Queen City Saturdays Debut 6/6

Last year's popular Downtown Revealed tour has been enhanced and renamed. Now called Queen City Downtown, you'll make several new stops including Buffalo Savings Bank, the Electric Tower and forgotten Genesee Street. At 2pm on Saturdays, meet at the Erie Canal Harbor next to the Naval & Military Park Store; $10; students $5.

Buffalo Photo Contest Announced

From the Convention & Visitors Bureau:
Say Cheese, Buffalo! Photo Contest

The BNCVB photo contest is open to all levels of photographers of all ages. This is a photo contest sponsored by the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau to showcase the beautiful sights of the Buffalo Niagara area. Each photo submitted has the chance to be used in various BNCVB publications and on its website, to promote the Buffalo Niagara area as a fun and exciting place for out-of-town visitors and locals. An entry form must be submitted with each photo. So grab your camera and help capture the beauty of Buffalo Niagara.

The contest is on-going and has seasonal periods of entry:

SUMMER: July 1, 2009 – September 30, 2009
AUTUMN: October 1, 2009 – December 31, 2009
WINTER: January 1, 2010 – March 31, 2010
SPRING: April 1, 2010 – June 30, 2010

Each of the seasonal contests will have a 1st place $100 winner.

Field Trip to Buffalo City Hall

When a recent school group took a tour inside City Hall, Councilman Demone Smith popped out of his office and spoke to the students about the three branches of city government. Thanks to Councilman Smith for stopping by!



To arrange an educational school tour for your class, call us at (716) 852-3300 or write us at info@BuffaloTours.org.

Erie Canal Harbor Tours Announced

Buffalo Tours will give guided tours of the Erie Canal and Central Wharf area on weekends this summer! The tours are free to the public. View the summer schedule here.


The Erie Canal tours are sponsored by Buffalo Place and the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation, as well as Preservation Buffalo Niagara and M&T Bank.

The Oldest Building in Erie County

According to an article by John Conlin in the Winter 2003 issue of Western New York Heritage, the oldest surviving building in Erie County is the Gipple Cabin built by a frontier settler named Amos Woodward in 1803. The Rev. Walter Kern took this photo of the cabin in 1974:


This week I went out searching for the structure, located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Harris Hill Road and Wehrle Drive in Lancaster. (Map.) The building can be found at the very corner of an expanding office development whose parking lot ends only a few yards from the front door.


Here is the building today:

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin

"An Arts & Crafts Community for the 21st Century"

7:00pm Thursday, May 21st

Guest Speaker:
Gerald Morosco, Taliesin Architect, Board member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. He authored the article by that title in the "Arts & Crafts Home & Revival" -Fall 2008.

FREE TO THE PUBLIC
Lectures Scheduled for The Roycroft Inn, 40 South Grove Street, East Aurora NY. 7:00 pm with dessert buffet and coffee reception.

For more information call 655.7252 or visit www.ralaweb.com

2009 Buffalo Preservation Awards

May is Preservation Month, and also time for Preservation Buffalo Niagara and the City of Buffalo Preservation Board to present their annual awards. Peter Brink, senior vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Byron Brown, Mayor of the City of Buffalo, were both in attendance. You can read a detailed article at Buffalo.com.

Visit PreservationBuffaloNiagara.org for a list of award recipients and sponsors.

Built to Last: New Urbanism

Built to Last examines the impact of our built environment on the natural environment. This clip was created as an entry into the Congress for New Urbanism CNU17 video contest.