Niagara Square
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Niagara Square is a square located at the intersections of Delaware Avenue, Court Street, Genesee Street, and Niagara Street in Buffalo, New York. It is the central hub of Joseph Ellicott's original radial street pattern that he designed in 1804 for the then village of New Amsterdam and continues to be the nexus of downtown Buffalo to this day.
Its origins date back to the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763, which ended French domination of the Niagara Frontier and marked the advent of permanent settlement of the area. This trend increased after the Revolution, and in 1804 Joseph Ellicott (1760-1826) mapped a town on the banks of Lake Erie at the mouth of the Buffalo Creek. The site of the city was part of the vast land holdings of the Holland Land Company, a Dutch firm that had purchased most of western New York. Ellicott, who was the local Holland Land Company agent, had earlier in his career helped his brother Andrew survey Pierre L'Enfant's plan for the new capital at Washington.
The influence of L'Enfant's Washington is readily apparent in Ellicott's design for Buffalo (first named New Amsterdam). Niagara Square, located near the lakefront, became the center from which eight streets radiated in several directions. Among the streets passing through Niagara Square was Delaware Street (after 1879 called Delaware Avenue), which Ellicott is said to have named for one of the Indian groups that frequented the portage road around nearby Niagara Falls. Apparently in Ellicott's mind the street was destined to become a magnificent residential district.
Despite Ellicott's lofty vision for the new city -- he said that the site was "developed by nature for the grand emporium of the Western world" -- Buffalo remained for the first quarter of the nineteenth century an inconsequential village. [1]
[edit] Present Day
Within the center of the modern square is a large monument commemorating the assassination of President McKinley who was killed in Buffalo during the Pan-American Exposition of 1901
This square is also home to Buffalo City Hall, the Statler Hotel Towers building, Buffalo City Court Building along with several other office and court buildings. As of April 2007 the new Buffalo federal court house is under construction within this square.
[edit] References
- ^ LaChiusa, Chuck. A Brief History of Niagara Square. Buffalo Architecture and History. Retrieved on 2007-06-30.
