Timeline of Buffalo, New York

City history timeline

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Buffalo, New York, United States.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

## Prior to 18th century

[edit]

* 1620 - Erie Nation occupies area
* 1651 - Seneca Nation destroys Erie Nation
* 1679 - La Salle built Fort Conti and launched Le Griffon.[1]
* 1687 - Marquis de Denonville built Fort Denonville at the mouth of the river.[1]

## 18th century

[edit]

* 1784 - Area known as the Buffalo Creek region.[1]
* 1793 - Holland Land Purchase is completed

## 19th century

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The 1805 plan for the village of Buffalo

### 1800s-1860s

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* 1801 - Buffalo is founded by Joseph Ellicott. [2]
* 1810 - Population: 1,508.
* 1811 - Buffalo Gazette newspaper begins publication.[3]
* 1813 - December 30: Battle of Buffalo fought during the War of 1812.[2][4]
* 1816 - Village incorporated in Niagara County.[5]
* 1818 - Walk-in-the-Water Great Lakes passenger steamboat begins operating. It was named after Walk-in-the-Water a Huron chief.[6][1]
* 1820 - Population: 2,095.[2]
* 1821 - Buffalo designated seat of newly created Erie County.[5]
* 1825 - Erie Canal opens.[7]
* 1830 - Population: 8,668.[8][2]
* 1832
* City of Buffalo incorporated.[5]
* Ebenezer Johnson served as the first Mayor.[1]
* 1833 - Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway established.[2]
* 1834 - Cholera.[1]
* 1835 - November 11: "Cyclone" occurs.
* 1836
* Young Men's Association active.[9][10]
* Buffalo Library (social library) organized.[11]
* 1840 - Population: 18,213.[8][2]
* 1842 - Joseph Dart invented the Dart's Elevator, a steam-powered grain elevator.[1]
* 1844 - A seiche on Lake Erie sends a 22-foot (6.7 m) surge of water onshore, killing 78 people.[12]
* 1846 - University of Buffalo and its Medical School established.
* 1847 - Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo established.[13]
* 1848 - June: 1848 Free Soil Party national convention held in Buffalo; Martin Van Buren nominated as U.S. presidential candidate.[6][1]
* 1849 - Forest Lawn Cemetery established.[1]
* 1850 - Population: 42,261.[8][2]
* 1851
* St. Paul's Cathedral built.[2]
* Buffalo Seminary founded.[1]
* 1852 - Metropolitan Theatre is built and opens.[14]
* 1853 - New York Central Railroad in operation.[4]
* 1854 - YMCA U.S. branch organized in Buffalo.[6]
* 1856
* Chippewa Market opens.[15]
* Manufacturers and Traders Bank in business.[16]
* 1858 - Broadway Arsenal opened.
* 1860 - Population: 81,129.[8][2]
* 1861
* Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences founded.[17]
* St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute founded.[1]
* 1862 - Buffalo Historical Society formed.[17]
* 1863 - St. Joseph Cathedral consecrated.
* 1868 - Metropolitan Theatre is renovated and re-opens as the Academy of Music[14]

### 1870s-1890s

[edit]

* 1870
* Richardson Olmsted Complex built.
* Roman Catholic (Jesuit) Canisius College founded.[1]
* Population: 117,714.[8][2]
* 1871 - Buffalo Normal School founded, became "State Normal and Training School"
* 1873
* Church of St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr established.
* International Railway Bridge to Canada opens.[5]
* Buffalo Sunday Morning News begins publication.[3]
* 1874 - "The number of ships built at Buffalo was thirty-seven."[2]
* 1875
* County and City Hall constructed.[2]
* Population: 134,238.[2]
* 1876
* Delaware Park–Front Park System developed.[2]
* Delaware Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church built.
* 1880 - Population: 155,134.[8]
* 1881 - Architect Louise Blanchard Bethune in business.[18]
* 1882 - Grover Cleveland becomes mayor.[4]
* 1886
* Westinghouse AC electrical power station begins operating.[4][7]
* University of Buffalo School of Pharmacy established.[1]
* 1887 - University at Buffalo Law School established.[1]
* 1890 - Population: 255,664.[8]
* 1892 - University of Buffalo School of Dental Medicine established.[1]
* 1893
* Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad in operation.[19]
* Former mayor Grover Cleveland becomes U.S. president.[4]
* 1894 - Twentieth Century Club founded.
* 1896 - Ellicott Square Building completed.[1]
* 1899 - Labor strike of grain workers.[20]
* 1900
* Manufacture of Thomas Auto-Bi motorcycle begins.[18]
* Population: 352,387.[8]

## 20th century

[edit]

Downtown Buffalo in 1945

* 1901
* May 1: Pan-American Exposition opens in Delaware Park.[6]
* September 6: Assassination of William McKinley, U.S. president.[21][1]
* September 14: Inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. president.
* September 23–24: Trial of assassin Leon Czolgosz held.[6]
* 1902 - YMCA Central Building built.[22]
* 1905 - Albright Art Gallery (of modern art) opens.[18]
* 1908
* D'Youville College founded.[22]
* Hotel Statler in business (first in chain).[18]
* 1910 - Population: 423,715.[8]
* 1914 - Art Theater in business.[23]
* 1917 - December 9: Snowstorm.[24]
* 1919
* The new Erie Canal was rebuilt as a barge canal.[22]
* Rivoli Theatre in business.[23]
* 1920
* University at Buffalo raised an endowment of $5m. by popular subscription.[22]
* Population: 506,775.[8][22]
* 1921 - Loew's State Theatre in business.[23]
* 1922 - WGR radio begins broadcasting.[25]
* 1923 - On February 24, Phi Omega chapter of the National Omega Psi Phi fraternity was chartered at University of New York at Buffalo as first African American Greek-Lettered Fraternity established in western New York.
* 1924
* DuPont cellophane manufactory begins operating.[18][19]
* WEBR radio begins broadcasting.[25]
* 1926
* Buffalo Courier-Express newspaper in publication (ceased 1982).[3]
* Buffalo Niagara International Airport, then known as "Buffalo Municipal Airport", opens in nearby Cheektowaga
* Shea's Performing Arts Center opens.
* 1927 - Peace Bridge to Canada opens.[6]
* 1929 - Buffalo Museum of Science and Buffalo Central Terminal open to public.
* 1932 - Buffalo City Hall built.[5]
* 1936 - Coin-operated Launder-Ur-Own laundromat in business.[18]
* 1940 - Buffalo Memorial Auditorium opened
* 1948 - WBEN-TV (television) begins broadcasting.[26]
* 1950 - Population: 580,132.[8]
* 1953 - New zoning laws include parking minimums, these new zoning laws are a factor in the decline of Buffalo over the following decades.
* 1954 - WGR-TV (television) begins broadcasting.[26]
* 1960 - Buffalo Bills Football Inaugural Season. Team is second professional team with the name and the third professional football franchise in the city.
* 1966
* January: Blizzard.[24]
* Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site established.[17]
* 1967 - Race riot occurs in East Buffalo as part of Long, hot summer of 1967
* 1970
* Buffalo Sabres Hockey Inaugural Season
* Buffalo Braves Basketball Inaugural Season. Team plays 8 seasons in Buffalo before relocating to San Diego and later Los Angeles to become the Los Angeles Clippers
* 1971
* February 22: Blizzard.[24]
* Erie Community College Buffalo campus established.[5]
* 1977 - January: Blizzard of '77.[4]
* 1979
* Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park established.[17]
* Amtrak closes Buffalo Central Terminal, redirecting passenger rail service to the Exchange Street and Depew stations
* 1983 -
* a propane explosion, resulting in 6 fatalities and widespread destruction, including leveling most of the local city block.
* 1984 -
* Buffalo Metro Rail begins service
* Republic Steel shutters South Buffalo mill
* 1988 - Sahlen Field (then known as "Pilot Field") opens, replacing War Memorial Stadium
* 1989 - Western New York Documentary Heritage Program headquartered in Buffalo.[17]
* 1990 - Population: 328,123.[8]
* 1996
* KeyBank Center (then named Marine Midland Center) opens, replacing the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
* City website online (approximate date).[27][28]

## 21st century

[edit]

Buffalo's skyline from the air in 2018

* 2000 - Population: 292,648
* 2001
* Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus established
* December: Snowstorm.[5]
* 2005
* Byron Brown becomes mayor.
* Brian Higgins becomes U.S. representative for New York's 27th congressional district.[29]
* 2006 - October 13: Lake Storm "Aphid"[24]
* 2008 - Canalside, then named Erie Canal Harbor, reopens to public after early phase of redevelopment work.[30]
* 2010 - Population: 261,310.[31]
* 2014 - November 17–20: "Snowvember" snowstorm.[24]
* 2017
* Minimum parking requirements were eliminated citywide in order to revitalize the city after decades of decline.
* Tesla, Inc. opens Giga New York solar panel factory on old Republic Steel site
* 2020
* Population: 278,349, Buffalo finally gains population again after 70 years.[32]
* Buffalo police shoving incident occurs as part of George Floyd protests
* 2022
* May 14: The deadliest shooting in the city's 221-year history occurs. 13 people are shot, and 10 of them die.[33]
* December 23–27: A snowstorm kills 41 people, becoming the deadliest snowstorm in the city's history.
* 2023
* Mayor Byron Brown begins his 5th term, becoming the longest-serving mayor of Buffalo.
* A magnitude 3.8 earthquake affects the Buffalo area in February.

## See also

[edit]

* History of Buffalo, New York
* On This Day Calendar by The Buffalo History Museum
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Buffalo, New York
* Timelines of other cities in New York state: New York City (also Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens); Saratoga Springs

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Britannica 1910.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Britannica 1878.
3. ^ a b c "US Newspaper Directory". Chronicling America. Washington DC: Library of Congress. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
4. ^ a b c d e f Laurence Urdang, ed. (1996). Timetables of American History. Touchstone. ISBN 978-0-7432-0261-9.
5. ^ a b c d e f g Hellmann 2006.
6. ^ a b c d e f Ernie Gross (1990). This Day in American History. Neal-Schuman. ISBN 978-1-55570-046-1.
7. ^ a b Quentin R. Skrabec, Jr. (2012). 100 Most Significant Events in American Business: an Encyclopedia. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-39862-9.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990, U.S. Census Bureau, 1998
9. ^ Young Men's Association of the City of Buffalo (1837), Annual Report 1837-
10. ^ "Archival and Manuscript Collections". University at Buffalo Libraries. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
11. ^ Davies Project. "American Libraries before 1876". Princeton University. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
12. ^ Meehan, Sara (October 18, 2014). "Oct. 18, 1844: 'Great flood of 1844' devastates Buffalo". The Buffalo News. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
13. ^ "Chronology of Catholic Dioceses: USA". Norway: Roman Catholic Diocese of Oslo. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
14. ^ a b Mingus, Nancy Blumenstalk (2003). Buffalo: Good Neighbors, Great Architecture. Arcadia Publishing. p. 60\. ISBN 9780738524498.
15. ^ Federal Writers' Project 1940.
16. ^ Evening News 1908.
17. ^ a b c d e American Association for State and Local History (2002). "New York". Directory of Historical Organizations in the United States and Canada (15th ed.). Rowman Altamira. ISBN 0759100020.
18. ^ a b c d e f Patrick Robertson (2011). Robertson's Book of Firsts. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-60819-738-5.
19. ^ a b Peter Eisenstadt, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of New York State. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0808-0.
20. ^ Aaron Brenner; Benjamin Day; Immanuel Ness, eds. (2015) [2009]. "Timeline". Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-45707-7.
21. ^ "On This Day". New York Times. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
22. ^ a b c d e Britannica 1922.
23. ^ a b c "Movie Theaters in Buffalo, NY". CinemaTreasures.org. Los Angeles: Cinema Treasures LLC. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
24. ^ a b c d e "This Day in Weather History". Aberdeen, South Dakota: National Weather Service. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
25. ^ a b Jack Alicoate, ed. (1939), "Standard Broadcasting Stations of the United States: New York", Radio Annual, New York: Radio Daily, OCLC 2459636
26. ^ a b Charles A. Alicoate, ed. (1960), "Television Stations: New York", Radio Annual and Television Year Book, New York: Radio Daily Corp., OCLC 10512206
27. ^ "Welcome to City of Buffalo". Archived from the original on February 24, 1996 - via Internet Archive, Wayback Machine.
28. ^ Kevin Hyde; Tamie Hyde (eds.). "United States of America: New York". Official City Sites. Utah: Kevin and Jamie Hyde. OCLC 40169021. Archived from the original on September 25, 2000.
29. ^ "New York". Official Congressional Directory. 1991/1992- : S. Pub. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 2005. hdl:2027/mdp.49015002997139.
30. ^ "ERIE CANAL HARBOR OFFICIALLY OPENS TO PUBLIC" (PDF). Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation. July 2, 2008. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
31. ^ "Buffalo city, New York". QuickFacts. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
32. ^ "What census numbers could mean for WNY". WKBW. August 13, 2021. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
33. ^ "10 people killed in a racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket, police say. The 18-year-old suspect is in custody". CNN. May 14, 2022. Retrieved May 15, 2022.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Directory for the City of Buffalo, L.P. Crary, 1832
* "Buffalo City". Gazetteer of the State of New York. J. Disturnell. 1842. pp. 91–93.
* Buffalo City Directory, E.A. Thomas, 1862
* "Buffalo", Appletons' Handbook of American Travel: Northern and Eastern Tour, New York: D. Appleton, 1870
* Joseph Sabin, ed. (1870). "Buffalo". Bibliotheca Americana. Vol. 3\. New York: J. Sabin. hdl:2027/nyp.33433082126743. OCLC 13972268.
* Franklin B. Hough (1872), "Erie County: Buffalo City", Gazetteer of the State of New York, Albany, N.Y: Andrew Boyd, OCLC 18450990
* "Buffalo (2.)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (9th ed.). 1878. p. 443.
* Knights of Pythias Directory and Buffalo Street Directory and Guide, Albert J. Kuebler and Fred Kraebel, 1894
* History of the City of Buffalo. Buffalo Evening News. 1908.
* "Buffalo", United States (4th ed.), Leipzig: K. Baedeker, 1909, OCLC 02338437
* "Buffalo (city)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). 1910. pp. 754–756.
* Wilner, Merton Merriman (1922). "Buffalo" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 30 (12th ed.).
* Federal Writers' Project (1940), "Buffalo", New York: a Guide to the Empire State, American Guide Series, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 206–228, hdl:2027/uc1.b3627138 - via HathiTrust
* Ory Mazar Nergal, ed. (1980), "Buffalo, NY", Encyclopedia of American Cities, New York: E. P. Dutton, OL 4120668M
* George Thomas Kurian (1994), "Buffalo", World Encyclopedia of Cities, vol. 1: North America, Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, OL 1431653M
* Paul T. Hellmann (2006). "New York: Buffalo". Historical Gazetteer of the United States. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 1-135-94859-3.
* "175 Years: Celebrating the Incorporation of the City of Buffalo, 1832-2007". Buffalo History Museum. 2007.
* "Buffalo, NY". U.S. City Open Data Census. Sunlight Foundation and Open Knowledge International. 2018. Archived from the original on November 18, 2018.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of Buffalo, New York.

* "Online Collections". Buffalo History Museum. (Includes atlases, city directories, etc.)
* "Directories: Buffalo". New York Heritage - via Empire State Library Network.
* Items related to Buffalo, New York, various dates (via Digital Public Library of America)
* "Buffalo, New York in Maps, Charts, and Images". Research Guides. University at Buffalo Libraries.

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