Welcome to one of the most historic places in Buffalo - the place where villagers built a harbor that, in turn, built a city. The parkland, promenade and restored lighthouse here were once key elements of the old Port of Buffalo. Early in the 19th century, the city's earliest lighthouse - one of the first on the Great Lakes - was built here. The promedade follows what once was a narrow stone pier projecting into Lake Erie, and the restored 1833 lighthouse occupoed a stone mound or molehead added to the pier's end. Here, the stream of immigrants that settled America's heartlands reached the end of the Erie Canal. Some stayed to help build Buffalo; others followed their dreams past this pier and lighthouse and onto the vast expanse of the inland seas. Here, schooners and steamships passed inbound to the docks and wharves of the harbor and canal, carrying the commerce of a growing America. The pier eventually became a peninsula, as landfill was added to provide a base for lighhouse and lifeboat services to a port that expanded along the river and lake shores. That tradition continues, on the Coast Guard base that occupies the site today. Parkland developed by the City of Buffalo, James D. Griffin, Mayor, in cooperation with The United States Coast Guard, The Buffalo Lighthouse Association, Inc.
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