Traffic projects were to wreak havoc on the Olmsted parks after the Second World War. A 1946 traffic master plan was the genesis. That year, the population of the city was over 575,000 persons; the first ring of suburb populations had about half the number of residents they have now, with agriculture still quite viable in them. The outer ring suburbs were all lightly populated rural farmland. It proposed the routes of the then incomplete New York State Thruway Mainline and Niagara extension should follow the paths eventually built. Eleven arterial expressways would be built to speed traffic into, out of, and around Buffalo. High rise bridges on NY Rte 5 would span the Union Ship Canal in Lackawanna (the original Father Baker bridge), and the Buffalo River (the Skyway). At that time, Humboldt Parkway was still in pristine condition, but the volume of traffic it was handling was much greater than intended.
Humboldt parkway was affected by three of those original 11 expressway plans. First, it was proposed that the section of Humboldt Parkway from Monticello and Eastwood Places east to Crescent Avenue be excavated so as to pass 14 feet below grade under Main Street and Kensington Avenue, with four lanes of traffic traveling on a 60 foot wide highway with a median divider. This would connect at Agassiz Circle with a new 6 lane expressway along the border of (read that as “through”) Delaware Park, replacing the park carriage concourse. Second, a new expressway would cut through Buffalo’s Fruit Belt neighborhood from Michigan avenue, running parallel to Cherry street, thence at North street paralleling Herman street to Best street, and finally connecting with Humboldt Parkway. Third, another new expressway would connect Kensington avenue to Humboldt parkway, with Kensington avenue widened to 60 feet, and terminating at Bailey avenue. In the latter two plans, no physical alterations to Humboldt Parkway other than the underpass project at Main street were proposed.
There was heavy pressure placed on the city to adopt the plan by the state Department of Public Works. The cost of the project, which would take 7 years to complete, would be $69,000,000 ($1.1 billion in 2026 dollars.) The carrot dangled was that the city would only have to pay about 7.5 percent of that amount. The state urged early acceptance, and claimed it was ready to proceed with portions of the work almost immediately.
Strong opposition to the destructive impact on Humboldt Parkway by the underpass project surfaced almost immediately. Construction of the underpass eventually won out, commencing in October of 1950, and the bypass was opened to traffic in October of 1952.
Before that first element was finished, the next shoe dropped: the expressway through Agassiz Circle, along the Delaware Park meadow (including the portion of the park drive, to meet with a new cloverleaf ramp at recently widened and straightened Delaware avenue began construction in 1952. That Delaware avenue project, which had commenced in 1950, caused the destruction of the Vaux-designed stone arch bridge over Delaware avenue, and replaced it with a modern stone-faced double arch span. While this project only directly affected Delaware Park and Agassiz Circle, it set the stage for future expressway intentions for on Humboldt Parkway.
Then came the 3.2 mile long Scajaquada Expressway, NY Route 198, which began construction in the mid 1950s, and was opened to traffic on 8 Dec 1959. The 4 lane, limited access, divided highway presently connects the Niagara Section of the New York State Thruway, Interstate Highway 190 with NY Route 33 (which, in turn, provides access to the mainline New York State Thruway, Interstate Highway 90 or to downtown Buffalo.) It travels along the southern bank of Scajaquada Creek, and for some distance over it, and it replaced the carriage drive of Delaware Park with a four lane limited access expressway, dividing the magnificent Delaware Park into two sections. It then continues below grade along the western segment of Humboldt Parkway. It was intended to provide a crosstown connection from the Thruway to the Kensington Expressway and thence to downtown or to the main section of the New York State Thruway and to the Buffalo Airport.
Connecting to the Scajaquada Expressway is what came to be known as the Kensington Expressway (NY Route 33) It begins downtown at the eastern end of the Elm-Oak Expressway, travels as a below grade, six lane, arterial highway where the Humboldt Parkway once stood, then branches, with the main route swings east leading to the Buffalo Airport in Cheektowaga and the other portion connecting to NY Route 198 through the park. After considerable discussion, construction began, in three phases. Noteworthy is that the destruction of the Humboldt Parkway’s green space was missing from the debates. Early on, in 1960, all of the hundreds of maple trees on Humboldt Parkway were felled. The portion running from Michigan avenue parallel to Cherry street destroyed dozens of homes an businesses across Buffalo’s Fruit Belt neighborhood. When the section from Jefferson avenue to Harlem Road opened in 1967 the entirety of Humboldt Parkway was completely destroyed. Moreover, it divided and ruined the beauty of vibrant neighborhood which had been formed along its course, replacing it with toxic fumes, ugly concrete and unabated traffic noise.
Nor were they done building highways over parkland. In 1989 and 1990, first the inbound and then the outbound Kensington Expressway had a third lane added, creating a 6-lane thoroughfare.
These 1960’s era expressways obliterated the park’s main carriage drive, the Scajaquada Parkway, and Humboldt Parkway; they introduced major new highway access roadways into parkland; and they and split Delaware Park into two entities. In addition, the huge amounts of rock and soil created by the excavations of these roads were dumped into the park lake, causing major modifications to its outline and the elimination of most of its North Bay, and wreaking terrible damage to the Olmsted design. For what? To cut only 3 to 5 minutes from someone’s work commute.
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