Buffalo/North Buffalo

Perhaps North Buffalo doesn't have the immediate cachet of other parts of the city. The clothing boutiques on Hertel stock fashions that may not be as up-to-the-minute as the ones in the Elmwood Village. The bars are more likely to be populated by neighborhood regulars than the cooler-than-thou hipsters you'll find in Allentown. But that's okay. More so than perhaps any other area of Buffalo, regular folks can spend a whole day shopping here and they won't experience condescension — they'll meet friendly, outgoing shopkeepers genuinely glad to see them. Budget-conscious travelers can eat well in North Buffalo's restaurants without being bowled over when they see the bill.

But North Buffalo is much more than shopping, dining, and nightlife. North Buffalo is architecture — Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin House in Parkside, and the mansions in Park Meadow and Central Park, will have you ooh-ing and aah-ing. North Buffalo is art — Hertel Avenue has more than its share of galleries tucked among the shops and restaurants, and the UB Anderson Gallery is truly one of the city's unknown treasures. And North Buffalo is culture — with not one but two colleges and universities adding their flavors to the mix, Erie County's most-visited tourist attraction (the Buffalo Zoo), and a growing theater scene.

Speaking of culture, North Buffalo is, in particular, Italian-American culture. Hertel Avenue is Buffalo's Little Italy, a paradise for fans of pasta with red sauce, pizza, and fine wines. And if you're looking for a delightfully gaudy little tchotchke to send home to Nona, this is your place.

Understand
North Buffalo comprises a number of distinct neighborhoods. As described above, the stretch of between Delaware and roughly Parker Avenues boasts some of the city's best restaurants as well as a growing range of shops and art galleries. As you head west from there, you pass a series of suburban-style strip malls lining Delaware and Elmwood Avenues, and then you come into, a quiet, off-the-beaten-path area where working-class apartments and industrial warehouses coexist. Elsewhere, is centered along Main Street at Buffalo's far northeast corner, dominated at its outer end by the University at Buffalo's South Campus and with a small but lively collection of restaurants, bars and shops along Main Street catering to a diverse student population. Southwest of University Heights adjacent to Main Street are a trio of quiet, pleasant residential neighborhoods: from north to south,, where some of Buffalo's most palatial mansions can be found, the , a tiny enclave bounded by Amherst Street, Main Street, and the Belt Line railroad tracks, and , a leafy neighborhood of curvilinear streets designed by eminent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted also designed, an upscale residential area west of Parkside, sandwiched between Amherst Street and Delaware Park.

History
North Buffalo's location further from downtown than any other part of the city, as well as its poorly drained topography, conspired to make it the last part of Buffalo to urbanize. Being located at the foot of the Onondaga Escarpment in what was once the bed of a glacial lake, the marshy land of North Buffalo — or the Buffalo Plains, as the area was called in the early days — made it far less suitable for agriculture than the ground above that low ridge of flint. Cornelius Creek, which roughly followed the course of today's Hertel Avenue from its headwaters near what is today the corner of Parkside Avenue, traversed North Buffalo until sometime in the 1880s, when it was buried as part of the city's storm drain system. An outpost of civilization in this wilderness was the Great Iroquois Trail (today's Main Street), which was an important thoroughfare between Buffalo and points east such as Williamsville and Clarence Hollow that ran along the crest of the escarpment. Like the aforementioned hamlets, the farmsteads along that road played an important role in the War of 1812 as refuges for residents of Buffalo and Black Rock which were burned by the British in December 1813, and, in the case of Dr. Daniel Chapin's farm in what is now Parkside, as the site of the Flint Hill Encampment, where the Army of the Frontier under General Alexander Smythe spent that same winter. However, even as the city to its south grew astronomically, North Buffalo remained a rural backwater even well after 1868, the year Frederick Law Olmsted laid out the centerpiece of Buffalo's park system, Delaware Park, on land just south of here.



It was the construction of the New York Central Railroad's Belt Line in 1882 — a 15-mile (24 km) loop intended to enable residents of Buffalo's outskirts to commute to jobs downtown — that spurred the beginning of urbanization in North Buffalo. As early as 1876, Frederick Law Olmsted had planned to follow up the success of Delaware Park with a development he called Parkside, a verdant residential neighborhood adjacent to the park that would serve as a buffer between the pastoral park system and the bustle and congestion of the city. Now, with the construction of the railroad having driven up property values, construction of Parkside could begin in earnest. By the turn of the century, the ample houses of Parkside were occupied by a growing number of Buffalo's richest citizens — including Larkin Soap Company executive Darwin D. Martin, who moved into a substantial home on Jewett Parkway designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Immediately north of Parkside, across the tracks of the Belt Line, local business magnate Lewis Bennett had success with Central Park, a similarly upscale neighborhood situated on his former estate that he developed beginning in 1890; further west, the first houses and streets began appearing in what is now West Hertel, just northeast of the corner of Hertel Avenue and Military Road.

It was not until after 1900, however, that the development of North Buffalo came to full fruition. Despite the success of Parkside and Central Park, when the Pan-American Exposition was held in 1901, the remainder of North Buffalo was still sparsely populated farmland. However, the presence of visitors who came by the tens of thousands to the Exposition — many of whom arrived there via the Belt Line — spurred real estate speculators to buy up farmland in preparation for the inevitable rush of new residents. The Pan-American Exposition, a World's Fair that was intended to show off Buffalo's industrial might, was held on a parcel of vacant land north of Delaware Park that Olmsted had earlier planned as a future western extension of Parkside. Afterward, beginning about 1920, the luxurious neighborhood known today as Park Meadow was laid out on the former Exposition grounds.

Elsewhere in North Buffalo, the University of Buffalo purchased the 153-acre (61-ha) site of the former Erie County Alms House in the far northeast corner of the city in 1912, moving its rapidly growing campus there from downtown and setting off a similar land rush in what is now University Heights. Hertel Avenue, for its part, was becoming the neighborhood of choice for Buffalo's Jewish community — mainly Orthodox Jews from Russia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe — who were gradually being displaced from their traditional homes on the Near East Side and in Hamlin Park by a growing African-American population.

World War II saw the last remaining bits of empty land in the city — including the area between Elmwood and Delaware Avenues north of the Belt Line, much of West Hertel, and along the south side of Kenmore Avenue west of Elmwood — eaten up with the construction of wartime factories and hastily-built housing for returning GIs. However, after the war, Buffalo, like many cities in the so-called Rust Belt, saw its formerly steady growth stagnate and decline. These were certainly trying times for North Buffalo; for instance, for the first time in its history the formerly posh neighborhood of Parkside found itself grappling with social issues such as slumlords and vacant buildings, which led to the foundation of the Parkside Community Association in 1963. But, by and large, North Buffalo was able to hang on better than other areas of the city. Aside from the construction of the Scajaquada Expressway in 1962 through verdant Delaware Park, the urban renewal that wrought havoc on other areas of the city left North Buffalo mostly unscathed — enabling the addition of the Parkside East Historic District and the Parkside West Historic District (i.e. Park Meadow) to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Meanwhile, the stabilizing presence of UB and its large and diverse student population did much to insulate University Heights from the ghettoization that ravaged adjacent East Side neighborhoods such as Kensington-Bailey and Kensington Heights in the 1960s and '70s.



Perhaps the greatest change to take place in North Buffalo at this time, however, was in its ethnic makeup. In the early and mid-1960s, as the Lower West Side fell to the wrecking ball as part of a misguided campaign of "slum clearance", many of the Italian-Americans who'd been evicted from those blocks began to drift into the vicinity of Hertel Avenue, displacing the Jewish community in that area which dispersed over the ensuing decades, largely into suburban Amherst. Even the Italian Village Festival, heretofore held on Connecticut Street in the West Side, picked up stakes and moved north in 1988, where it went on to become one of the biggest Italian-American street festivals in the nation. But by 2011, when the city government finally got around to officializing this change by festooning the streetlamps along Hertel with handsome red-white-and-green signs reading "Welcome to Little Italy", it was almost too late: the next phase of its demographic evolution was already in progress. The whole city was on an upswing at this time, and in its toniest neighborhood, the Elmwood Village, gentrification had proceeded to such a degree that small businesses could no longer afford the astronomical rents their landlords were charging. Many Elmwood shopkeepers and restaurateurs chose to move elsewhere in the city, and the already thriving but significantly less expensive Hertel strip was a prime destination for those displaced businesses. The result has been not only that Hertel has overtaken Elmwood as Buffalo's liveliest shopping, eating, and nightlife street, but also that Little Italy is getting progressively less and less Italian: the older pizzerias, bakeries, and wine bars are nowadays joined by a diversity of new shops and businesses catering to every taste.

Visitor information
The Parkside Community Association maintains a website that contains neighborhood news and event listings, and — most notably by far — is an extremely comprehensive resource for information about Parkside's rich history, with an extensive written history of the neighborhood spanning the 18th Century to the present day, descriptions of many old houses and historic sites on its leafy streets, historic maps, and a myriad of other resources.

The University Heights Collaborative's website contains information on restaurants, nightlife, community happenings, and other items of interest to those visiting University Heights.

By car
The Scajaquada Expressway (NY 198) is a short highway that passes through North Buffalo, extending between the Kensington Expressway on the East Side and Interstate 190 in Black Rock. The Scajaquada passes through the south end of Parkside and traverses Delaware Park, after which point it enters the West Side. Interchanges at Main Street and Parkside Avenue provide access to Parkside, Central Park, the Vernon Triangle, and (further afield) University Heights, while Hertel Avenue and Park Meadow are best accessible via the northbound Delaware Avenue and Elmwood Avenue exits.

Hertel Avenue can be almost inarguably considered the "main drag" of North Buffalo, passing from west to east through the heart of Buffalo's "Little Italy" and ending at Main Street just past the south end of University Heights. In addition, Kenmore Avenue straddles Buffalo's northern border with the suburban communities of Tonawanda and Kenmore, and Amherst Street passes through the residential areas of Parkside, Central Park, and Park Meadow, at the southern edge of North Buffalo. Major north-south routes in North Buffalo include, from west to east: Military Road (NY 265), Elmwood Avenue, Delaware Avenue (NY 384), Colvin Avenue, Parkside Avenue, Starin Avenue, and Main Street (NY 5).

In the Hertel Avenue business district, parking can be hard to come by on Hertel itself as well as on side streets within a block or so of the main drag. Parking meters are in place on Hertel along essentially the entire length of the business district (from Wallace to Virgil Avenues); paid parking is in effect Monday through Saturday until 5PM, at a rate of 50¢ per hour up to a maximum of two hours. The two free parking lots provided by the Hertel-North Buffalo Business Association are often your best bet for parking on the Hertel strip. These lots are located, respectively, next to Terrapin Station near the corner of Virgil Avenue, and next to Hertel Avenue Poutine and Cream near the corner of Sterling Avenue.

Though finding a spot in the University Heights business district can be difficult, parking along Main Street between LaSalle and University Avenues is free (though limited to two hours). On-street parking on Main Street north of University Avenue is prohibited, but most businesses at the outer extremity of University Heights have their own parking lots, so this shouldn't pose too much of a problem. There are also three free parking lots on the north side of Main Street: at West Winspear Avenue behind the Mobil gas station, at Heath Street behind the (this one is closed to the public during the community center's business hours), and at Englewood Avenue adjacent to the former P. J. Bottoms. Parking in these lots is limited to two hours. Perhaps your best bet for parking in University Heights, however, are the large, free NFTA Park-and-Ride lots at the University and LaSalle rail stations — see the By Metro Rail section below.

In Parkside, Central Park, Park Meadow, West Hertel, and elsewhere in North Buffalo, on-street parking is free and plentiful.

Car sharing
Members of the Zipcar car-sharing program have access to five vehicles located on UB South Campus. In the Main-Bailey Lot located adjacent to there's a Ford Focus ($7.50/hr or $69/day M-Th, $8.50/hr or $77/day F-Su) and a Honda Civic ($8.50/hr or $69/day M-Th, $9.50/hr or $77/day F-Su), and in the Townsend Lot next to  there's a Mazda 3 ($8.50/hr or $69/day M-Th, $9.50/hr or $77/day F-Su), a Ford Fiesta ($7.50/hr or $69/day M-Th, $8.50/hr or $77/day F-Su), and another Honda Civic (same price as the one at Goodyear Hall). All quoted prices include fuel, insurance, and 180 free miles (about 290 free kilometers) per day.

By public transportation
Public transit in Buffalo and the surrounding area is provided by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA). The NFTA Metro system encompasses a single-line light-rail rapid transit (LRRT) system and an extensive network of buses. The fare for a single trip on a bus or train is $2.00 regardless of length. No transfers are provided between buses or trains; travelers who will need to make multiple trips per day on public transit should consider purchasing an all-day pass for $5.00.

By bus
North Buffalo is traversed by a number of NFTA Metro bus routes:

To and from downtown
NFTA Metro Bus #3 — Grant. Beginning at the city line at the corner of Kenmore Avenue and Military Road, Bus #3 proceeds westward down Kenmore Avenue through Riverside, re-entering North Buffalo at the corner of Military Road and Skillen Street and continuing southward down Military Road through West Hertel, ending downtown.

NFTA Metro Bus #5 — Niagara-Kenmore. Beginning at the University Metro Rail Station, Bus #5 proceeds westward down Kenmore Avenue, then entering Black Rock and continuing through the West Side via Niagara Street, finally ending downtown.

NFTA Metro Bus #8 — Main. Beginning at the University Metro Rail Station, Bus #8 proceeds down Main Street along the east edge of the district, through University Heights, Central Park, the Vernon Triangle, and Parkside (with service to all Metro Rail stations in the district), ending downtown.

NFTA Metro Bus #11 — Colvin. Beginning in Tonawanda, Bus #11 proceeds down Colvin Avenue through North Buffalo, then turns west at Hertel Avenue. Turning south again on Delaware Avenue, the bus passes through Park Meadow with service to Delaware Park before ending its run downtown.

NFTA Metro Bus #20 — Elmwood. Beginning in Tonawanda, Bus #20 proceeds down Elmwood Avenue through North Buffalo, with access to the Regal Elmwood Center and Tops shopping plazas, and ends downtown.

NFTA Metro Bus #25 — Delaware. Beginning in Tonawanda, Bus #25 proceeds down Delaware Avenue through North Buffalo. The bus passes the Delaware Consumer Square (Target) and Delaware Place shopping plazas, then proceeds perpendicularly across the Hertel Avenue corridor, through Park Meadow, and past Delaware Park, ending downtown.

Crosstown routes
NFTA Metro Bus #23 — Fillmore-Hertel. Beginning at the Black Rock-Riverside Transit Hub, Bus #23 proceeds eastward along Hertel Avenue to Main Street, where it turns south and accesses the Amherst Street Metro Rail Station. The bus then enters the East Side via Fillmore Avenue and ends in South Buffalo.

NFTA Metro Bus #32 — Amherst. Beginning at the Black Rock-Riverside Transit Hub, Bus #32 proceeds along Amherst Street, detouring briefly into the Elmwood Village via Elmwood Avenue, with service to Buffalo State College and the Museum District. After returning to Amherst Street, Bus #32 proceeds eastward through Park Meadow, Parkside, Central Park, and the Vernon Triangle, then passes the Amherst Street Metro Rail Station and proceeds further eastward into the East Side, ending at the Thruway Mall Transit Center in Cheektowaga.

By Metro Rail
The Metro Rail is an LRRT line that extends along Main Street from the University at Buffalo's South Campus southward to downtown, along the eastern border of North Buffalo. The Metro Rail serves as the backbone of Buffalo's public transit system, accessed directly by many bus routes. Like the buses, the fare for the Metro Rail is $2.00 ($4.00 round-trip); the $5.00 all-day passes available on Metro buses are also valid for the Metro Rail.

There are four Metro Rail stations located in North Buffalo. From north to south, they are:


 * — Main Street at UB South Campus (University Heights).
 * — Main Street at LaSalle Avenue (University Heights).
 * — Main Street at Amherst Street (Central Park/Vernon Triangle).
 * — Main Street at Humboldt Parkway (Parkside).

It bears mentioning that the University Station is a major node in Buffalo's public transportation network, served directly by no fewer than eleven bus routes, as well as the subway. In particular, anyone travelling on public transit from Buffalo to one of its northern suburbs, such as Tonawanda or Amherst, will very likely have to transfer at the University Station.

Also, the NFTA operates a large 600-space on Main Street, adjacent to the University Station, and an even larger (and generally much less crowded) 800-space  behind the LaSalle Station. Parking in these lots is free, and they're great for people whose hotel may be located in the aforementioned northern suburbs but would like to visit North Buffalo (or anywhere else the Metro Rail goes). Users of the University Park-and-Ride in particular should ensure that they are parked in the correct place — the Park-and-Ride lot is surrounded by a number of other lots that are reserved for students and faculty of UB, and campus police will not hesitate to ticket cars without parking passes parked in reserved spaces.

By bike
Buffalo has made great strides in accommodating bicycling as a mode of transportation, with recognition from the League of American Bicyclists as a Bronze-Level "Bicycle-Friendly Community" to show for its efforts. Sadly, the bicycle infrastructure in North Buffalo is relatively underdeveloped compared to other parts of the city, and especially compared to other upscale neighborhoods such as the Elmwood Village and Allentown. However, this is not to say that North Buffalo is not a thoroughly enjoyable place to see by bike — the safe, quiet, and leafy streets of Park Meadow, Parkside, and Central Park are a cyclist's dream come true, with magnificent scenery to admire on the way to one's destination courtesy of the grandiose and architecturally distinguished housing stock of those areas.

What specialized bike infrastructure there is in North Buffalo is largely centered around Delaware Park. Meadow Drive, the 1.8-mile (2.9 km) ring road that circumnavigates the Delaware Park Golf Course and passes within view of the Buffalo Zoo and the some of the grand old mansions of Park Meadow, is delightful for walkers, joggers and bicyclists alike. Though 1.1 miles (1.7 km) of Meadow Drive — from Agassiz Circle to Meadow Road — is also open to automobile traffic, traffic is generally quite light and speed limits for cars are very low (15 mph, or 24 km/h) and enforced strictly. Additionally, the Scajaquada Creekside Trail, also known as the Jesse Kregal Bike Path, begins in Park Meadow near the corner of Lincoln Parkway and Nottingham Terrace (a pedestrian bridge over the Scajaquada Expressway provides access from the Hoyt Lake trail) and proceeds 2.4 miles (3.8 km) along the north bank of Scajaquada Creek, passing the Japanese Garden and the Buffalo History Museum on its way into the West Side, where it ends at the Shoreline Trail in Black Rock.

Away from Delaware Park, University Heights boasts North Buffalo Rails-to-Trails, a network of paved multi-use trails, 1.4 miles (2.2 km) in total length, straddling the former Erie Railroad right-of-way. The main branch begins at the back end of the Park & Ride lot at LaSalle Metro Rail Station and extends along the west side of the old railroad embankment, with access to Shoshone Park near its south end. On the opposite side of the embankment is the, which (along with a short spur west to Taunton Place) converges with the main line near the west end of Merrimac Street. From there, the route continues further northwest to the city line at Kenmore Avenue, whenceforth the Tonawanda Rails-to-Trails leads into downtown Tonawanda, with a further extension planned to connect to the Erie Canalway Trail. The entirety of the network is open to both cyclists and pedestrians, but the former are better off sticking to the straighter and better-maintained main line, while the latter are safest in the Linear Park, which unlike its counterpart is outfitted with security cameras.

You'll also find infrastructure for cyclists on many of North Buffalo's streets themselves. In Park Meadow, a pair of bike lanes extends along each side of Lincoln Parkway leading north from Delaware Park, between Nottingham Terrace and Amherst Street. As well, you'll find "sharrows" (pavement markings on roads too narrow to accommodate dedicated bike lanes, indicating that drivers should be aware of bicyclists on the road) along Main Street between Bailey Avenue and Humboldt Parkway, extending westward from the North Buffalo Rail Trail along Brinton Street and St. Lawrence Avenue as far as Campbell Avenue, and extending westward from Nottingham Terrace along Amherst Street out past the edge of the neighborhood and into Black Rock.

GO Bike Buffalo, the local organization that promotes and advocates for cycling and other sustainable transportation alternatives in Buffalo, operates a at 98 Colvin Ave in Park Meadow. There, a range of used bicycle parts and complete refurbished bikes are available for sale, as well as special programs periodically throughout the year; unwanted bicycles can also be donated (tax-deductible). The Community Bicycle Workshop is open Tu 6PM-9PM and Su 1PM-5PM, and also Th 6PM-9PM during summer only.

Bike sharing
North Buffalo has six Reddy Bikeshare racks:

In addition to the above, UB Bikeshare  is a presence on the South Campus. Though these bikes are part of the Reddy system, you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise: for instance, UB bikes are of a different model and sport a blue-and-white color scheme that's starkly distinct from the fire engine-red color of normal Reddy bikes, and their spokespeople are on record as saying the UB network is intended for use by students and generally try to steer non-students away from campus bikes. Nonetheless, if you're in a pinch, the UB bikes are fully accessible to ordinary Reddy members and work the same was as any other bike in the network. You can even drop them off at off-campus racks (though, again, the folks at Reddy prefer that you don't). UB Bikeshare racks can be found:
 * on the north side of Hertel Avenue between North Park and Norwalk Avenues, in front of the North Park Theatre
 * on the east side of Parkside Avenue at the corner of Hertel Avenue, alongside M&T Bank
 * on the north side of Hertel Avenue at the corner of Parker Avenue, in front of the Daily Planet Coffee Company
 * adjacent to Delaware Park, in the back of the parking lot of St. George Orthodox Church at the corner of Amherst Street and Nottingham Terrace
 * on the south side of Amherst Street at the corner of Parker Avenue, in front of the entrance to the Amherst Street Metro Rail Station
 * on the west side of Main Street at the corner of LaSalle Avenue, in front of the LaSalle Metro Rail Station


 * on the north side of Goodyear Road, at the entrance to Goodyear Hall
 * at the back end of Main Circle, in front of Abbott Hall
 * near the corner of Hayes and Winridge Roads, at the west end of the Pharmacy Building

On foot
Being a more spread-out area with attractions often spaced a good distance from each other, North Buffalo is relatively less amenable to pedestrians than other upscale Buffalo neighborhoods such as the Elmwood Village and Allentown. Exceptions include Hertel Avenue and Main Street in University Heights, both boasting dense and lively concentrations of shops, bars, restaurants, and other attractions. Also, the safe, verdant streets of Parkside, Park Meadow and Central Park are pleasant places for a leisurely stroll.

History




Parks

 * Though Delaware Park is far from the only Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park in Buffalo, by comparison with other areas of the city North Buffalo is sadly lacking in green space. Though all of Buffalo is crisscrossed by Olmsted's park and parkway system, only one of those parkways — the northern extension of Lincoln Parkway through Park Meadow, between Nottingham Terrace and Great Arrow Avenue — passes through North Buffalo. In fact, it's arguable whether this portion of Lincoln can really be considered a "parkway" in the Olmstedian sense: though his plans for the neighborhood did include Lincoln Parkway, as actually constructed the street's ambience is much less open and pastoral than true Olmsted parkways like Chapin and Bidwell, and the setback between houses and street is not nearly as great. is the only other park in North Buffalo of any note; it's on 16.5 acres (6.6 ha) of land at the east end of Hertel Avenue about midway between Little Italy and University Heights, Shoshone Park boasts six baseball diamonds, a playground, and a swimming pool.
 * Though Delaware Park is far from the only Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park in Buffalo, by comparison with other areas of the city North Buffalo is sadly lacking in green space. Though all of Buffalo is crisscrossed by Olmsted's park and parkway system, only one of those parkways — the northern extension of Lincoln Parkway through Park Meadow, between Nottingham Terrace and Great Arrow Avenue — passes through North Buffalo. In fact, it's arguable whether this portion of Lincoln can really be considered a "parkway" in the Olmstedian sense: though his plans for the neighborhood did include Lincoln Parkway, as actually constructed the street's ambience is much less open and pastoral than true Olmsted parkways like Chapin and Bidwell, and the setback between houses and street is not nearly as great. is the only other park in North Buffalo of any note; it's on 16.5 acres (6.6 ha) of land at the east end of Hertel Avenue about midway between Little Italy and University Heights, Shoshone Park boasts six baseball diamonds, a playground, and a swimming pool.
 * Though Delaware Park is far from the only Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park in Buffalo, by comparison with other areas of the city North Buffalo is sadly lacking in green space. Though all of Buffalo is crisscrossed by Olmsted's park and parkway system, only one of those parkways — the northern extension of Lincoln Parkway through Park Meadow, between Nottingham Terrace and Great Arrow Avenue — passes through North Buffalo. In fact, it's arguable whether this portion of Lincoln can really be considered a "parkway" in the Olmstedian sense: though his plans for the neighborhood did include Lincoln Parkway, as actually constructed the street's ambience is much less open and pastoral than true Olmsted parkways like Chapin and Bidwell, and the setback between houses and street is not nearly as great. is the only other park in North Buffalo of any note; it's on 16.5 acres (6.6 ha) of land at the east end of Hertel Avenue about midway between Little Italy and University Heights, Shoshone Park boasts six baseball diamonds, a playground, and a swimming pool.
 * Though Delaware Park is far from the only Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park in Buffalo, by comparison with other areas of the city North Buffalo is sadly lacking in green space. Though all of Buffalo is crisscrossed by Olmsted's park and parkway system, only one of those parkways — the northern extension of Lincoln Parkway through Park Meadow, between Nottingham Terrace and Great Arrow Avenue — passes through North Buffalo. In fact, it's arguable whether this portion of Lincoln can really be considered a "parkway" in the Olmstedian sense: though his plans for the neighborhood did include Lincoln Parkway, as actually constructed the street's ambience is much less open and pastoral than true Olmsted parkways like Chapin and Bidwell, and the setback between houses and street is not nearly as great. is the only other park in North Buffalo of any note; it's on 16.5 acres (6.6 ha) of land at the east end of Hertel Avenue about midway between Little Italy and University Heights, Shoshone Park boasts six baseball diamonds, a playground, and a swimming pool.
 * Though Delaware Park is far from the only Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park in Buffalo, by comparison with other areas of the city North Buffalo is sadly lacking in green space. Though all of Buffalo is crisscrossed by Olmsted's park and parkway system, only one of those parkways — the northern extension of Lincoln Parkway through Park Meadow, between Nottingham Terrace and Great Arrow Avenue — passes through North Buffalo. In fact, it's arguable whether this portion of Lincoln can really be considered a "parkway" in the Olmstedian sense: though his plans for the neighborhood did include Lincoln Parkway, as actually constructed the street's ambience is much less open and pastoral than true Olmsted parkways like Chapin and Bidwell, and the setback between houses and street is not nearly as great. is the only other park in North Buffalo of any note; it's on 16.5 acres (6.6 ha) of land at the east end of Hertel Avenue about midway between Little Italy and University Heights, Shoshone Park boasts six baseball diamonds, a playground, and a swimming pool.
 * Though Delaware Park is far from the only Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park in Buffalo, by comparison with other areas of the city North Buffalo is sadly lacking in green space. Though all of Buffalo is crisscrossed by Olmsted's park and parkway system, only one of those parkways — the northern extension of Lincoln Parkway through Park Meadow, between Nottingham Terrace and Great Arrow Avenue — passes through North Buffalo. In fact, it's arguable whether this portion of Lincoln can really be considered a "parkway" in the Olmstedian sense: though his plans for the neighborhood did include Lincoln Parkway, as actually constructed the street's ambience is much less open and pastoral than true Olmsted parkways like Chapin and Bidwell, and the setback between houses and street is not nearly as great. is the only other park in North Buffalo of any note; it's on 16.5 acres (6.6 ha) of land at the east end of Hertel Avenue about midway between Little Italy and University Heights, Shoshone Park boasts six baseball diamonds, a playground, and a swimming pool.
 * Though Delaware Park is far from the only Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park in Buffalo, by comparison with other areas of the city North Buffalo is sadly lacking in green space. Though all of Buffalo is crisscrossed by Olmsted's park and parkway system, only one of those parkways — the northern extension of Lincoln Parkway through Park Meadow, between Nottingham Terrace and Great Arrow Avenue — passes through North Buffalo. In fact, it's arguable whether this portion of Lincoln can really be considered a "parkway" in the Olmstedian sense: though his plans for the neighborhood did include Lincoln Parkway, as actually constructed the street's ambience is much less open and pastoral than true Olmsted parkways like Chapin and Bidwell, and the setback between houses and street is not nearly as great. is the only other park in North Buffalo of any note; it's on 16.5 acres (6.6 ha) of land at the east end of Hertel Avenue about midway between Little Italy and University Heights, Shoshone Park boasts six baseball diamonds, a playground, and a swimming pool.

Architecture
More and more, Buffalo's exquisite and well-preserved architecture has grabbed the attention of locals and tourists alike. As of March 2020, there are 12 historic neighborhoods in Buffalo listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as 11 additional ones that have been granted landmark status by the Buffalo Preservation Board. Three of those districts are located in North Buffalo:


 * The
 * The
 * The

Additionally, though it is not listed on either the local, state or national historic registers, another neighborhood that's noteworthy for aficionados of history and architecture is



Parkside is also the home of what is undoubtedly the premier attraction in Buffalo for architecture buffs:



The Darwin Martin House is not the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in North Buffalo. Another one, the, can also be found in Parkside. Located at 57 Tillinghast Place in the northwest extremity of the neighborhood, the Davidson House was designed for its namesake, who was an executive at the Larkin Company between 1906 and 1913, thereafter founding the Davidson Shoe Company. Though it's noticeably smaller and more unassuming than the Darwin Martin House — the smaller budget Wright worked with in constructing the Davidson House was perhaps a forerunner of the "Usonian" houses he designed for middle-class clients toward the end of his career — its modest scale belies a stunning two-story living room dominated by a massive bay window at its east end. Sadly, the Walter Davidson House is privately owned and not open for tours.

Spring




Theater




Billiards




Learn
Located on 154 acres (62 ha) of land in University Heights, the South Campus is the oldest of the three campuses of the, the largest school in the State University of New York (SUNY) system as well as the largest public university in the Northeast. Founded in 1846 as a private medical college with future U.S. President Millard Fillmore as its first chancellor, the University at Buffalo moved to the former site of the Erie County Alms House in 1912, where the preeminent local architectural firm of the time, E. B. Green & Son, built a lovely Georgian-Revival style campus modelled after Trinity College in Dublin. Though most of the academic departments were transferred to UB's sprawling new North Campus in Amherst in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the South Campus still contains UB's Schools of Dentistry, Nursing, and Architecture and Planning, as well as the Health Sciences Library, Biomedical Science Research Complex, and student housing. UB Medical School has moved to the new Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in the Medical Corridor.

is a small private college located at the southern end of Parkside, on Agassiz Circle. Founded in 1875 as a Catholic girls' school by the Sisters of St. Joseph, Medaille has been coeducational and nonsectarian since 1968, and boasts about 3,000 students and a full range of courses emphasizing the liberal arts and sciences. Medaille also has branch campuses in Rochester and the nearby suburb of Amherst, the fruits of a rapid expansion of the school that began in the 1990s and continues through the present day.

Hertel Avenue
The Hertel strip is the place to go in Buffalo for antiques, furniture and housewares, and quirky gifts.

Specialty foods
In addition to the imported cheeses, pastas, olive oils, and so forth that are to be expected in Little Italy, Hertel has a small colony of Middle Eastern groceries that's located near the corner of Delaware Avenue.



Music




Delaware Avenue, Elmwood Avenue, and West Hertel
The portion of the Delaware and Elmwood Avenue corridors north of Park Meadow is characterized by a proliferation of suburban-style shopping centers and other "big box" retail, with many national chain stores and restaurants present.


 * is a large shopping center located on the west side of Delaware Avenue south of Hinman Avenue, anchored by Target. Other chains located in this plaza include GameStop, OfficeMax, and Rainbow.
 * is a smaller plaza located directly across Delaware Avenue from Delaware Consumer Square. The main anchor store at this plaza is a Goodwill thrift store.
 * Regal Elmwood Center is located on the east side of Elmwood Avenue about midway between Hertel and Hinman Avenues. It's anchored by the Regal Elmwood Center 16 movie theater, as well as Catalyst Fitness.
 * is the largest shopping center in North Buffalo, located on the east side of Elmwood Avenue directly north of the Regal Elmwood Center, abutting Delaware Consumer Square at its rear. Anchored by the namesake Tops supermarket, other stores here include Bath & Body Works, Citi Trends, Dollar Tree, Famous Footwear, Five Below, Party City, Petsmart, and Rainbow Kids.

Other national chain stores with locations in this area include, and.

University Heights
The outer end of University Heights is dominated by the. Situated on the north side of Main Street between Kenmore and Springville Avenues, directly across from UB's South Campus, the University Plaza was the first suburban-style shopping center to be constructed in Erie County, with ground broken in 1939. The University Plaza contains locations of the national retail chains Dollar Tree, Rainbow, and Villa, as well as the Dipson Amherst Theatre, M&T Bank, and Tops supermarket.

The entire north side of Main Street east of Kenmore Avenue, including the University Plaza, is actually part of the Town of Amherst.

Books
University Heights is heaven for comic book fans.



Kenmore Avenue area
Though it's one of North Buffalo's main thoroughfares, Kenmore Avenue is quiet and largely residential. However, peppered among the brick apartment blocks and houses are a smattering of unpretentious neighborhood businesses — particularly in the vicinity of Colvin Boulevard.

Park Meadow
The commercial corridors of Delaware and Elmwood Avenues cut parallel north-to-south swaths through the otherwise tranquil, upscale residential area of Park Meadow.

Retail in Park Meadow is dominated by, which is located on the west side of Delaware Avenue between Great Arrow Avenue and the Belt Line tracks, just behind the Pierce-Arrow Factory Complex. Aside from its namesake, Marshall's, the shopping center is anchored by locations of Dollar Tree, Rainbow, and Shoe Dept.



Parkside, Central Park, and the Vernon Triangle
Though these neighborhoods are primarily residential, their eastern boundary — Main Street — is a commercial strip of increasing vibrancy. The business district is mostly concentrated around the corner of Amherst Street and the few blocks to the south, in the Vernon Triangle. Property values along the Metro Rail corridor began rising rapidly when plans for the downtown Medical Corridor were revealed to entail a paucity of parking and an emphasis on alternative methods of transportation, so look for the current array of nail salons and prepaid cell phone outlets to be replaced by more upscale businesses over the next few years.

There's another cluster of shops and restaurants at the corner of Parkside Avenue and Russell Street, across from the entrance to the Buffalo Zoo.

Specialty foods




Hertel Avenue
If you’ve come to Little Italy with visions of pasta with red sauce, fine wine, and some of Buffalo’s best pizza, you will of course not leave disappointed. But Hertel is no one-trick pony: the offerings have diversified considerably, and nowadays you’ll find restaurants for all tastes there. Also of note is a cluster of Middle Eastern groceries-cum-restaurants at the west end of the strip, near Delaware Avenue, where shawarma, falafel, and other such dishes are served.

Local chains
The following local chains have locations on or near Hertel Avenue. Descriptions of these restaurants can be found on the main Buffalo page.



Ice cream
2017 will go down in North Buffalo history as the year when Hertel Avenue became the premier summertime destination in Buffalo for aficionados of ice cream and other frozen goodies, with two new shops opening within a couple weeks of each other and a third one just a few months later.



Pizza
The following pizzerias are located on or near Hertel Avenue. Those who are interested in pizza delivery (as opposed to pickup) might want to also check listings in adjacent districts; local pizzerias will often deliver to several different neighborhoods of the city.



Delaware Avenue, Elmwood Avenue, and West Hertel
In addition to the restaurants listed here, the suburban-style shopping plazas in this area include a number of chain restaurants, notably, , , , and.

Local chains
The following local chains have locations on Delaware and Elmwood Avenues in North Buffalo. Descriptions of these restaurants can be found on the main Buffalo page.



Pizza
A location of can be found on Delaware just south of Hertel.

University Heights
Visitors to Buffalo in search of a late-night snack can scarcely do better than University Heights — an unusually large proportion of eateries there stay open late, catering to midnight oil-burning UB students.

The entire north side of Main Street east of Kenmore Avenue is actually part of the Town of Amherst.

Local chains
The following local chains have locations in University Heights. Descriptions of these restaurants can be found on the main Buffalo page.



Pizza
The following pizzerias are located in University Heights. Those who are interested in pizza delivery (as opposed to pickup) might want to also check listings in adjacent districts; local pizzerias will often deliver to several different neighborhoods of the city.



Local chains
The following local chain restaurants have locations in Park Meadow. Descriptions of these restaurants can be found on the main Buffalo page.



Pizza
The following pizzerias are located in Park Meadow. Those who are interested in pizza delivery (as opposed to pickup) might want to also check listings in adjacent districts; local pizzerias will often deliver to several different neighborhoods of the city.



Hertel Avenue
If you're expecting to party the night away with folks who look like the cast of Jersey Shore, you can certainly do that here in Little Italy. But like everything else in the neighborhood, the bar scene here is changing and diversifying. The best way to sum things up, perhaps, is that there's a little bit of everything on Hertel: scruffy dives, thumping clubs, swanky wine bars, and trendy hipster hangouts stand side by side.



Coffee shops and miscellaneous
Along with Hertel Avenue's emergence to the head of the list of lively commercial strips in Buffalo has come the emergence of a robust coffee culture, with a wide and growing range of options available up and down the strip.



Delaware Avenue, Elmwood Avenue, and West Hertel
If you're in the mood for a less prefab bar experience than Applebee's, there are also a number of lively neighborhood watering holes lining Delaware Avenue, as well as a small cluster in West Hertel near the corner of Military Road.



University Heights
The closure of Surrender in early 2017 was pretty much the final death knell of the once-vibrant University Heights bar scene, which had spent the past few decades being slowly suffocated by competition from places like Chippewa and Allentown, as well as sharply increased enforcement of underage drinking laws by the Buffalo Police. The Steer still draws in its share of the frat crowd, but that's about all the action you'll find on Main Street these days. It's a different story if you're looking for a coffeeshop instead — read on.

Coffee and tea shops
Sadly, the coffeeshop scene in University Heights is dominated by national chains — the dueling powerhouses Tim Hortons and Dunkin' Donuts both do an extremely brisk business at their respective locations just across from the South Campus. Caffeine aficionados in search of something more distinctive have only one option in the area: a similar, but locally-owned, coffee-and-doughnut operation at the other end of the strip.



For something a bit different, the Heights is also where you'll find Buffalo's best bubble tea.



Sleep
For those who absolutely need to sleep in North Buffalo, the options are quite limited. However, there is a much wider range of lodgings in the nearby towns of Amherst (a variety of mostly mid-range chain properties around Exits 6 and 7 of Interstate 290) and Tonawanda (some budget motels of varying quality near I-290 Exit 1 and I-190 Exit 15).

Connect
The is at 725 Hertel Ave., just west of Elmwood Ave.

The is located at 975 Hertel Ave., a few doors down from Hippodrome Billiards in the plaza at the southwest corner of Hertel and Delaware Aves. In addition to free Wi-Fi, the library contains a 15-seat computer lab with Internet access, as well as three "Internet Express" computers in the main part of the library.

Stay safe
Despite the fact that Buffalo's crime rate has fallen steadily since the 1990s, it is still higher than the national average for cities its size. That being the case, North Buffalo is generally among the lowest-crime areas of the city. In particular, for a district with as active a nightlife scene as Hertel Avenue, the bars are laid-back and draw a much more sophisticated crowd than Allentown and what remains of the old Chippewa Strip, and drunken violence is nearly unknown.

University Heights is an exception to this rule, with a crime rate that is above average even by Buffalo standards. However, that means mostly muggings and home burglaries, with violent crime comparatively rare. West Hertel is another minor area of concern, especially the closer you get to Military Road. The same as any urban area, visitors to any part of North Buffalo should use common sense — lock car doors, keep valuables out of sight, keep your wits about you in general.

Compared to other crowded shopping and dining areas, Hertel Avenue is almost completely free of panhandlers — this author would be hard-pressed to name a single time he has been solicited for spare change on Hertel. Beggars do turn up occasionally in University Heights, especially the closer you get to the University Metro Rail Station, but even there the situation is nothing like the Elmwood Village or Allentown. If you do encounter a panhandler, there is little to fear — they are rarely aggressive. If you don't want to give, a firm "no" almost always suffices.

Newspapers
Published every Thursday, the North Buffalo Rocket is a weekly source for neighborhood news, editorials, classified ads, a police blotter, and other matters pertaining to North Buffalo.

Hospitals
For medical emergencies that most travelers may encounter, the nearest hospitals are Sisters of Charity Hospital at 2157 Main St. in Hamlin Park, and Kenmore Mercy Hospital at 2950 Elmwood Ave. in Tonawanda.



For non-emergency situations, has a location at 2497 Delaware Ave., two blocks south of the Delaware Place shopping plaza.

Roman Catholic
Mirroring the demographics of the Niagara Frontier as a whole, religious life in North Buffalo is dominated by the Roman Catholic church, with no fewer than five parishes located within its bounds. Far from the aging, moribund congregations to be found in other parts of the inner city, North Buffalo's Catholic churches retain a remarkable degree of vitality.



Protestant
Protestant churches in North Buffalo are most concentrated in Parkside and Central Park, whose populations still include a considerable number of old-money WASPs. Similarly, the Protestant congregations in University Heights draw a good deal of their parishioners from similarly affluent nearby suburbs such as Eggertsville, Snyder, and Kenmore.



Black churches
Parkside is home to a majority of North Buffalo's black churches — particularly the blocks close to Main Street, which serves as the district's boundary with the East Side, long a stronghold of Buffalo's African-American community. There are perhaps half a dozen of these churches in the area; listed here are two of the largest.



Eastern Orthodox




Jewish
Though it's not the hotbed of Semitic culture that it was 50 or 75 years ago, Hertel Avenue and the adjacent side streets retain a pair of synagogues that primarily deal in the same strain of Orthodox Judaism that has always characterized Jewish North Buffalo.



Go next
Are you a fan of the mansions in Park Meadow and Central Park, and thirsty for more? In the Delaware District, Millionaire's Row (located along Delaware Avenue between Bryant and North Streets) and Lincoln Parkway (just south of Delaware Park) are a pair of National Historic Districts that boast mansions even more luxurious than the most palatial ones in North Buffalo. Architecture buffs will marvel at these beautifully preserved examples of turn-of-the-century upper-class residential design.

Like the shopping and nightlife on Hertel Avenue? The Elmwood Village centers on a 1.8-mile (3 km) stretch of Elmwood Avenue that's almost as densely packed as Hertel with boutiques, bars, and restaurants. In contrast to the antique shops and trendy furniture galleries of Hertel, the Elmwood Village's stock in trade is high-end, fashion-forward clothing boutiques catering to hip, upscale urbanites — alongside which are found some of Buffalo's most cutting-edge restaurants.

Located immediately north of the city, Kenmore was Buffalo's first real suburb: its history can be traced back to 1889, when real estate speculator Louis P. A. Eberhardt purchased a tract of farmland at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Town Line Road (today's Kenmore Avenue), at the center of which the National Register-listed Eberhardt Mansion still stands. But Kenmore is far from the faceless tract of cookie-cutter housing most people picture when they hear the word "suburb" — Delaware Avenue, the main drag through the village, is a lively strip of shops and restaurants that combines urban hipness (in an accessible, Hertel Avenue way; not a pretentious, Elmwood Village way) with small-town charm.

Eggertsville and Snyder are two more of Buffalo's earliest suburbs, centered along Main Street between University Heights and Williamsville and with a history that dates back to the 1910s and '20s. Those who noticed the verdant streets and ample houses in North Buffalo's University Park Historic District will find more of the same here — the homes in Eggertsville and Snyder have mostly retained their comfortable middle- and upper-middle-class luster, and seven of the distinctive stone gates that stand at the entrances to the side streets off Main have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Eggertsville is also the site of the Museum of disABILITY History, an uplifting collection of exhibits focusing on the accomplishments of Americans with disabilities.