Park with a View

Park with a View. . , "What a place to hit a home run! I'd look at the river as I went around the bases." , Buffalo Baseball Team - 1898: one of many teams who enjoyed practicing at Riverside Park for its view of the River. Buffalo was one of the first cities in the nation to have a professional baseball team. Photo courtesy of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. , Behind you is Riverside Park, created in 1898 on the site of a private picnic ground overlooking the Erie Canal and the Niagara River. Neighbors gathered in the music court for concerts on hot summer nights and strolled the meandering trails, while children fished the minnow pools nestled among a dense grove of trees and played softball in the fields. Photo courtesy of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. , The park carriage road ended at a footbridge crossing the Erie Canal and leading to the shore of the Niagara River, where steamboats carrying visitors delivered their passengers for a day in the park. The landing gave visitors a commanding view of the bustling boat traffic on The Canal and River. Photo courtesy of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy. , This overlook recreates that magnificent view to the Niagara River, although the scene has changed over time. Views of modern sailboats and fiberglass racing boats may have replaced the view of wooden boats and steamboats, but the attraction to the river is the same for us as it was for them. Steamboat landing. Master Plan of Riverside Park 1898. , Riverside Park was the last park in the public parkway system designed by Frederick Law Olmsted for the City of Buffalo in the late 1800's. The system of informal parklands and formal parkways met the recreational needs of a swelling urban population and provided a framework within which the city would grow. In 1982, the Olmsted Buffalo Parks and Parkways were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Frederick Law Olmsted.