By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
What we now know as LaSalle Park was a canal-side dumping ground before it was developed into parkland in celebration of Buffalo’s 100th year as a city.
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Twenty years after the million-dollar purchase of the lands were made, the area between the Erie Canal and Niagara River on Buffalo’s West Side was finally christened Centennial Park in 1932.
The best reference for figuring out what you’re looking at here is the Col. Frank Ward Pumping Station, which still sits at the northern end of LaSalle Park.
The portion of the Erie Canal shown in this view — likely taken from Buffalo’s then-new City Hall looking north — has since been replaced with the I-190.