South Buffalo's history begins with the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, at that time the most ambitious engineering project ever undertaken in the United States: a 363-mile (584-km) inland waterway from Albany to the sleepy frontier village of Buffalo. Though the bulk of what is now South Buffalo was then part of the Buffalo Creek Reservation, which had been set aside for the Seneca Indians at the time of the Holland Purchase in 1793, the lots immediately east of the harbor (today's Cobblestone District and Old First Ward) were not — and when the unskilled, destitute immigrant laborers from Ireland they hired to dig the canal were finished, they settled there.

The first years of the Erie Canal were a time of explosive growth for Buffalo, and the First Ward was no exception. This was among the city's lowest-lying land, and Buffalo's founding fathers had not even bothered to divide it into lots, assuming that no one would want to live on this swampy riverbank. But the digging of the canal was such a huge undertaking that there were hundreds if not thousands of Irishmen who needed housing, and the First Ward, dirt-cheap and close to the canal, was a natural place for them to make their homes. The poorest of the poor lived in the blocks south of the main drag of Elk Street (now South Park Avenue) in what was called "The Flats", which, in springtime and after heavy rains, would almost always be inundated by floodwaters from the Buffalo River. In the 1840s, during the Irish Potato Famine, another wave of immigrants crossed the Atlantic — and the First Ward became even more crowded.

In those days, when freighters filled with grain and flour arrived at port in Buffalo, the cargo had to be unloaded, divided, and sent east in canal boats by hand — a slow, inefficient process that required more workers than the First Ward had to offer. Buffalo's growth was stunted by the bottleneck of too many ships, too much grain, and too few workers. Enter Joseph Dart, a local merchant who, in 1842, invented a machine that unloaded grain by steam power, stored it in a huge silo, and loaded it later onto canal barges: the first grain elevator. In the space of less than ten years, the Buffalo River was lined with grain elevators, and the reinvigorated harbor had become so congested that many freighters could not find any place to berth. The city responded by constructing a network of feeder canals and basins, such as the City Ship Canal, the Main and Hamburg Canal, and the Ohio Basin, that crisscrossed the First Ward — and whose polluted, stagnant waters helped spread cholera and other communicable plagues among the residents. The First Ward earned the reputation as one of the nastiest slums in the country, plagued by crime and disease, where the desperately poor lived in shanties and tenements sandwiched among the shipyards and factories, working as canal boaters, grain scoopers, longshoremen, and miscellaneous unskilled laborers and shunned by their Anglo-Saxon Protestant social betters.

Meanwhile, north of the First Ward was the Hydraulic Canal, which flowed westward from the Buffalo River over a large cascade to the Main and Hamburg Canal, in an area that came to be called The Hydraulics. Reuben Heacock, a wealthy merchant who was one of Buffalo's founding fathers, built the canal in 1828 to furnish water power for the Hydraulic Business Association, a league of manufacturing concerns he founded. Though the canal eventually proved too small to bring to full fruition Heacock's vision of The Hydraulics as one of the foremost industrial centers in the United States, it was still a buzzing milling district — and together with the harbor, it cemented South Buffalo's enduring status as the city's industrial epicenter.

Even before the federal government dissolved the Buffalo Creek Reservation, the overcrowding of the Irish neighborhoods forced some residents to seek out new spaces to live near the harbor — in fact, living conditions in the shantytowns along the lake shore near present-day Times Beach and on Ganson Street between the grain elevators were somewhat better than in the First Ward proper. However, when the Compromise Treaty of 1842 sent the Seneca south to the Cattaraugus Reservation, huge new tracts of land opened to development. One of the first new neighborhoods was The Valley, just east of the First Ward on the other side of the railroad tracks. South Buffalo's lot began to improve soon after, with Bishop John Timon working tirelessly to establish Catholic schools, hospitals and charities for the Irish, who were often victims of the anti-Catholic discrimination that ran rampant in city-owned institutions. The leaders of the Irish community also proved to be expert political organizers, playing on popular suspicions of tacit anti-Catholicism in the Republican Party to turn the First Ward loyally Democratic, with droves of voters turning out each Election Day. Soon, Irishmen began to enter political office, appointing their neighbors to lucrative patronage jobs and creating a middle class among their community — they came to be known as "lace-curtain Irish", as opposed to the "shantytown Irish" of the grain mills. (It should be emphasized that political activity in the First Ward was not limited to the ballot box: the most successful of the five Fenian Raids, where battle-hardened Irish-American Civil War veterans sought to invade the British colony of Canada and hold it for ransom until Ireland was granted its independence, was launched from Buffalo in 1866; Buffalo's Fenians successfully ambushed a Canadian militia company at the Battle of Ridgeway and briefly took Fort Erie before British reinforcements drove them back across the border.)

The new Irish political class soon turned their efforts to finding a better place to live than the crowded, crime-ridden First Ward, and starting about 1875, the Germans who farmed the lands of the former Seneca reservation south of the river gradually gave way to nouveau riche Irish city dwellers. Real-estate speculators such as William Fitzpatrick (the so-called "Builder of South Buffalo") were happy to oblige them, laying out side streets off Seneca Street, Abbott Road, and other former farm lanes and filling them with houses as fast as he could build them. Frederick Law Olmsted got into the act, too — he was called back to Buffalo to design a southern extension of the park system that had grown so popular in the city's northern precincts, and when South Buffalo's parks and parkways were finally completed in 1894, they helped stimulate even more growth in the new neighborhoods.

In the midst of all this expansion, there were fundamental changes afoot at the harbor. Throughout the 19th century, the state government continuously enlarged and deepened the Erie Canal and transformed it into a full-fledged transportation network, with feeder canals such as the Genesee Valley Canal, the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, and the Chenango Canal extending into all parts of the state. Nonetheless, the canals found it harder and harder to compete with the railroads, which could transport passengers and goods much more quickly: in the years after the New York Central Railroad reached Buffalo in 1841, passenger traffic on the canal dropped to a small fraction of its former numbers, and freight traffic declined steeply as well. As public outcry forced the city to fill in many of South Buffalo's small canals as public health hazards, the First Ward and Elevator Alley became crisscrossed by railroads instead: the lines extended right up to the elevators themselves, enabling grain to be unloaded directly onto boxcars. The railroads also engendered a local steel industry which would go on to become a major player in Buffalo's economy: iron ore arrived daily by freighter from Michigan and Minnesota and coal was shipped by railroad from Pennsylvania to be processed into steel at what was then the world's largest steel mill, set up by the Lackawanna Steel Company in 1899 on the lake shore just south of the city line. The railroad network extended into The Hydraulics as well, enabling it to continue on as an industrial center after the Hydraulic Canal, too, was decommissioned in 1883. The Hydraulics soon came to be dominated by the Larkin Company, which was founded in 1875 as a producer of soap sourced from the nearby stockyards and helmed by a group including namesake John Larkin and top executive Darwin Martin. By the turn of the century, Larkin expanded into a conglomerate that occupied about a half-dozen huge warehouse buildings clustered around the corner of Seneca and Swan Streets, where a wide gamut of products sold by mail order were manufactured.

The early 20th century was South Buffalo's heyday, with the Irish coming to dominate the police and fire departments just as they did local politics. As its middle class continued to grow and leave the First Ward for the more spacious neighborhoods south of the river, the demographics of the older neighborhoods began to change. Italians from the Ellicott District, who were seen by the Irish as competition for unskilled positions at the port and on the railroads, began to trickle south of the railroad tracks and formed a sizable minority in the First Ward by the 1920s; at about the same time, The Valley became a majority-Polish neighborhood centered around St. Valentine Church on Elk Street. Thanks to its residents' relatively stable civil service jobs and the charitable tradition of the Catholic church, South Buffalo rode out the Great Depression better than most parts of the city, but further changes came to the First Ward in 1940 when about 300 houses on Perry Street (derided by city officials as "slums") were razed to make way for the Commodore Perry Projects, a government-subsidized housing development for low-income individuals. For the first time, there was a sizable African-American presence in the First Ward, igniting ethnic tensions that simmer to this day.

After World War II, though, the bottom fell out. Traffic at the harbor still had not reached pre-Depression levels by the time the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, rendering Buffalo permanently irrelevant as an inland port. While previously the presence of Niagara Falls meant that boat traffic on the Great Lakes couldn't go much further downstream than Buffalo, the enlargement of the Welland Canal in Canada made for direct access to the sea, so freighters could bypass Buffalo entirely. Within ten years, most of the grain elevators along the Buffalo River had shut down, the harbor was nearly empty, and the local economy was reeling. Furthermore, at about the same time, the railroad industry declined steeply thanks to the new Interstate Highway System, which moved passengers and freight much more quickly and cheaply. The steel industry wasn't spared either: a market flooded with cheap imported steel meant that the American-made version couldn't compete, so after shedding jobs for a few decades, the Lackawanna plant finally went belly-up in 1982.

But, even though these events were happening right in its backyard, South Buffalo rode out the downturn much better than most other areas of the city. The reason, once again, was the cushy civil-service jobs that a disproportionate number of its residents held (especially during the four mayoral terms of Jimmy Griffin, who took special care of his native First Ward and the rest of South Buffalo during the rock-bottom 1980s and early '90s). As well, its residents' clannish nature and dogged loyalty to their neighborhood meant that South Buffalo did not lose nearly as many of its residents to the suburbs as other neighborhoods. And the urban renewal that wrought such havoc in places like the West Side and the Ellicott District barely touched South Buffalo, with the notable exceptions of Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building in The Hydraulics, which was demolished in 1950, and the construction of the Buffalo Skyway in 1953, the first controlled-access highway in Erie County, an elevated eyesore that serves as a giant wall between South Buffalo and the waterfront. Eventually, Buffalo bottomed out and slowly began pulling itself together, and today there are some parts of South Buffalo that are undergoing revitalization: the Cobblestone District is home to a handful of hip bars and a glitzy new casino, the Outer Harbor is now a state park, The Hydraulics has been reborn as a business district-cum-festival venue dubbed Larkinville, the Old First Ward became a nucleus for Buffalo's growing craft beer industry, the grain elevators are finally getting their due as engineering marvels of the Industrial Age, and in 2017, Tesla's 42.859005-78.8412421 Gigafactory 2, the largest solar panel manufacturing facility in North America, opened on a former industrial brownfield along the river. But by and large, despite these changes, everyday life in South Buffalo continues on the same as ever.

Thanks to Lake Erie, South Buffalo's climate is a little bit different than other parts of the city.

Much as in downtown, in the warmer months areas near the waterfront are noticeably cooler and windier than other parts of the city. This can be a double-edged sword: the fresh lake breezes are a godsend on a hot summer day, but if you're birdwatching at Times Beach or biking the Shoreline Trail in the spring or autumn, you might want to wear a jacket and long pants.

These same winds over the lake also mean that, even more than other parts of the city, South Buffalo really gets pummeled in the winter with lake-effect snow. After the winds pass onto dry land, it takes some time for the snow to condense out of the moisture-rich air — so, curiously enough, it's not unusual for Cazenovia Park to get walloped while the Outer Harbor only sees a dusting.

• Against the Grain: The History of Buffalo's First Ward by Timothy Bohen (ISBN 9780615620527). An engaging chronicle of the Old First Ward from its initial settlement in the 1820s and '30s to the present day, as well as the larger-than-life characters who have called it home over the years — including champion prizefighter Jimmy Slattery, politico William "Fingy" Conners (more on him below), World War I hero and intelligence agent William "Wild Bill" Donovan, and, of course, Buffalo mayor Jimmy Griffin.
• Author Richard Sullivan mines the lore of three generations of his ancestral family for The First Ward, a five-part series of novels that paints a slightly fictionalized but remarkably true-to-life portrait of life in the colorful titular neighborhood from the 1850s through the first decades of the 20th century. In Fingy Conners, the Sullivan Brothers & Mark Twain (ISBN 9781463636586), an account of the friendship between Twain (then a columnist for the Buffalo Express) and the author's great-grandfather and great-great-uncle (a police detective and city councilman, respectively) serves as window dressing for the nefarious exploits of Conners, a local dock laborer turned shipping magnate and political boss who the author describes as "America's most hateful yet least-known villain". Fingy Conners and the New Century (ISBN 9781478172932) follows the further rivalries between Conners and the Sullivan brothers, with Teddy Roosevelt, Nellie Bly, William Randolph Hearst, and other turn-of-the-century luminaries putting in appearances. Conners is relegated to a supporting role in the third and fourth installments: Murderers, Scoundrels and Ragamuffins (ISBN 9781515212515), wherein Detective Sullivan, haunted by the memory of the McKinley assassination, is tasked with reforming the city's corrupt and incompetent police department amidst a series of brutal murders and ahead of President Taft's visit to Buffalo, and His Lips Forgot the Taste of Truth (ISBN 9781974190126), which pits the Sullivans against serial killer J. Frank Hickey, who claimed a dozen Western New York victims in the 1910s. And of course, keep your eye out for the exciting conclusion, on which (as of Mar 2020) the author is hard at work!
• The World According to Griffin: The End of an Era by Brian Meyer (ISBN 1879201119). Sixteen years' worth of colorful, no-holds-barred sound bites from the eminently quotable Jimmy Griffin, four-term mayor of Buffalo and proud native son of the First Ward, as collected by the Buffalo News freelancer who worked the City Hall beat during his tenure.

South Buffalo is surrounded on three sides by highways. Though the New York State Thruway (I-90) runs just beyond and roughly parallel to the city line, it doesn't provide direct access to South Buffalo. However, the district is well-served by the other two.

Interstate 190 skirts the border between South Buffalo and the East Side on an east-west trajectory from the Thruway toward downtown, then turning north and passing through the West Side on its way toward Niagara Falls and the Canadian border. I-190 serves South Buffalo via the following exits:

• Exit 1 (South Ogden Street). Following Ogden Street southbound through Kaisertown and turning right on Mineral Springs Road will lead you to Cazenovia Park and the heart of the Seneca Street business district.
• Exit 2 (Clinton Street/Bailey Avenue) and Exit 3 (Seneca Street) are the main points of highway access to South Buffalo. Get off at Exit 2 and follow Bailey Avenue north to Seneca-Babcock or south to Heacock Park in The Triangle. Southbound travellers can also turn off at Seneca Street into Larkinville, continue along Abbott Road toward Cazenovia Park, or follow the US 62 Southbound signs down South Park Avenue to access the Botanical Gardens and South Park. Exit 3, accessible from the southbound lanes only, lets you off on Elk Street a block before Bailey Avenue, where you can follow the same directions to the same destinations as Exit 2.
• Exit 4 (Smith Street) leads northward to Larkinville or southward to The Valley.
• Exit 5 (Hamburg Street via northbound lanes; Louisiana Street via southbound lanes) provides access to the Old First Ward.
• Exit 7 (NY 5 westbound), accessible via the southbound lanes only, is the northern terminus of the Skyway, described below. To get to the Skyway via the northbound lanes, get off at Church Street downtown and follow the signs for the Outer Harbor.

The Buffalo Skyway (NY 5) begins downtown at I-190 and extends southward parallel to the lake shore, providing access to the Outer Harbor and various other parts of South Buffalo:

• Take the Outer Harbor Drive exit and head north on Fuhrmann Boulevard to get to Wilkeson Pointe and Times Beach Nature Preserve.
• The Ohio Street exit lets you off just north of Gallagher Beach. As well, you can take Ohio Street northbound to get to Elevator Alley and the Old First Ward.
• The Tifft Street exit also provides access to Gallagher Beach. Otherwise, you can take Tifft Street east to Tifft Nature Preserve, Ship Canal Commons, and, further afield, The Triangle and the Olmsted parkways.
• The Skyway ends at the Ridge Road exit, which is beyond the city line in Lackawanna. Nonetheless, following Ridge Road east will take you to Ship Canal Commons (via Commerce Drive), South Park, and the Botanical Gardens.

If you're visiting in the winter, keep in mind that the Skyway is often closed when there is inclement weather.

South Park Avenue is the main surface route between downtown and South Buffalo, running from the foot of Main Street somewhat south of due east through the Cobblestone District, the Old First Ward, and The Valley, then turning sharply southward at a complicated intersection with Bailey Avenue and Abbott Road where it picks up the designation of US 62. Thenceforward, it runs along the eastern edge of The Triangle, past South Park, and on beyond the city line. This somewhat confusing trajectory results from the fact that the portion of its route north of Southside Parkway was cobbled together in the 1930s from what was once Triangle Street and parts of Abbott Road and Elk Street. A GPS system or map will come in handy when navigating South Park, as there are a lot of opportunities for wrong turns. At the aforementioned confusing intersection, South Park meets Bailey Avenue (US 62), which runs north through Seneca-Babcock and into the East Side, and Abbott Road, which continues southeastward past Cazenovia Park and into the residential heart of South Buffalo.

Seneca Street (NY 16) straddles the murky, poorly-defined northern border of South Buffalo, running roughly southeastward from downtown through the Ellicott District, Larkinville, and Seneca-Babcock, through the South Buffalo business district, past Cazenovia Park, and into suburbia. Further north still, Clinton Street (NY 354) clips the northern boundary of Seneca-Babcock.

Like many other districts of the city, Frederick Law Olmsted's parkway system extends into South Buffalo. The backbone of South Buffalo's parkway system is McKinley Parkway, which begins at the Olmsted-designed Heacock Park and runs southeastward to 42.844387-78.8148432 McClellan Circle, where it intersects with the short Red Jacket Parkway heading toward Cazenovia Park. It then proceeds due south to Dorrance Avenue, where 42.832013-78.8152113 McKinley Circle sits directly on the city line. McKinley then proceeds for a short distance southwestward through Lackawanna, ending in front of the Botanical Gardens at South Park. Those who've seen Olmsted's work in other parts of the city will notice that South Buffalo's parkways are somewhat less impressive than the more northerly ones: though lined with shade trees, they are much narrower and lack a center median, bearing more resemblance to Richmond Avenue than Lincoln or Chapin Parkways. Olmsted had originally planned to link the northern and southern sections of his park system via Fillmore Avenue, Smith Street, and South Park Avenue, which were to be redesigned as a grand parkway that would have connected with McKinley Parkway at Heacock Park. However, with the exception of a few blocks of Fillmore south of Humboldt Park on the East Side where rows of stately elms were put in, his plans never came to fruition. The long-term plans of the Buffalo Olmsted Park Conservancy include improvements to those streets to better integrate the two halves of the system, but in the meantime, the Conservancy has also been hard at work elsewhere on South Buffalo's parkways: they were responsible for the construction of McKinley Circle in 2002 — a never-built feature of Olmsted's original plan — as well as installing charming period street lamps and thoroughly landscaping the parkways and circles with delightful flowers and new trees.

Though it didn't appear in his original plans, Olmsted's influence is also evident in the Outer Harbor Parkway, a three-and-a-half mile (5.6-km) stretch of Fuhrmann Boulevard that runs along the Outer Harbor between Times Beach and the Union Ship Canal, which was redesigned in 2010. The Outer Harbor Parkway's design pays tribute to the grand avenues Olmsted built elsewhere in the city with all the classic features of his work: elegant roundabouts, charming antique lampposts, and a wide central median lush with trees and greenery.

Other major streets in South Buffalo include Ohio Street, which runs from South Park Avenue southward through the Old First Ward and across Elevator Alley, ending at Fuhrmann Boulevard; Tifft Street, an east-west route that links the Outer Harbor with South Buffalo proper; and Hopkins Street, which runs west of and parallel to South Park Avenue between The Triangle and South Park.

Parking in the Cobblestone District can be especially tight during Sabres games and other events at the KeyBank Center. The surface lots between Mississippi and Columbia Streets charge $2 per day, and at the KeyBank Center parking ramp on Illinois Street it's $2 per hour up to a maximum of $5 per day; naturally, both of these numbers increase sharply when there's an event at the arena. As for on-street parking, it's prohibited on Perry Street and South Park Avenue, but permitted on the side streets with some restrictions: parking meters are in effect on the southern half of Illinois Street on weekdays from 8AM to 5PM, charging $1 per hour to a maximum of 2 hours, and parking is prohibited on Columbia Street after 5PM. Larkinville is another place where parking can be a pain — there are plenty of surface lots, but most of them are restricted to workers in the various office buildings except during special events. For visitors, the best bet for parking is the Larkin @ Exchange visitors' lot on the corner of Exchange and Van Rensselaer Streets — parking is free and nominally limited to two hours, though it's not too well-enforced. There's also metered parking on Exchange Street between Van Rensselaer and Smith Streets, in effect on weekdays from 7AM to 5PM at a flat rate of $2 per day. Parking is free and unrestricted on Seneca Street, Swan Street, and the side streets, and is generally easier to find the further you get from Larkin Square.

Elsewhere in South Buffalo, parking on Abbott Road is free of charge and only subject to time limits in the vicinity of Mercy Hospital, with parking between Columbus and Alsace Avenues limited to two hours at a time between 7AM and 7PM, Monday through Saturday. Beware, though, because empty spaces on Abbott and its side streets can be hard to find, especially between Heacock and Cazenovia Parks. Two-hour parking is also in effect for the same days and times on Seneca Street between Pomona and Hayden Streets and between Zittel Street and the city line; on South Park Avenue between Abbott Road and the city line, the hours are 7AM to 7PM, Monday through Friday. However, on-street parking on Seneca and South Park is usually much easier to find than on Abbott. In the Old First Ward, The Valley, and Seneca-Babcock, on-street parking is free, unrestricted, and virtually always easily available.

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.

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. The development of bike paths and lanes in South Buffalo lags somewhat behind more cycle-friendly parts of the city like Allentown and the Elmwood Village, but as in the rest of the city, it's improved: notably, the conversion of Ohio Street into a vital link in Buffalo's bicycle transportation network — with two off-street bike lanes flanking an attractive tree-lined swath through the Old First Ward — was completed in July 2015.

The showpiece of South Buffalo's bicycle infrastructure is the Industrial Heritage Trail, the Outer Harbor leg of the Shoreline Trail that runs along the waterfront all the way to North Tonawanda. Completed in 2010, this waterfront path extends along the shore of Lake Erie from the Coast Guard station southward along the waterfront into Lackawanna, passing by or through waterfront attractions such as Times Beach, Buffalo Harbor State Park, Tifft Nature Preserve, and Ship Canal Commons. The Shoreline Trail continues to downtown and the more northerly waterfront via Ohio Street and South Park Avenue, mostly along off-street paths (including a particularly interesting stretch on the shore of the Buffalo River behind the old DL&W Train Sheds that gives you an up-close-and-personal look at the grain elevators), with the exception of a few stretches along Ohio Street with dedicated on-street bike lanes. From Memorial Day through Columbus Day, you can also get to the Outer Harbor from Canalside via the Queen City Bike Ferry; the fare is $1.

Aside from the Shoreline Trail, South Buffalo's original Olmsted parkways are also great places to enjoy a bike ride. McKinley Parkway has a bike lane on each side of the street from Southside Parkway at Heacock Park through to McKinley Circle and onward into Lackawanna, where it comes to an end at South Park in front of the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens. Red Jacket Parkway links Cazenovia Park to McKinley Parkway at McClellan Circle, again with bike lanes on each side of the street.

Other South Buffalo streets have also been fitted with bike lanes and other accommodations. The Cazenovia Park area has a particularly dense concentration — with "sharrows" (pavement markings on roads too narrow to accommodate dedicated bike lanes, indicating that drivers should be aware of bicyclists) on Seneca Street between Southside Parkway and the city line, on Warren Spahn Drive through the park itself, as well as a dedicated bike lane on each side of North Legion Parkway for its entire length — as does the Cobblestone District, where there's a bike lane on each side of Michigan Avenue between Scott and Ohio Streets, as well as one in each direction along South Park Avenue between the KeyBank Center and Marvin Street (the bike lanes also continue up Marvin, behind the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino, to Perry Street). Further down South Park Avenue, bike lanes appear again between Hamburg and Dorrance Streets. Elsewhere, the Tifft Street Greenway Connector serves as a brief spur of the Shoreline Trail along Tifft Street east to Ship Canal Parkway, with dedicated on-street bike lanes east of there as far as Hopkins Street, and a similar spur runs off the Ohio Street trail to Mutual Park via St. Clair Street and South Street. Finally, in Larkinville there's a bike lane on each side of Seneca Street between Emslie and Smith Streets, with plans in place to eventually bridge the gap between Smith Street and Southside Parkway with dedicated lines, sharrows, or some combination thereof.

While walking is not a feasible way to travel between the neighborhoods of South Buffalo, there are many areas within this sprawling district that are great for pedestrians. Abbott Road, especially north of Cazenovia Park, is a nice place for a stroll and some window-shopping. Similarly, if you want to go bar-hopping on Seneca Street, it's perfectly possible to leave your car at the hotel.

Buffalo's glorious past as an industrial giant is on full display in South Buffalo's range of historic museums and attractions.

• 42.872212-78.8727921 Edward M. Cotter, moored at north end of Michigan Avenue Lift Bridge (Metro Bus 14, 16 or 42). Sometimes open for tours during festival appearances. The 118-foot (36-m) Edward M. Cotter is the oldest fireboat in the world still on active duty, and is inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark. Launched in 1900, the boat was originally named the William Grattan after Buffalo's fire commissioner at the time. After it suffered a devastating explosion in 1928 (flying sparks from a burning oil barge entered its fuel tank), it was rebuilt from the burned-out shell of its hull at a cost of nearly $100,000. With a maximum speed of about 15 miles per hour (24 km/h), the Cotter is the slowest piece of firefighting machinery the Buffalo Fire Department owns, but it's indispensable for its ability to reach places on the waterfront inaccessible to ordinary fire trucks, and it has ten times the water-pumping capacity of the average fire truck. Over the years, the Cotter has seen action such as going across the lake to Port Colborne in 1960 to help fight a fire at a grain elevator complex; helping keep afloat the Buffalo Naval and Military Park's USS Little Rock after it began taking on water in 1978, and towing the Polish ship Zawisza Czarny off of a sandbar when it came to Buffalo Harbor for a visit in 1983. During the quiet winter months, the Cotter serves double duty as an icebreaker on the Buffalo River; during the summer, it can frequently be seen at local waterfront festivals and boat shows, where tours are also offered.  
• 42.864751-78.843652 Heritage Discovery Center, 100 Lee St (Metro Bus 14 or 16). Opened in 2012 on a 35-acre (14-ha) site that used to be home to a chemical dye plant, the Heritage Discovery Center contains space for community organizations and events as well as a pair of small museums that celebrate various aspects of Buffalo's industrial history. As money from government organizations and private donors continues to flow toward the restoration of the old Buffalo Color buildings, more developments are on the way. (updated Dec 2022)

• Steel Plant Museum, ☏ +1 716-821-9361. Tu Th 10AM-2PM, Sa 10AM-4PM. Between 1903 and 1982, Lackawanna, the industrial city immediately south of Buffalo, was home to the largest steel plant in the world, which covered 1,600 acres (640 ha) and employed 20,000 workers at its height. Established in 1984, the Steel Plant Museum tells the story of the Lackawanna Steel Plant and its workforce, as well as other area steel companies such as Republic Steel and Hanna Furnace, by displaying memorabilia such as union records, safety gear, signs, tools, steel specimens, and technical literature. Donation. (updated Dec 2022)
• Western New York Railway Historical Society, ☏ +1 716-821-9360. Tu Th Sa 10AM-4PM. The marquee attraction at the Heritage Discovery Center is the Western New York Railway Historical Society, which has been working since 1980 to preserve the Buffalo area's disappearing railway heritage, but has lacked a space to display its collection for many years. At this expansive site are housed over 50 steam engines and railroad cars including a 1924 Baldwin locomotive that's been carefully restored to full working order, as well as hundreds of other historic artifacts and exhibits. Railroad history researchers will be in heaven in the library, where a vast array of books and maps are available for their perusal. Donation. (updated Dec 2022)

• 42.855054-78.8019513 Seneca Indian Park, 129 Buffum St. (Metro Bus 15). Seneca Indian Park is a tiny, out-of-the-way patch of lawn in a quiet residential neighborhood near the city line, but the historical importance of the site is huge. During the early 19th century, the land was part of the cemetery next to the Seneca Indian Mission Church, which was located a few steps away on what's now called Indian Church Road. Originally buried here were such Seneca luminaries as Chief Red Jacket and Mary Jemison, the "White Woman of the Genesee"; their remains were moved to Forest Lawn Cemetery and the grounds of the Glen Iris Estate at Letchworth State Park, respectively. It's said that the Buffalo Creek Reservation's longhouse was located on the site too; while that's not certain, it was definitely somewhere nearby. Commemorating the site's historical importance are a trio of large boulders, on which are placed historical plaques explaining local Seneca history. 
• 42.864613-78.8599024 Waterfront Memories & More, 41 Hamburg St. (Metro Bus 42), ☏ +1 716-840-9580. Tu Sa 10AM-2PM. Founded in 2008 and moved to the newly completed Mutual Park four years later — an opportune setting, in the shadow of the towering grain silos in the heart of Elevator Alley — Waterfront Memories & More is a neighborhood heritage museum dedicated to the history of Buffalo's waterfront, with exhibits culled from the combined personal collections of museum co-owners Bert Hyde and Peggy Szczygiel, a pair of neighborhood boosters who've been active in the First Ward Community Association for over thirty years. Displayed at Waterfront Memories & More are historic photographs, documents, newspaper clippings, school and church records, family histories, and other memorabilia that tell the story of Buffalo's riverfront, harbor, and industrial district from pre-Columbian times, to the construction of the Erie Canal, to Buffalo's advent and zenith as one of America's premier inland ports. As well, the museum hosts special events on a regular basis. Free. 

• 42.875716-78.8459335 Flying Bison Brewing Company, 840 Seneca St. (Metro Bus 15, 18 or 23), ☏ +1 716-873-1557. Tours Th F 6PM, Sa 1PM and 4PM. Flying Bison offers three tours a week of its brewery in Larkinville, where guides explain the company's history and mission, walk visitors through the beermaking process step-by-step, and furnish a glimpse of brewers in action. The atmosphere is laid-back and friendly as can be, and frankly it's almost unfair to say these tours are free — they're so liberal with the free samples it's almost like you are being paid to take the tour. (According to one reviewer, the staff, who are notorious for shooting the breeze with visitors over drinks before and after tours, "basically get you drunk on the house".) Free.  
• 42.86979-78.868476 Hartman's Distilling Co., 55 Chicago St (Metro Bus 14, 16 or 42), ☏ +1 716-551-6313. Tu-Th 4PM-11PM, F 3PM-midnight, Sa noon-midnight, Su 11AM-7PM. Tour of The Cooperage's resident distillery are offered either by reservation or on a walk-in basis: after convening at the appointed time at the retail stand just off the tasting room, you're whisked onto the production floor to get a look at the manufacturing process in action accompanied by a lesson on the history and characteristics of American's only native spirit, bourbon. Then, for the grand finale, there's a mini-tasting of three of Hartman's flagship products. (updated Feb 2020)
• 42.87548-78.874517 Labatt Brew House, 79 Perry St (Metro Bus 6, 8, 14, 16, 24 or 42; Metro Rail: Erie Canal Harbor), ☏ +1 716-254-0564. Su-Th 11AM-10PM, F Sa 11AM-11PM. Even if you're not hungry or thirsty, Labatt's U.S. corporate headquarters and test brewery is worth a visit for anyone who's interested in beer: inside you'll find a couple rooms of museum-style displays detailing the history, production, and culture of beer and other alcoholic drinks in North America and elsewhere. Check out the giant "wall of beer", set up like a color scale from straw to amber to brown to black, reflecting the diversity of different beers manufactured in the onsite brewery. (updated Jan 2019)
• 42.869436-78.8688318 Resurgence Brewing, 55 Chicago St. (Metro Bus 14, 16 or 42), ☏ +1 716-768-6018. The opening of the second location of Resurgence was borne of a problem shared by many of its compatriots among the first wave of homegrown craft breweries in Buffalo: the production capacity at its modest-sized original home was not nearly enough to keep up with demand. Enter the much larger, National Register of Historic Places-listed E. & B. Holmes Machinery Company Building into the equation, newly renovated after nearly two decades of abandonment and dereliction and on the hunt for new tenants; a "resurgence" of its own, if you will. Nowadays Chicago Street is where Resurgence brews its roster of regularly-available beers, including the flagship Resurgence IPA (West Coast-style, heady and redolent of citrus and tropical fruit), Sponge Candy Stout (dark and rich but oddly thin-bodied, more like a porter, with notes of coffee on the finish) and Loganberry Wit (almost cloyingly sweet, perfect if you don't like beer but got dragged here anyway), with the Niagara Street location relegated to the status of research & development brewery. Aside from visiting the taproom-cum-restaurant, brewery tours are offered as well; contact the number listed here for details. (updated Aug 2019)
• 42.8698-78.85161 BriarBrothers Brewing Company, 50 Elk St, ☏ +1 716 217-0585, [email protected]. Craft brewery located in Buffalo's Valley Neighborhood, near Larkinville, the First Ward, and Downtown Buffalo. BriarBrothers Brewing Company features a rotating selection of microbrews and hard seltzers with numerous flavor profiles. The brewery resides in a refurbished grain silo that was once a malting house that provided grain and malt for the greater rust belt region of the United States. Retrofitted to include production space, a sizable taproom, and an event center, it is a popular weekend spot for locals and craft beer enthusiasts. An on-site food truck featuring Nashville-style chicken sandwiches is available during business hours. (updated Apr 2024)

• 42.877918-78.8575249 The Cass Project, 500 Seneca St. (Metro Bus 15 or 18), ☏ +1 716-332-5959. M-F 7:30AM-7PM. Headed up by longtime community fixture Tina Dillman, The Cass Project is a multifaceted new institution for local artists that's contained within a portion of the redeveloped 500 Seneca warehouse in Larkinville, and named in honor of Mary Rebecca Cass, a prominent player in Buffalo women's history and former president of the F. N. Burt Paper Box Company whose factory was once located in this warehouse. The Cass Project encompasses studio and performance space, loft apartments for artists, and — most prominently — an airy gallery space in the building's lobby, where five days a week visitors can take in changing exhibits of the work of local artists in a variety of media (for instance, the inaugural exhibition, opened in January 2017, featured abstract paintings by Ian de Beer). (updated Jan 2017)
• 42.859043-78.87533910 Flat Man, on the Greenway Nature Trail just south of the Bell Slip. The Flat Man sure gets around: from its creation in 1963 through today, this 30-foot (9-m) sculpture — the work of Buffalo's own Larry Griffis, whose other works of public art around town include Birds Excited Into Flight on Bidwell Parkway and Spirit of Womanhood in Delaware Park — has been moved from its original site at the Kissing Bridge ski resort in Colden, to the 400-acre Griffis Sculpture Park in Cattaraugus County, to the Essex Arts Center on the West Side, to his new home on the Outer Harbor, where he's giving Canalside's Shark Girl a run for her money as a popular destination for selfie-snapping visitors. Sculpted in the artist's preferred medium of cold-rolled steel (milled just down the road at the Lackawanna Steel Plant), it's an oversized, abstract depiction of what its title indicates, with a heart-shaped opening in its chest promoting a message of love and inclusiveness for all. (updated Jan 2019)

• 42.87657-78.8496111 (716) GAL-LERY, 716 Swan St (Metro Bus 15, 18 or 23). Tu-Th 4:30PM-10PM, F Sa 4:30PM-11PM. Located at the Hydraulic Hearth restaurant on Swan Street, (716) GAL-LERY bills itself as Buffalo's smallest art gallery. It's a repurposed 1950s-era phone booth where works from a local artist are displayed. Pick up the phone and it plays a recording that tells you a bit about the artist and his or her work. The featured artist changes on a bimonthly basis. There's also a "gift shop" that consists of a 50-cent vending machine that dispenses stickers and temporary tattoos designed by local artists. 

Despite its former industrial character, today's South Buffalo is all about the outdoors, with a huge, breathtaking expanse of shoreline at its front door and many former industrial facilities that have been repurposed as green spaces.

Olmsted parks

[edit]

In 1887, twenty years after the first phase of his work in Buffalo was complete, landscape architect extraordinaire Frederick Law Olmsted was called back to design an extension of his extremely popular park system to serve residents of the southern part of the city. His original design for the new sector would have been centered on a large park stretching inland from Lake Erie (around the site of the present-day Ship Canal Commons), rivaling Delaware Park in size and boasting a beach, athletic fields, and a Venice-like maze of man-made canals for pleasure boaters extending all the way to downtown. After city leaders balked at the cost of such a park, he returned in 1894 with a second proposal that's the basis for what exists today: two inland parks, South Park and Cazenovia Park, linked to each other by a network of parkways that merge at the small Heacock Park to the north. Today, compared to the damage inflicted over the years by careless planners on the original parks and parkways, South Buffalo's Olmsted elements remain remarkably true to their original design. The links at Cazenovia Park draw golfers from all over Western New York — and, of course, locals by the thousands flock to the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens, the verdant centerpiece of South Park.

• 42.844849-78.80359312 Cazenovia Park, North side of Potters and Abbott Rds. between Cazenovia St. and the city line (Metro Bus 14 or 15). Straddling Cazenovia Creek in the southeast corner of the city, Cazenovia Park is most famous as the site of an eponymous 9-hole golf course that's arguably the finest in the city. More than that, though, this is a place of wooded walking paths, serene creekside views, and friendly games of pickup baseball on well-manicured diamonds. There's also a swimming pool and an ice rink. When the park was first built, the creek was dammed to create the large Cazenovia Park Lake, on the shore of which stood a pleasant, airy lodge (still in existence today as the Peter J. Crotty Casino) with charming views over the water from the veranda. Athletic fields, a carriage concourse, a bandstand, and gardens almost as extensive as South Park's rounded out the original offerings. In 1925, Cazenovia Park's size was almost doubled by the addition of a golf course to its east end; though not designed by Olmsted, the seclusion of the new portion from the rest of the park means that the divide between Cazenovia's two halves seems nearly seamless. Aside from the lake, which was drained in 1965 due to persistent problems with flooding and pollution (revealing the previously submerged Cazenovia Park Falls; see below), the park remains mostly true to its original design and is in better shape than many of the other Olmsted parks in the city.  

• 42.849413-78.8085813 Cazenovia Park Falls (Located along Cazenovia Creek 500 feet [140m] upstream from Cazenovia Street, access via footpath; Metro Bus 14 or 15). Ask locals about Cazenovia Park Falls and you'll likely get little more than quizzical looks: even more so than Buffalo's other natural waterfall, Forest Lawn Cemetery's Serenity Falls, this is truly a hidden gem. Strange, because it's easily the more impressive of the two — by comparison with its counterpart which is little more than a series of rapids, the horseshoe-shaped Cazenovia Park Falls is a six-foot (1.8-m) vertical plunge along Cazenovia Creek over a ridge of dark, oil-rich shale. The scene at the falls is a very changeable one — after heavy rains the falls might be temporarily submerged again, and during the dry summer months the flow often slows to a trickle, but come at the right time and you'll bear witness to a lively affair of trout or bass jumping up the cascade as anglers try their luck. 

• 42.830446-78.82892414 South Park, West side of South Park Ave. between Nason Pkwy. and former B&O Railroad tracks (Metro Bus 16 or 42). In Olmsted's 1894 plan, South Park was intended to be an expansive meadow reminiscent of an "English deer park", circumnavigated by a ring road and peppered by a pair of small ponds that would complement but not overwhelm the peaceful, pastoral views. However, meddling from city officials resulted in that plan being tweaked, and what was built instead rather resembles Delaware Park in miniature: a large lake in the middle, a small Meadow that's now the site of the 9-hole South Park Golf Course, and an ornamental garden, greenhouse and arboretum that eventually grew into the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens, the park's marquee attraction (see below). Like Cazenovia, time has been much kinder to South Park than to most other Olmsted parks around the city, remaining true to its original design save for the intrusion of the golf course in 1915 and the construction of a turnaround loop for public buses in the 1940s. Among the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy's plans is the revitalization of South Park Lake, which has unfortunately served almost as an afterthought to the park's other features; when work is done, word is it may once again be deep enough for boating.  

• 42.828103-78.82574615 Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens, 2655 South Park Ave. (Metro Bus 16 or 42), ☏ +1 716-827-1584. Daily 10AM-5PM. Located at South Park, the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens were founded in 1898 and today consist of several collections of plants — the Panama Cloud Forest & Epiphyte Pavilion, the Palm Dome, the Florida Everglades pavilion, the Victorian Ivy & Herb House, the Orchid House, and the Rose Garden are only a few — arranged carefully in Victorian style. All in all, 1,500 varieties of plants are displayed here to more than 100,000 visitors annually. The lovely Victorian conservatory building of the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens was designed by Frederick A. Lord and William A. Burnham, who went on to design the conservatory at the National Botanical Gardens in Washington, D.C. some years later. $7, seniors and students $6, 12 and under $4, members and children under 3 free.  

South Buffalo's main contribution to Buffalo's rich architectural heritage is the grain elevators of the former industrial district. It was in Buffalo where Joseph Dart built the first grain elevator in 1843, and today Elevator Alley is still the largest single collection of grain elevators in the world. Long derided as eyesores, these rock-solid monoliths were saved from the wrecking ball largely by virtue of how expensive it would have been to demolish them. These days, though, Buffalonians have taken to embracing their scrappy industrial history, with grain elevators being repurposed for a variety of uses.

As well, South Buffalo contains a number of neighborhoods that are interesting to fans of historic architecture. In the entire city, there are 12 historic districts 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, and although only two of them are located in South Buffalo, there are also a couple of "unofficial" ones that are notable.

• Slightly over 13 acres (5.3 ha) in size, the Cobblestone Local Historic District is bounded by Perry Street, Columbia Street, South Park Avenue, and Illinois Street, and also includes the two blocks of Michigan Avenue north of the Buffalo River, where the historic fireboat Edward M. Cotter is docked. Dating to the 1820s and '30s, in its day this was one of the nation's nastiest slums, populated by poor Irish industrial laborers and crisscrossed with a network of man-made shipping lanes that radiated out from the harbor, by which factories received raw materials shipped across the Great Lakes or sent finished products on their way to market via the Erie Canal. The neighborhood began to decline in importance around the turn of the century, when the canals were filled in, and as the Irish, with newfound political and social clout, gradually became well-off enough to move to the much safer, still-semirural lands south of the Buffalo River. The Cobblestone District's main attraction to history buffs today are the streets themselves — many are still paved with the granite blocks that gave the neighborhood its name, brought over as ballast in the hulls of lake freighters and discarded at port. As for the buildings in between, most of them have been demolished, with the exception of a collection of 19th- and early 20th-century brick industrial buildings between Illinois and Mississippi Streets (anchored by the Bendin Building, a five-story warehouse at 95 Perry Street) that are now being actively restored as bars, restaurants, office space, and loft apartments.
• Though it's not yet been named to any historic register, The Triangle is a charming expanse of turn-of-the-century homes that's well worth a visit for architecture fans. The district is aptly named: the classic boundaries of The Triangle are South Park Avenue on the northeast, Amber Street on the south, and Hopkins Street on the west, though the streets west of Heacock Park on the other side of South Park Avenue share essentially the same identity. The Triangle started out as rural farmland belonging to Reuben Heacock, a wealthy banker and industrialist, but its history really began in the 1890s, when Frederick Law Olmsted was called back to Buffalo to design a southern extension to his park system. At the time, urban development in South Buffalo lagged far behind the rest of the city, from which it was separated not only by the Buffalo River but also a series of busy railroad tracks — and in wet weather, the swamps around the riverbanks would often flood, cutting off what few roads led north. Before beginning his work, Olmsted stated that city leaders needed to make South Buffalo more easily accessible from the rest of the city and to mitigate the constant flooding problems. The city responded by building more streets and dredging the river into a concrete channel, and as soon as Olmsted's park system opened, The Triangle began developing into a classic turn-of-the-century "streetcar suburb" with South Park Avenue as its main shopping street. Today, the side streets of The Triangle are dominated by homes that date from the 1890s to the 1930s and reflect the architectural fashions of that period: wood-frame houses in the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Craftsman, and American Foursquare styles, many of which were partially prefabricated "kit houses" available through mail-order catalogs. Peppered among them are a few larger buildings, including some fairly impressive churches, Holy Family Catholic Church at 1887 South Park Avenue and St. Jude's Episcopal Church at 124 Macamley Street among them.

• Proposed for the National Register of Historic Places, the Larkin Local Historic District is centered on the corner of Seneca and Swan Streets, in a part of Buffalo once known as The Hydraulics. Named for the Hydraulic Canal, built in 1828 by local entrepreneur Reuben Heacock, this was supposed to be one of the foremost industrial districts in the world — but the canal was only big enough to support a few tanneries, slaughterhouses, and other industries. Luckily, The Hydraulics' proximity to the railroads preserved its importance as a center of industry even after the canal was filled in, and it soon came to be dominated by the Larkin Company, a mail-order giant whose huge campus of factory buildings was centered around its beautiful Administration Building, designed by Darwin Martin's close friend Frank Lloyd Wright. The company went out of business in 1943, wracked by the effects of the Great Depression combined with a decline in popularity of catalog sales, but most of Larkinville's buildings (with the notable exception of Wright's Administration Building; see below) still stand and, in many cases, have been renovated and restored for offices. These include the gargantuan Larkin Factory Complex at 701 Seneca Street and Terminal Warehouse Building at 726 Exchange Street; the U Building at 239 Van Rensselaer Street, which now houses offices, and the Kamman Building at 755 Seneca Street, now the home of a local architectural firm. At the center of it all is 42.876316-78.84958530 Larkin Square, with pleasant greenery, restaurants and food trucks, and frequent special events.

• 42.877248-78.85184931 Remains of the Larkin Administration Building, between Swan Street and Seneca Street adjacent to the New York Central Railroad tracks (Metro Bus 15 or 18). The last remnant of the Larkin Administration Building is this 20-foot (6-m) brick and sandstone exterior wall. Built in 1906, the Administration Building was the most majestic Frank Lloyd Wright building in Buffalo and the prototypical adaptation of his favored Prairie Style to a large office building. Five stories tall and faced in dark red sandstone brick adorned with bas-relief sculptures and with two waterfall-like fountains flanking the entrance, the building consisted of offices arranged around the perimeter, with balconies looking onto a central court. The Administration Building's interior walls were of hard cream-colored brick with accents in Greek magnesite, and it boasted a state-of-the-art ventilation system and lighting and electrical fixtures designed by Wright. After the Larkin Company's bankruptcy in 1943, the Administration Building was left abandoned and decaying, and was eventually purchased by a trucking company who demolished it in 1950 to make room for a parking lot. The wall was restored in 2003; adjacent to it is an interpretive plaque with information on Larkin Company history and Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural legacy in Buffalo.  

• 42.874901-78.84597132 Our Lady of Seneca Street Shrine, 847 Seneca St. (Metro Bus 15, 18 or 23). An odd sight to see amongst the restored warehouses, quirky restaurants, and trendy craft distilleries of Larkinville, this roadside shrine was built around 1950 by local barber Joseph Battaglia, inspired by a vision he had of the Virgin Mary several years earlier. In the ensuing years, Our Lady of Seneca Street has attracted the attention of local Catholic devotees, who still deliver prayers to the Blessed Mother by mail (the postal service drops them in the adjacent mail slot), the area preservationist community (who sprung into action to save the shrine when Battaglia's former barber shop — now the parking lot to its rear — was razed in the late 1980s), and dramatist Tom Dudzick, whose 2009 play Miracle on South Division Street was based on Battaglia's vision and its aftermath. (updated Aug 2019)

The Outer Harbor has become Buffalo's festival venue of choice, with many events previously packed like sardines into places like Canalside or the streets of North Buffalo (respectively, the Buffalo Irish Festival and the Galbani Italian Festival) have relocated to this wide-open lakeside space.

However, by far the most interesting festival venues in South Buffalo can be found in Elevator Alley, where many of the old grain silos have been ingeniously redeveloped into innovative spaces. 42.861967-78.863111 Silo City is the larger of these: a trio of grain elevators on Childs Street (the American, Perot Malting and Marine "A" Elevators) owned by local entrepreneur Rick Smith which, after having been abandoned for almost half a century beforehand, reopened in 2012 to a growing schedule of concerts, guided tours, activities, and events within and around these majestic, weather-beaten monoliths. Hot on Silo City's heels in late 2014 came 42.869949-78.8723432 RiverWorks, the product of an $18-million restoration of the Grange League Federation Elevator complex on Ganson Street offering indoor and outdoor rock climbing, a zipline, performance space, a variety of sports, and — above all — two regulation-size ice rinks that play host every year to the Labatt Blue Pond Hockey Tournament.

Together with nearby Canalside, the historic industrial waterways of South Buffalo are ground zero for the kayaking craze that's hit the Buffalo area.

• 42.863797-78.8602513 Elevator Alley Kayak (At Mutual Park; Metro Bus 42), ☏ +1 716-997-7925. Hours vary seasonally. Elevator Alley Kayak is not only easily the most reasonably priced of the myriad new kayak rental outfits that have popped up in Buffalo, but their staff is also a strong contender for the most helpful — they're as adept at advising visitors on the practical side of kayaking as they are at pointing out the landmarks along the Buffalo River — and Mutual Park presents a much less daunting scenario for the novice kayaker, with only a small step down from the launch into the boat. Once on board, you're free to paddle around the river and harbor at your leisure for however long you're reserved the boat (but do make sure not to overstay your reservation; they tend to get prickly otherwise). However, if you prefer, you can also opt for a slate of scheduled guided tours that focus on either Buffalo's industrial history or the natural environment that's beginning to reclaim a place along area waterways, presented by the staff in conjunction with Explore Buffalo or the Audubon Society and the Western New York Land Conservancy, respectively. And if you leave your Elevator Alley Kayak session hooked on this hot new pastime, you can check out their retail shop in the historic Barrel Factory two blocks away on Vandalia Street. Single kayak $25/2 hours or $40/4 hours (4 hour rate available M-F only); tandem kayak $45/2 hours. (updated Oct 2016)
• Safe Harbor Boat Rentals, 1111 Fuhrmann Blvd (At Safe Harbor Marina; Metro Bus 42), ☏ +1 716-828-0027. Apr-Oct : daily 8AM-8PM. For those who don't have a boat of their own, the pontoon boats rented out by the folks at the state park's 42.848864-78.8650384 Safe Harbor Marina are a great if pricey way to experience the Outer Harbor from the water without the hassle of paddling one's own kayak. You register at the Ship's Store building on the left side of Charlie's Boatyard restaurant, pay the reservation fee (plus a $50 Loss Damage Waiver if you're so inclined), and then head back to the dock where your 30-foot, 16-seater craft with onboard barbecue grill and restroom facilities awaits you. Renters are free to take their boat wherever they like within the breakwall that runs from Stony Point north to Times Beach. M-F $300 per half-day (4 hours) or $400 per full day (8 hours); Sa Su $475 per full day (no half-day rentals). $100 reservation fee upfront is applicable to final bill. (updated Jun 2017)
• 42.861364-78.8622585 Silo City Paddling Company, 120 Childs St (Metro Bus 42), ☏ +1 716-997-2884. May-Sep: Th-Su 9AM-6PM. "Launched" at the start of the 2016 season, Silo City Paddling is yet another outfit that offers a selection of kayaks for rent on an hourly or all-day basis. Starting from their private dock located at the base of the Marine "A" Elevator at the far end of Silo City Row, you can get an up-close-and-personal look at the historic grain silos of Elevator Alley, catch glimpses of native waterfowl as well as deer and other wildlife wandering in from nearby Tifft Nature Preserve, or paddle further afield to Canalside, the Naval Park, or the Outer Harbor. You can choose from a wide range of different kayaks optimized for boaters of various sizes, shapes, and skill levels, and there are even a few stand-up paddleboards if you want to try your hand at that instead. With the exception of the guided kayak tours Silo City Paddling occasionally offers (check website for schedule), no reservations are taken: boats are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so your best bet is to show up early and/or on a weekday. Single kayak rental $20 for first hour plus $5 for each additional half-hour to a maximum of $55; tandem kayak rental $25 for first hour plus $5 for each additional half-hour to a maximum of $65; kids' kayak rental $15 for first hour plus $5 for each additional half-hour to a maximum of $45. (updated Jul 2016)

• Seas the Day Charters, 1111 Fuhrmann Blvd. (At Safe Harbor Marina; Metro Bus 42), ☏ +1 716-328-8793. The Great Lakes are home to some of the best shipwreck diving in the world, and with Seas the Day, Buffalo is finally claiming a piece of the action. Groups of up to four divers can charter guided or unguided trips departing from Safe Harbor Marina to a number of wrecks in the waters off Buffalo. Popular destinations include the Tonawanda, a steamer that foundered off Point Abino during an October 1870 windstorm, as well as Barge 43, sunk in 1961 near the mouth of the Buffalo River while being used as a floating wood burner. If you'd rather commune with Lake Erie's increasingly abundant marine life, you can head instead to the Seneca Shoals about a mile off Woodlawn Beach. Check website for schedule and pricing info. (updated Jan 2019)

• 42.867865-78.8693836 Buffalo CycleBoats, 301 Ohio St. (Metro Bus 14, 16 or 42), ☏ +1 716-800-7543. Check website for departures schedule. Though an outing with Buffalo CycleBoats is really more of a "booze cruise" than a sightseeing tour like those that populate the rest of this section, it's also a unique and fun way to get out on the water among the imposing monoliths of Elevator Alley. These 15-seat, pedal-powered craft offer two-hour jaunts along the Buffalo River, past Canalside, and through other area waterways supervised by a certified captain, with an onboard bar (BYOB) and lively music to help the good times roll. The lack of restrooms on the CycleBoats are a drawback, but the frequent stops made at various waterfront attractions along the route can double as bathroom breaks. And there's a "cheater motor" on the boat to do the work for you if you get tired. Reservations are strongly recommended: they're fully refundable if cancelled 10 days or more in advance, or you'll get a voucher for a future cruise if you cancel three to nine days in advance (or if they cancel on you due to inclement weather). $40 per person, $562.50 to charter the entire boat (for groups of 8 or more only). (updated Jul 2019)
• Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper Tours, ☏ +1 716-852-7483. Check website for schedule. Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, the community organization whose mission is to contribute to Buffalo's revitalization through the remediation of local waterways, holds a series of educational kayak tours in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and points between. The lineup of tours changes from year to year, but as an example, in South Buffalo the 2014 schedule included four tours along the Buffalo River launched from Mutual Park in Elevator Alley, where immigrant history, industrial heritage, and ecological restoration were covered. Participants can bring their own kayak or reserve one of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper's limited supply. Free. 

• 42.877301-78.879547 Buffalo River History Tours (Metro Rail: Erie Canal Harbor), ☏ +1 716-796-4556. Buffalo River Tour departs daily 10:30AM, 12:30PM, 2:30PM, 4:30PM & 5:30PM, Silo City tour daily 11:30AM, Silos and Stemships Tour daily 2PM, harbor cruises daily 12:30PM, 2PM & 3:30PM; season runs May-Oct. Choose your own adventure with this boat tour outfit operating from the Central Wharf at Canalside. The classic Buffalo River Tour aboard the River Queen leaves five times daily, destination Elevator Alley: you'll feel the wind whip through your hair as you listen to the captain recount the history of the grain elevators and their contribution to the huge importance of Buffalo Harbor in the 19th and 20th centuries. Other tours include the Silo City Tour, which also offers a brief walking tour inside three of the grain elevators themselves, and the Silos and Steamships Tour for a close-up look at the SS Columbia, which at the time of its retirement in 1991 was the last of the old passenger steamers that once plied the Great Lakes. For something a bit less in-depth, non-narrated one-hour cruises around the harbor and Canalside are offered on a separate boat. Buffalo River Tour $23, children $12; harbor cruise $15, children $10; all other tours $33, children $18. (updated Jan 2019)
• 42.870388-78.8719158 Grand Lady, RiverWorks, 359 Ganson St. (Metro Bus 14 or 16), ☏ +1 716-873-4630. May-Oct, check website for schedule. The Grand Lady is an 80-foot cruise ship that's been offering scheduled cruises and private charters since 1998, first on the upper Niagara River from their former home at Rich Marina in Black Rock, and since 2017 of Elevator Alley from RiverWorks. Passengers on the Grand Lady have their choice of itineraries: the Buffalo River and adjacent areas of Lake Erie are the focus of 90-minute narrated afternoon sightseeing cruises (some departures include a three-course plated lunch; see schedule); dinner cruises are a longer (2½-hour) more elaborate affair with live entertainment, a cash bar, and an elegant three-course meal; craft beer-themed cruises and evening casual cruises are also offered. The schedule is variable, but in general it features one to two of both types of cruise weekly; it's recommended you reserve as early as possible. The Grand Lady sails rain or shine. River cruise $18, children under 12 $9; lunch cruises $45, children under 12 $23; dinner cruises $60 Jul-Labor Day & $57 all other times, children under 12 $30 Jul-Labor Day & $29 all other times. 
• 42.878567-78.8855649 Historic Buffalo River Tour (Metro Rail: Erie Canal Harbor), ☏ +1 716-856-6696. Seven tours yearly Jul-Sep, see website for details. During the warm months, the Miss Buffalo II, in partnership with the Industrial Heritage Committee, takes visitors on a two-hour educational cruise down the Buffalo River, exploring the city's mighty industrial past with a visit to the old Erie Canal terminus and Elevator Alley. Tours leave rain or shine from the Miss Buffalo's dock at the Erie Basin Marina. $18, children $12. 
• Pontoon Saloon, 1111 Fuhrmann Blvd. (At Safe Harbor Marina; Metro Bus 42), ☏ +1 716-328-8973. If what you're looking for in a harbor cruise is just the standard itinerary of the Outer Harbor, Canalside, and Elevator Alley, this 33-foot, catamaran-style pontoon boat docked at Safe Harbor Marina will be more than happy to accommodate you with a two-hour spin around the waterfront. But if you want to get creative, the Pontoon Saloon is also available for private charters: the team of Coast Guard-licensed captains helming the operation can take you anywhere you want to go on the waterways of the Niagara Frontier. And if you want to let your hair down a little, there's an onboard bar, a sound system for tunes, and food and drink courtesy of the adjacent Charlie's Boatyard restaurant. Check website for cruise schedule and pricing info. (updated Jan 2019)

• 42.858112-78.87360210 Lakeside Complex (along Fuhrmann Boulevard between the Bell Slip and the Queen City Landing site; Metro Bus 42). Opened in 2019, this 20-acre (8-ha) park right at the center of the Outer Harbor action is the destination of choice on the Buffalo waterfront for the more active visitor. The Lakeside Complex features a grassy lawn perfect for a pickup soccer or baseball match, a pleasant bike-ped trail along its outer perimeter, and — the pièce de résistance — an exciting mountain-bike obstacle course with loops, a pump track, and rock and tube hazards for the kind of experience you definitely won't find on the Shoreline Trail or any of the on-street bikeways around town. (updated Aug 2019)
• Pickleball. Larkin Square's retro quirkiness is a great part of its appeal — and one of the best expressions of that whimsy are the two 42.875799-78.84907611 pickleball courts located just off the rear of the square, behind the Kamman Building. A popular recreation for visitors as well as workers in the nearby office buildings who want to blow off steam after a long workday cooped up at their desk, pickleball is an old-time sport that's sort of a cross between badminton, volleyball, and ping-pong. You can play on the courts for free, on a first-come-first-served basis, and paddles and plastic whiffleballs are stored in a basket beside the courts (don't forget to return them after you're done). Those who want to brush up on the rules can take a look at the Larkin Square website, or just read the back of your paddle — they're printed right on them.
• Queen City Roller Girls, RiverWorks, 359 Ganson St (Metro Bus 14 or 16), toll-free: +1-888-740-7274. This is not your father's rollerderby — far from the WWE wrestling-style campy sports entertainment of old, this is a fast-paced, hard-hitting sport that's been exciting Buffalo fans since 2006. The Queen City Roller Girls is a league of four teams which battle it out each year for the Queen City Cup, but it also fields an all-star "travelling team" that hosts other squads from around the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, of which they've been a member since 2010. After spending the previous eight years playing at the Rainbow Rink in North Tonawanda, since the 2015 season the Queen City Roller Girls' home turf has been at RiverWorks, which boasts the only purpose-built rollerderby track in the country (not to mention a 20-foot HiDef LCD screen scoreboard that's bigger than the Jumbotron at KeyBank Center). The season runs from February to June; tickets are cheap and games are family-friendly. 

If you're a golfer in Buffalo, you're in the right neighborhood. South Buffalo contains two of the city's four golf courses, where you can hit the links amid a setting of impeccably manicured greenery designed by the United States' foremost landscape architect.

• 42.842021-78.79847612 Cazenovia Park Golf Course, 1 Willink Ave. (Metro Bus 14 or 15), ☏ +1 716-823-1517. Daily 6AM-5PM. Secluded at the southeast end of the Olmsted park of the same name, Cazenovia Park Golf Course is the larger and better-maintained of South Buffalo's two golf courses. An easy, flat course perfect for beginners, golfers at Cazenovia play in a simple but extremely pleasant setting, with nice wide fairways and hazards that mostly consist of the huge shade trees that are peppered here and there throughout the course. As well, Cazenovia Creek, which bisects the course through the middle, serves as a water hazard on the 3rd and 9th holes. Cazenovia is a nine-hole course, but those who want a full 18-hole round can play the course through twice as a discounted price: each hole has two separate tees, making for a distinctive experience for each go-round. Cart rental is available — not that you'd need one, this course is easy to walk — and there's a putting and chipping green and a snack bar. Weekday green fee $9 (9 holes) and $12 (18 holes), weekends $11 (9 holes) and $15 (18 holes). 
• 42.828821-78.82958813 South Park Golf Course, 2535 South Park Ave. (Metro Bus 16 or 42), ☏ +1 716-609-2004. Tu noon-9PM, all other days 6:30AM-9PM. Built in 1915 on the site of South Park's Meadow, South Park is an odd little nine-hole golf course — there's seemingly no rhyme or reason to its layout, and its small size makes for a cramped, tight-off-the-tee scenario on many holes. Still, this is a pleasant course with a great pro shop and an impeccably beautiful landscape courtesy of the great Frederick Law Olmsted. The course doesn't look like much of a challenge at first glance, but don't be fooled — South Park Lake makes for a formidable water hazard on many of the holes. There's a driving range and putting green for practice, and as at Cazenovia, you can play through the course twice at a discounted rate if you want a full 18 holes of golf. $11 for 9 holes; $14 for 18 holes. 

If "full-size golf" is not your thing, head to Larkinville instead:

• 42.875893-78.84874214 Larkin Links, 763 Seneca St. (Metro Bus 15, 18 or 23). Located in the empty lot just east of the Kamman Building along the south side of Seneca Street, Larkin Links is Buffalo's first "nano-golf" course (think miniature golf, except scaled down even further in size) which also doubles as a public art exhibit, with sculptures and other installations designed by local artists serving as hazards on the course's 11 holes. The course is open for play between June and September, whenever the red flag on the mailbox is raised. Putters (vintage ones, scored by course operator Harry Zemsky from a local antique shop), golf balls, pencils, and scorecards are provided free of charge. Free. (updated Feb 2016)

• RiverWorks, 359 Ganson St. (Metro Bus 14 or 16), toll-free: +1-844-749-2267. See website for open skating and skate & shoot schedule. Skating $5, children 10 and under free; skate & shoot $10, children 10 and under $5 (bring your own equipment). 
• 42.848282-78.81138115 Timothy J. Burvid Ice Rink, 25 Cazenovia St. (Metro Bus 14 or 15), ☏ +1 716-825-9503. Sep-Mar: Open skate M 1PM-3PM, Th 6PM-8PM, F Sa 7PM-9PM, Su 2PM-4PM; closed Apr-Aug. $3, $2 for Buffalo residents, $1 for seniors or children under 18 who are Buffalo residents. 

• 42.874368-78.870716 Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino, 1 Fulton St. (Metro Bus 14, 16 or 42), ☏ +1 716-299-1100, toll-free: +1-877-8-SENECA (736322). Daily 24 hours. Located in the historic Cobblestone District and convenient to downtown and the waterfront, the brand-new, $130-million permanent home of the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino opened with great fanfare in August 2013, and was expanded four years later to the tune of an additional $40 million. Today, over 3 million people a year flock here to try their luck on over 1,100 slot machines and 36 table games, both on the main casino floor and in the exclusive High Limit Room. If you get hungry, choose from four bars and restaurants onsite: the rowdy Stixx Sports Bar with pub grub and local brews on tap, the brand new B Lo Bar, light casual dining at The Creek, and a satellite location of the upscale Western Door Steakhouse that has proven a huge draw at the Niagara Falls Seneca casino, whose second-floor dining room features panoramic views over Elevator Alley and the downtown skyline.  

• 42.874358-78.81793817 Bowl Inn, 727 Bailey Ave. (Metro Bus 2 or 19), ☏ +1 716-824-9074. M-F 4PM-1AM, Sa 11AM-1AM, Su noon-1AM. No-one would ever call this place huge — it's not much more than a dozen bowling lanes, a tiny bar and a kitchen — but the Bowl Inn turns its small size to its advantage, offering friendly service with a personal touch. Also, the prices here are cheap — a 3-game outing usually runs between $5.50 and $7.50, and if you're a family with kids you save even more. The food is great, too. 

With the emergence of the Cobblestone District as a hip cluster of bars in the shadow of the KeyBank Center and Canalside, plus a growing slate of offerings around the Outer Harbor, the live entertainment scene in South Buffalo has exploded in size.

• 42.854372-78.82095318 Buffalo Irish Center, 245 Abbott Rd. (Metro Bus 14), ☏ +1 716-825-9535. Aside from the scads of Irish-American not-for-profit groups who have their home offices here (such as the Gaelic-American Athletic Association and Rince na Tiarna Irish Dancers), the Buffalo Irish Center also includes a pub which, every Friday and Saturday night, plays host to live music featuring local bands of diverse genres — everything from country to hard rock to Dixieland jazz. For those in the mood for something more Irish, head down to a seisiún if you're in town at the right time: held on the third Sunday of each month, these hoedowns of traditional music, dancing, and storytelling feature Guinness on tap and plenty of merriment. 
• 42.874553-78.87482219 Buffalo Iron Works, 49 Illinois St. (Metro Bus 6, 8, 14, 16, or 42; Metro Rail: Erie Canal Harbor), ☏ +1 716-200-1893. Five nights a week, this hip Cobblestone District bar hosts live music in an intimate yet appropriately gritty setting, all exposed ducts and rough brick. Shows here split the difference between major national touring groups and local acts playing rock, country, and acoustic music. 
• 42.874364-78.87429420 Helium Comedy Club, 30 Mississippi St. (Metro Bus 6, 8, 14, 16, or 42), ☏ +1 716-853-1211. W Th 4:30PM-10PM, F Sa 4:30PM-midnight.