Delaware Park-Front Park System

Buffalo's park system is a linked network of parks, circles and broad tree-lined parkways laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux beginning with their 1870 plan, and expanded by Olmsted's successors. Delaware Park, a 376-acre tract in north Buffalo, includes a meadow, a lake created by damming Scajaquada Creek, a ravine and the zoo. Front Park overlooks the Niagara River, and Columbus Park and Martin Luther King Jr. Park lie on the west and east sides of the city. Parkways such as Bidwell, Chapin and Lincoln, each about 200 feet wide, end in circles including Soldier's Place, Gates Circle and Colonial Circle. Older streets like Richmond and Porter Avenues were widened and lined with elms to join the parks. The nomination describes these as the first parkways built in the United States and as a means of encouraging separate houses in the northern city. Later changes include expressways, the Peace Bridge approaches and modern zoo buildings.