Humboldt Park

The Parade, renamed Humboldt Park in 1895, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1869 as one of the three primary green spaces for the Buffalo Park System. Located on the east side of the city, The Parade was connected to the northerly Delaware Park via Humboldt Parkway (00705). Construction of the Kensington Expressway in the 1960s led to the parkway’s removal.

The 1870 plan of The Parade included an open 20-acre turf, intended for military use, a refectory designed by Calvert Vaux, and a tree-dotted grove marked with varying recreational activities. From 1895-1907 the Olmsted Firm redesigned the landscape, adding a wading pool and greenhouse. The property was chosen to house the Buffalo Museum of Science in 1926, and the building’s construction drastically changed the park’s northwest entrance.

Humboldt Park was renamed in 1976 and is now known as Martin Luther King, Jr. Park.