid-Atlantic, air-conditioned house, than outside. I’m happy to know that in Buffalo, many people are following Olmsted’s advice, and doing otherwise.
Do you have a favorite Olmsted park? How are the parks in your neighborhood doing? I would love to hear your stories—past, present and future.
Moxie Gardiner is a writer and gardener who grew up on the West Side of Buffalo, NY. In a previous life she was a journalist, magazine editor, speech writer, and policy wonk. Back in the day she made three solo parachute jumps, flew in an F-15 fighter jet, and crawled through mud pits at the Jungle Operations Training Course in Panama. She now meditates and practices yoga. She is almost ready to publish her first novel, set in Buffalo.
