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SPRING 2021 Volume 20 | Number 4

Lehman Sends Aid

RA B TI LE N E G C 2001 YEARS 2020

N E E W N I Y Z O A 20 G RK A ALSO INSIDE: A M RCH IVES Rep. | Black Women & Justice | Central Park 34

MARKING HISTORY

A Vision for Buffalo BY SUSAN HUGHES

had spent two days observing the city and its surrounding environs. Now, as he presented his vision for the parks and parkways system, the men doubtlessly listened with anticipation to the proposal that would help make Buffalo the great city they imagined. Olmsted spoke of the natural advantages the city possessed such as undulating land requiring less labor to improve, groves of splendid trees, and the desirable character of the soil. He also pro- posed creating a lake from Scajaquada Creek. The area slated for the main park had few existing buildings and, he added, could be bought inexpensively. The committee voted to procure, at their own expense, a detailed plan from Olmsted which would then be presented to the Children wading in Common Council. That November, Olmsted’s the minnow pool at n August 25, 1868, a meeting report was forwarded to the Common Riverside Park. was held at the Delaware Avenue Council by Mayor William Rogers on behalf BUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS POSTCARDS. mansion of Sherman S. Jewett. of the citizens’ committee. Rogers urged the BUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS CONSERVANCY. NEW Those in attendance included Council to “[acquire] at an early day the land YORK HERITAGE DIGITAL COLLECTIONS. 1908-13. OPascal P. Pratt, Richard Flach, Joseph Warren, necessary for securing for our people the RIVERSIDE PARK 347 and William Dorsheimer. Along with Jewett, benefits to be derived from a public park, they would form a “citizens’ committee” proportionate to the wants of a large and whose intent was to urge the Buffalo Common steadily-increasing population.” Council to create a public park. Presiding In April of 1869, the Board of Park over the meeting was former US President Commissioners was created including the five Millard Fillmore. original members of the citizens’ committee. They had gathered to hear the report of One of their first acts was to appoint the firm , a landscape architect of Olmsted, Vaux & Company as landscape who had gained fame for his design of architects for the new Buffalo parks system. Central Park in City. Totaling 750 Today, while the Jewett mansion is gone, acres, Central Park had attracted nationwide the majority of Olmsted’s designs for Buffalo attention and soon every major city wanted a still exist. The 850-acre park system, listed on park designed by the firm of Olmsted, Vaux & the National Register of Historic Places, has Company, including the city of Buffalo. been managed and maintained by the Buffalo At the invitation of Dorsheimer, Olmsted Olmsted Parks Conservancy since 2004.

NEW YORK archives • SPRING 2021 35 WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION

In 2006, the William G. Pomeroy Foundation established its New York State Historic Marker Grant Program to help people celebrate their community’s history. Since then, the Pomeroy Foundation has funded more than 700 markers in nearly all of New York’s sixty-two counties. Across all of the Foundation’s roadside marker grant programs that number reaches over 1,300. Grants for NYS historic markers are available to local, state, and federal government entities; nonprofit academic institutions; and 501(c)(3) organizations in New York State. Funding covers the entire cost of a marker, pole, and shipping. For more information or to apply for a marker at no cost to you, visit: wgpfoundation.org.

Strollers in Humboldt Park with the flowerbeds, vintage cars, shelter, and greenhouse visible.

BUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS POSTCARDS. BUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS CONSERVANCY. NEW YORK HERITAGE DIGITAL COLLECTIONS. 1908-11. HUMBOLDT PARK 308

www.nysarchivestrust.org