Cazenovia Park

Cazenovia Park was the second and final installment in Frederick Law Olmsted’s South Park System of the 1890s. Preliminary plans drawn in 1892 show the 72-acre park connected to Buffalo’s South Park (00718), via Red Jacket Parkway (12211) and McKinley Parkway (12201), both of which ran through the intermediary McClellan Circle. The park’s main feature, although no longer present, was a 20-acre lake, built in 1896 for rowing and skating. In a preliminary report to the Park Commissioners, the firm expressed their displeasure over the appearance of Cazenovia Creek, which ran through the park’s center. They recommended improving the attractiveness of the landscape by “damming the creek and thus forming a pond or lake, in which the variations in height of the water surface will be comparatively slight during the summer when the park will be most used.” [Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot to Park Commissioners of the City of Buffalo_1892-05-07_LOC-OAR-B_00703-im.4] In 1896, the firm revised their plans when an additional 30 acres, acquired by the city, were added to the site. The remaining flatlands were designed for a meadow, picnic grove, and playground. Additional structures, such as a shelter house, casino, and tennis courts, were added to the park in the early 1900s.