Last updated: October 26, 2023
Place
Niagara Square
Olmsted Archives
Quick Facts
Location:
Buffalo, NY
Significance:
Olmsted Designed Park
MANAGED BY:
While Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux worked on many aspects of the Buffalo Park System together, after breaking up their partnership in 1872, Olmsted was left to design Niagara Square on his own. Two years after the breakup with Vaux, Olmsted presented a report to the Buffalo Park Commission, rejecting their idea of transforming the square into a public garden. Instead, Olmsted suggested planting trees and providing seating along the square, as well as a fountain at the square’s center.
Buffalo’s Board of Park Commissioners hired Henry Hobson Richardson to design an arch at the square, serving as a memorial to soldiers of the Civil War. For the placing, Olmsted requested the arch be “on one side of the Square and so as to span one of the wheel-ways…In this position it would be seen in its best aspect…The best light will then fall upon it; its inscriptions will therefore be more legible and its sculpture will have the best effect.” While Olmsted’s plan was approved, construction never commenced due to lack of funding, and today, the McKinley monument stands at the center of Niagara Square in memory of the President.
Buffalo’s Board of Park Commissioners hired Henry Hobson Richardson to design an arch at the square, serving as a memorial to soldiers of the Civil War. For the placing, Olmsted requested the arch be “on one side of the Square and so as to span one of the wheel-ways…In this position it would be seen in its best aspect…The best light will then fall upon it; its inscriptions will therefore be more legible and its sculpture will have the best effect.” While Olmsted’s plan was approved, construction never commenced due to lack of funding, and today, the McKinley monument stands at the center of Niagara Square in memory of the President.