Buffalo's Birthplace

At the place where the Erie Canal met the lake at Buffalo’s waterfront, many kinds of boats, hotels, stores, transport, manufacturing, entertainment, and signs of order marked an important center of the city’s early life before railroads took over the waterfront. Here Melinda Nowlin gathered her skirts and her five children and climbed the flight of steps from the docks to the Canal District, ending the first stage of a hard journey from the Hudson Valley. For her, these “immigrant Steps” marked a passage from the hard-scrabble existence that had driven her husband John away from the farms their families had settled after leaving Ireland, as he was drawn westward by “Michigan fever” and the lure of cheap fertile land.

Buffalo, New York · United States