The organization which formed the basis for the present Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy began as a series of informal meetings arranged starting in 1974 by Joan Bozer, then the Erie County Legislator. The informal organization became officially incorporated as the result of an application filed on August 10, 1982 as a domestic not-for-profit charitable organization under chapter 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Service code.
The primary focus of the group, more commonly referred to as the BFOP for short, was to educate the public about the parks of Buffalo designed by the Olmsted firms, and about the philosophy of Frederick Law Olmsted, to advocate for restoration of lost park features, to combat destructive and incompatible intrusions into the Olmsted parks, and to raise monies to assist in achieving these goals.
In 1995, the Buffalo Friends of Olmsted Parks reorganized as the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, and contracted with the City of Buffalo and with the County of Erie – the legal owners of the Olmsted parks in Buffalo – to manage and improve those parks on behalf of those governmental entities.
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