Cornelius Creek once flowed through North Buffalo, along a path roughly following Hertel Avenue.

North Buffalo is heavily populated with Italian-Americans, as evidenced by the Hertel Avenue strip which has many Italian restaurants, bakeries, and stores.

The growth of the neighborhood's Jewish population rapidly accelerated in the 1950s, when urban renewal in the Lower East Side, and racial transition exacerbated by blockbusting in the Hamlin Park neighborhood, displaced the formerly large Jewish population of those communities.

The neighborhood is home to several Orthodox synagogues and schools,[1] and institutions such as the Schvitz.

For many years, North Buffalo held the annual Italian Heritage and Food Festival along Hertel Avenue.