12 Things You Might Not Know About Buffalo
1. Buffalo earned the nickname of “City of Light” because of its prominent use of electricity (thanks to the nearby Niagara Power Project) in the 1901 Pan-American Exposition.
2. Buffalo-style Chicken wings were first served at the Anchor Bar on Main Street in 1964.
3. LECOM HarborCenter and Key Bank Center together comprise the first three rink complex in the NHL.
4. Theodore Roosevelt was one of the only presidents to take the oath of office outside the nation’s capital. He did so in Buffalo in 1901; retrace his steps at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site.
5. Mark Twain’s original manuscript of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is on display at Buffalo’s Central Library. Twain was a newspaper editor here.
6. Buffalo is one of only a handful of cities in the United States to boast over a half-dozen designs by Frank Lloyd Wright.
7. Frederick Law Olmsted, the world renowned landscape architect who designed Central Park in New York City, designed Buffalo’s parks system — the oldest coordinated system of parks and parkways in the U.S.
8. The Colored Musicians Club, at 145 Broadway, is one of the oldest jazz clubs in the country. During its heyday, jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Miles Davis could be found hanging out (and performing) at the club.
9. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 made Buffalo an industrial powerhouse, transportation hub and eighth largest city in the United States by 1900. Buffalo is tapping into that history to build its revitalized waterfront district, Canalside.
10. Upon completion, the Wilmers building of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum boasted 102 Greek columns, second only to the U.S. Capitol.
11. Kleinhans Music Hall is considered one of the most acoustically perfect buildings in the world.
12. The Barcalounger, air conditioning and the Ball Jar were all created in Buffalo.