It is the central hub of Joseph Ellicott's original radial street pattern that he designed in 1804 for the then village of New Amsterdam.

This trend increased after the Revolution, and in 1804 Joseph Ellicott (1760–1826) mapped a town on the banks of Lake Erie at the mouth of the Buffalo Creek.

Ellicott, who was the local Holland Land Company agent, had earlier in his career helped his brother Andrew survey Pierre L'Enfant's plan for the new capital at Washington.

Despite Ellicott's lofty vision for the new city — he said that the site was "developed by nature for the grand emporium of the Western world" — Buffalo remained for the first quarter of the nineteenth century a small village.

[4][5] Following the incident, Buffalo mayor Byron Brown announced that the city would pause arrests for marijuana possession and ease restrictions on releasing police body camera footage.