105 Fun Facts About Buffalo, New York

Which Jim Carrey comedy is set in Buffalo, where he plays a disgruntled local TV reporter?

Bruce Almighty puts Carrey at Buffalo's real station WKBW-TV, yet the city seen on screen is mostly a Universal Studios backlot in California, with only brief shots of the real place.

Buffalo's annual Dyngus Day parade celebrates an Easter Monday tradition from which country?

Poland: Buffalo's Polish-American community built its Dyngus Day parties on an old custom of dousing people with water and swatting them with pussy willow branches.

The Buffalo Bills play their home games in which suburban town?

Orchard Park has hosted the team since 1973, because the old War Memorial Stadium in the city held fewer than the 50,000 seats the merged NFL required; a new stadium opened there in 2026.

Buffalo wings are traditionally served with celery and which dressing?

Blue cheese dressing and cut celery are said to have gone out with the very first plate of wings in 1964, and in Buffalo wings are still always served with both.

Which Buffalo bar is usually credited with inventing Buffalo wings in 1964?

The Anchor Bar's Teressa Bellissimo is said to have deep-fried and sauced the wings in 1964 as a late-night snack for her son's friends, though her own family told the story more than one way.

The canal that reached Buffalo in 1825 linked the Great Lakes to which river?

The Hudson River: boats ran 363 miles from Buffalo to Albany and then on downriver to New York City, cutting the cost of shipping goods by about 90 percent.

Which U.S. president was shot at Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition in 1901?

William McKinley was shot at close range while greeting the public and seemed to be on the mend, but gangrene spread unseen around the wound and he died eight days later.

Buffalo's NHL team, founded in 1970, is known by what name?

Sabres won a name-the-team contest: the owners wanted something other than another buffalo or bison, and it beat entries such as Mugwumps, Buzzing Bees and Flying Zeppelins.

At the 2020 census, where did Buffalo rank among New York State's most populous cities?

Second-largest: Buffalo trails only New York City, yet it has fewer than half the 580,000 people who lived there at its peak in 1950.

The Peace Bridge links Buffalo with which Canadian town?

Fort Erie, Ontario stands at the bridge's Canadian end, across the Niagara River; the Peace Bridge was built as a memorial to a century of peace between the two countries.

Which weather phenomenon is chiefly behind Buffalo's reputation for brutal winters?

Lake-effect snow forms when cold air crosses the warmer, unfrozen lake and soaks up moisture; it falls in narrow bands, so one town can be buried while the sun shines a mile or two away.

Which sport do the Buffalo Bandits play?

Box lacrosse was developed in Canada in the 1930s to make use of hockey arenas left empty in summer, and it is still played on a rink with the ice removed or covered.

How many consecutive Super Bowls did the Buffalo Bills lose, starting with the 1990 season?

Four: the Bills reached a record four Super Bowls in a row and lost them all, the first by a single point when a last-second field goal drifted wide.

Which alternative rock band from Buffalo had the 1998 hit "Iris"?

Goo Goo Dolls wrote "Iris" for the film City of Angels; it led US radio play for a then-record 18 weeks, yet at first could not enter the Hot 100 because no single was on sale.

A beef on weck sandwich uses a roll topped with caraway seeds and what else?

Kosher salt and caraway seeds crust the kummelweck roll; one local story says a pub owner served it because the salty top would make customers buy more drinks.

Which Buffalo firm, founded in 1875, grew from a soap factory into a mail-order conglomerate?

The Larkin Company dropped its salesmen and middlemen, selling soap straight to households by mail and spending the savings on gift premiums; Frank Lloyd Wright designed its headquarters.

Which Frank Lloyd Wright estate in Buffalo's Parkside neighborhood is a Prairie-style landmark?

The Darwin D. Martin House was abandoned in 1937 and stood empty for nearly two decades; three of the estate's structures were later torn down, and a restoration finished in 2019 rebuilt them.

Which president took the oath of office at Buffalo's Wilcox Mansion on September 14, 1901?

Theodore Roosevelt was on a hiking trip at Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks when a runner brought word that the president was dying; he rushed to Buffalo by relays of horses and then by train.

Which US president was a Buffalo lawyer and the first chancellor of its university?

Millard Fillmore helped found the school and stayed on as its chancellor until he died in 1874, keeping the title even while he was vice president and president.

Which president served as mayor of Buffalo in 1882?

Grover Cleveland spent his one year as mayor exposing graft and vetoing padded city contracts; it made his name so fast that he was elected governor that November and president two years later.

Which anarchist shot the US president at Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition in 1901?

Leon Czolgosz joined the line of well-wishers with a revolver hidden under a handkerchief wrapped around his hand, and fired twice as the president reached out to greet him.

What was the centerpiece structure of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition?

The Electric Tower was outlined in light bulbs run on power sent 25 miles from Niagara Falls; like the rest of the fair it was only temporary, and a public drive to buy and save it fell short.

Buffalo's Joseph Dart and engineer Robert Dunbar created which device in the early 1840s?

The grain elevator: Dart's steam-powered version scooped loose grain straight out of ships' holds, and within fifteen years Buffalo was the largest grain port in the world.

What was Buffalo's original name when Joseph Ellicott laid out the village?

New Amsterdam: Joseph Ellicott's Dutch employers, the Holland Land Company, gave the village that name, but it never caught on with settlers and was dropped for Buffalo within ten years.

During which war did British forces burn most of Buffalo?

The War of 1812: British troops under Phineas Riall crossed the Niagara River at the end of 1813 and burned Buffalo and Black Rock in retaliation for the American burning of the Canadian village of Newark.

Which backup quarterback led the Bills' 32-point playoff rally over Houston in January 1993, known as The Comeback?

Frank Reich, standing in for the injured Jim Kelly, threw a string of touchdown passes to turn a 35-3 deficit into a 41-38 overtime win; in college at Maryland he had led a rally from 31-0 down.

Which Bills kicker missed wide right at the end of Super Bowl XXV?

Scott Norwood had made only one of five career kicks from 40 yards or more on grass, and this 47-yarder on grass sailed wide with seconds left; the Giants won 20-19.

Buffalo's 1970s hockey line of Perreault, Martin and Robert was nicknamed after which movie?

The French Connection fitted twice over: all three forwards were French-Canadians from Quebec, and the Oscar-winning thriller of that name had come out in 1971, just before they were put together.

Whose triple-overtime goal, disputed as "No Goal" in Buffalo, ended the 1999 Stanley Cup Final?

Brett Hull's skate was in the crease before the puck, which that season normally cancelled a goal; the league let it stand, saying he had kept possession of the puck throughout.

Which Buffalo-born funk star recorded "Super Freak", later sampled by MC Hammer?

Rick James and his co-writer sued over the uncredited "Super Freak" riff in "U Can't Touch This" and won a songwriting credit, which then earned him the only Grammy of his career.

Ani DiFranco releases her albums on which Buffalo-based label she founded?

Righteous Babe Records began in 1990 so that DiFranco could release her songs without a mainstream label; it later rescued a derelict 19th-century church from the wrecking ball and made it its home.

Which longtime Meet the Press moderator was born in Buffalo in 1950?

Tim Russert grew up in working-class South Buffalo and hosted Meet the Press from 1991 until his death in 2008; on election night 2000 he worked the result out on a whiteboard and wrote "Florida, Florida, Florida".

Which father-and-son team designed Buffalo's Kleinhans Music Hall, home of the Buffalo Philharmonic?

Eliel and Eero Saarinen's hall exists because the Kleinhans couple, owners of a Buffalo clothing store, died within three months of each other in 1934 and left their estates to build a music hall.

Which Buffalo luxury automaker supplied two of the White House's first official cars in 1909?

Pierce-Arrow grew out of a firm that made household goods such as iceboxes, bathtubs and gilded birdcages; its skill with wire carried it into bicycles and then into cars.

Who designed Buffalo's linked system of parks and parkways?

Frederick Law Olmsted, working with Calvert Vaux from 1868, gave Buffalo not one big park, as they had given Manhattan, but several, joined by tree-lined parkways; he called Buffalo the best-planned city in the United States.

Buffalo's 17-story Art Deco train station, opened in 1929, was built for which company?

New York Central Railroad built it for more than 200 trains a day, but the Depression began within a year of the opening and for most of its life the station was far too big; the last train left in 1979.

Which MLB team played home games at Buffalo's minor-league ballpark during the 2020 and 2021 seasons?

The Toronto Blue Jays could not play at home during the pandemic, so they moved into the park of their own top farm team, the Bisons, who were bumped to Trenton, New Jersey for 2021.

Buffalo's NBA team of the 1970s, the Braves, became which franchise?

The Los Angeles Clippers began with a 1978 swap: the Braves' owner traded franchises with the Boston Celtics' owner, a Californian who at once moved his new team to San Diego; it reached Los Angeles in 1984.

The Blizzard of 1977 was the first snowstorm ever declared what by the U.S. government?

Federal disaster area: President Carter's declaration for western New York was the first ever made for a snowstorm, and it brought federal help that went beyond clearing the snow.

The snowstorm that snapped Buffalo's leaf-laden trees in 2006 is known locally by what name?

The October Surprise struck while the trees were still in full leaf, so the heavy, wet snow cracked limbs all over the city and left hundreds of thousands of people without power.

In the famous sentence made only of the word 'buffalo' eight times, what does the verb 'buffalo' mean?

To bully or baffle: the sentence says that bison from Buffalo, bullied by other bison from Buffalo, themselves bully bison from Buffalo. Philosophy student William Rapaport worked out such sentences in 1972.

Which team beat Buffalo in the 1975 Stanley Cup Final, remembered for a fog-shrouded game at Memorial Auditorium?

The Philadelphia Flyers won in six games. In Game 3, a May heat wave filled the uncooled arena with fog, and a bat circled the ice until Buffalo's Jim Lorentz swatted it dead with his stick.

Which famous last-second kickoff return knocked the Bills out of the playoffs in January 2000?

The Music City Miracle: with 16 seconds left and Buffalo ahead 16-15, Tennessee's Frank Wycheck threw a lateral across the field on the kickoff return to Kevin Dyson, who ran 75 yards to score. A video review let it stand.

Which Buffalo university began in 1846 as a private medical school?

The University at Buffalo was private for more than a century, and for its first forty years medicine was all it taught; it joined the state university system in 1962.

Shea's Buffalo, the 1926 movie palace, had its interior designed by which famous decorative artist?

Louis Comfort Tiffany designed the interior, most of which survives; in the 1970s the theater faced demolition until a volunteer group, the Friends of the Buffalo Theatre, stepped in to save and restore it.

Which British royal attended the Peace Bridge dedication in August 1927?

Edward, Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, came with his brother Prince George and the British and Canadian prime ministers to open a bridge built as a memorial to a century of peace.

Which Buffalo-born chain, founded in 1927, is known for grilling its franks over charcoal?

Ted's Hot Dogs began when Greek immigrant Ted Liaros, who sold from a horse-drawn cart beside the Peace Bridge works, bought a tool shed there once the bridge was finished in 1927.

Buffalo won the first pick of the 1970 NHL draft on the spin of a wheel against which fellow expansion team?

The Vancouver Canucks were being congratulated when Buffalo asked for a second look: the league president had read the wheel as 1, but it had stopped on 11, and the pick became Gilbert Perreault.

Which death metal band, formed in Buffalo in 1988, played itself in the film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective?

Cannibal Corpse played "Hammer Smashed Face" in the 1994 comedy because its star, Jim Carrey, was a fan and asked for the song himself; the band left Buffalo for Tampa in the 1990s, drawn by the Florida death metal scene.

Which Buffalo hip-hop label launched Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher?

Griselda Records is a family affair: Westside Gunn and Conway are brothers and Benny the Butcher is their cousin. In 2017 Eminem's Shady Records signed the brothers, billing them as the first Buffalo rappers with major-label distribution.

Which bank, founded in Buffalo in 1856, has its name on the stadium of the NFL's Baltimore Ravens?

M&T Bank began in Buffalo as Manufacturers and Traders; it bought the Baltimore naming rights in 2003, soon after taking over a bank there, while the Bills' own stadium carries another company's name.

Which invention did engineer Willis Carrier design in 1902 while working for the Buffalo Forge Company?

Modern air conditioning began as a fix for a printer: summer humidity made the paper swell and shrink between colour runs, so Carrier built a system to control the moisture in the air.

Which architect designed Buffalo's Guaranty Building, an early skyscraper?

Louis Sullivan clad its steel frame in ornate terra cotta in 1896, the year he coined the maxim that form follows function; after a fire in 1974 the building came close to being demolished.

Buffalo's twin-towered Richardson complex, now partly a hotel, opened in 1880 as a state hospital for people with what?

Mental illness: the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane followed the Kirkbride Plan, which held that calm, airy, sunlit surroundings were part of the cure; the last patients left the old wards in 1974.

In which suburb is Buffalo Niagara International Airport located?

Cheektowaga's airport opened on former farmland in 1926 as Buffalo Municipal Airport; it doubles as a lower-cost alternative for travellers from southern Ontario, just across the border.

Which modern comfort did engineer Willis Carrier design in 1902 while working for the Buffalo Forge Company?

Air conditioning began as a cure for humidity: a Brooklyn printer's paper kept swelling and shrinking in summer, so Carrier's Buffalo drawings set out to control the moisture in the air.

Which financial giant, known for charge cards, began in Buffalo in 1850 as a freight forwarding company?

American Express merged three delivery firms run by Henry Wells, William Fargo and John Butterfield. Wells and Fargo started Wells Fargo two years later to serve California.

Which breakfast cereal does General Mills make at its Buffalo plant using oat flour shipped from Minneapolis?

Cheerios went gluten-free after General Mills announced in 2015 that it would remove the stray wheat, rye and barley that mix with its oats on the way to Buffalo.

Which famous novelist lived in Buffalo from 1869 to 1871 as part-owner and editor of a daily newspaper?

Mark Twain later donated the original manuscript of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to Buffalo's main public library, which keeps it in its collection.

Buffalo wing sauce is classically made from melted butter, vinegar and which cayenne pepper hot sauce brand?

Frank's RedHot went on sale in 1920, blended from cayenne peppers grown on a Louisiana farm, more than four decades before Buffalo wings existed.

Which implantable heart device did Buffalo-born inventor Wilson Greatbatch build, first used in patients in 1960?

Pacemaker batteries were his next fix: the lithium-iodide cell Greatbatch developed in 1971 replaced the mercury batteries of his first design and became the standard.

John Oishei founded Buffalo's Trico in 1917 to sell which car part after he hit a cyclist in heavy rain?

Windshield wipers took off for Trico when Cadillac, Packard and Lincoln ordered its hand-operated blades in 1920, and the firm moved into a brewery ice house left empty by Prohibition.

Which sharp condiment is traditionally spread on the top bun of Buffalo's rare roast beef on weck sandwich?

Horseradish goes on after the top bun is dipped in the meat's juices, and the sandwich is thought to be about a century older than Buffalo wings.

Which billionaire's company owned The Buffalo News from 1977 until selling it to Lee Enterprises in 2020?

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought the paper from a blind trust after its last family owner died without heirs, and for decades it was the only newspaper the firm fully owned.

Which Buffalo-headquartered company became the exclusive supplier of Major League Baseball's on-field caps in 1993?

New Era began in 1920 when Ehrhardt Koch borrowed $5,000 from his aunt and opened a cap workshop in Buffalo with 14 employees.

Which Chief Justice of the United States was born in Buffalo before his family moved to Indiana when he was ten?

John Roberts spent his early childhood in nearby Hamburg while his father worked as an engineer at the Lackawanna steel plant, then left when his father went to manage a new mill.

Which Jim Carrey comedy is set in Buffalo, where his character works as a field reporter for Eyewitness News?

Bruce Almighty has its hero use divine powers to win the Stanley Cup for Buffalo's hockey team, though the city's streets were filmed on a Universal Studios backlot.

Which Polish Easter Monday festival, held in Buffalo since 1961, features polka bands and red-and-white outfits?

Dyngus Day reached Buffalo through the Chopin Singing Society, whose members wanted a new focus for Polish-American identity; the parade was only added in 2006.

Which upstate New York city won the Golden Snowball Award over Buffalo every winter from 2002–03 to 2010–11?

Syracuse usually wins the award, and the replacement Golden Snowball trophy, donated by a local trophy shop after the original was lost, sits in its city hall.

Buffalo has staged the oldest documented example of which holiday footrace as an annual event dating back to 1896?

Turkey trot history starts in Buffalo, whose Thanksgiving race dates to 1896. Most such races are 5 km fun runs, often with runners dressed as turkeys.

At Easter, shoppers flock to Buffalo's Broadway Market to buy butter moulded into the shape of which animal?

Lamb butter sculptures are a Polish Catholic Easter tradition, and each Holy Week the local county executive jokingly grants one an official pardon.

The National Buffalo Wing Festival, begun in 2002, was modelled on a made-up festival in which Bill Murray film?

Osmosis Jones, a 2001 comedy, gave founder Drew Cerza the idea, and his real festival ends with a sanctioned wing-eating contest.

Which toy brand was launched in 1930 with money the mayor of East Aurora, a village near Buffalo, helped raise?

Fisher-Price took 16 wooden toys to the New York toy fair a year later and found quick success, with early designs built from heavy steel parts and ponderosa pine.

Which Buffalo manufacturer built the X-1, the rocket plane that became the first to break the sound barrier?

Bell Aircraft was born in 1935 when a rival moved to San Diego and its general manager stayed behind in the empty Elmwood Avenue plant; the firm later became famous for helicopters.

Which berry flavours a soft drink popular around Buffalo that was first sold at Crystal Beach amusement park in Canada?

Loganberry drinks outlived the park that launched them: Crystal Beach closed long ago, but the flavour is sold in local supermarkets and fast-food restaurants.

Which Jazz Age novelist spent much of his childhood in Buffalo, where his father sold for Procter & Gamble?

F. Scott Fitzgerald arrived as a baby after his father's wicker-furniture business failed, and he attended two Catholic schools on Buffalo's West Side.

Which Buffalo-born composer, the son of a cantor, wrote the music for the songs in the film The Wizard of Oz?

Harold Arlen won an Oscar for the film's best-known ballad, years after starting out as a singer and pianist with a dance band called The Buffalodians.

Radio host Bob Smith kept his hometown of Buffalo in his stage name to present which children's television show?

Howdy Doody made him famous as Buffalo Bob, a host in cowboy buckskins, after NBC noticed him topping the late-morning radio ratings back home on WBEN.

Which Buffalo-born actress won an Emmy for the sitcom Cybill before playing Diane Lockhart in The Good Wife?

Christine Baranski is the daughter of a man who edited a newspaper for Polish readers, and she left western New York to train at the Juilliard School.

Which star of Angel and Bones was born in Buffalo, where his father hosted the children's show Rocketship 7?

David Boreanaz was born while his father was also the weather presenter at WKBW-TV, Buffalo's ABC affiliate; his mother worked as a travel agent.

Which CNN presenter was raised in the suburb of Kenmore and earned a history degree from the University at Buffalo?

Wolf Blitzer was born in Augsburg, Germany, to Polish Jewish refugees who had survived Nazi concentration camps, and the family emigrated under the 1948 Displaced Persons Act.

Which model raised in Buffalo became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of American Vogue, in 1974?

Beverly Johnson went on to appear on more than 500 magazine covers. Donyale Luna had been the first Black model on the cover of British Vogue eight years earlier.

Which Buffalo-born choreographer left high school to tour in West Side Story and later created A Chorus Line?

Michael Bennett shaped A Chorus Line from taped sessions in which Broadway dancers talked about their lives, and eight of them ended up in the original cast.

Which jazz fusion band, formed on Buffalo's bar and club circuit in 1974, had a hit with Morning Dance?

Spyro Gyra got its name when saxophonist Jay Beckenstein told a bar owner the band was called spirogyra, a type of algae, and the owner wrote it down wrong.

Which Buffalo-born actor wrote, directed and starred in a 1998 indie film named for his hometown and the year 1966?

Vincent Gallo also wrote songs for the soundtrack of Buffalo '66, his directorial debut, which Empire magazine later ranked among the greatest independent films ever made.

Which baseball film shot most of its game scenes in 1983 at Buffalo's War Memorial Stadium, a venue demolished in 1989?

The Natural used the stadium even though it was a rectangular ground built mainly for football, and another Buffalo field stood in for Chicago's Wrigley Field.

The song Shuffle Off to Buffalo, later the title of a Merrie Melodies cartoon, was written for which 1933 movie musical?

42nd Street has Ruby Keeler sing and dance the number in a show staged by Busby Berkeley, and the film went on to earn a Best Picture nomination.

Which Buffalo running back became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, in 1973?

O. J. Simpson finished with 2,003 yards and remains the only player to top 2,000 in a 14-game season, after struggling through his first three years in Buffalo.

Which star NFL tight end grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville?

Rob Gronkowski also played basketball and baseball at Williamsville North High School, where he was reportedly made a kickoff specialist for having the team's biggest feet.

Which crunchy confection ranks with wings and beef on weck as one of Buffalo's three best-known food specialties?

Sponge candy is a light, airy toffee puffed up by baking soda and typically covered in chocolate; Britain calls a similar sweet cinder toffee.

Which watercolour painter moved to Buffalo in 1921 to design wallpaper for the Birge company?

Charles Burchfield quit the wallpaper job in 1928 once his paintings could support him, and a Buffalo art centre named for him holds the largest collection of his work.

Which priest, known as the Padre of the Poor, built Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna, just south of Buffalo?

Nelson Baker once had a well drilled on church land to cut heating costs and struck natural gas after weeks of failure. Pope Benedict XVI declared him venerable in 2011.

Buffalo surgeon Roswell Park founded America's first research centre devoted to which single disease in 1898?

Cancer research got its first dedicated American home here, and the centre has since grown to fill 15 buildings on a 28-acre campus in downtown Buffalo.

The Thomas Flyer, a car built in Buffalo, won which 1908 around-the-world automobile race?

New York to Paris was finished by only three cars, and the German Protos that reached the line first was penalised for taking shortcuts, handing victory to the Flyer's crew.

Which hotel chain founder got his start in Buffalo with a temporary 2,084-room wooden hotel at the 1901 world's fair?

Ellsworth Statler was one of the few vendors to turn a profit at the fair, and his later hotels for travelling businessmen grew into one of the country's early chains.

Which carmaker took over the Riverbend solar factory in Buffalo when it bought SolarCity in 2016?

Tesla set the state-owned plant to making solar roof tiles and Supercharger equipment rather than cars, on the cleaned-up site of a former steel mill.

Which Buffalo food company paid $1.5 million in 1973 to name the NFL stadium in Orchard Park for 25 years?

Rich Products made its name with a soybean-based whipped topping invented 21 years before Cool Whip, and the family reportedly floated calling the stadium Coffee Rich Park.

The Buffalo Zoo, founded in 1875, grew out of which gift that a local furrier presented to the city?

A pair of deer needed room to graze, so a newspaper publisher housed them on his estate until Frederick Law Olmsted worked a zoo into his park design.

Which Buffalo cemetery, founded in 1849, holds Shirley Chisholm's grave and a statue of Seneca chief Red Jacket?

Forest Lawn covers more than 269 acres and doubles as a park and arboretum; its statue of the orator shows the silver peace medal a president once gave him.

Which Buffalo waterfront district was built on land once covered by parking lots and the old Memorial Auditorium?

Canalside stands where a dense Italian neighbourhood known as The Hooks was razed for urban renewal, on a riverbank that was historically home to the Seneca people.

Buffalo's Edward M. Cotter, built in 1900 and a National Historic Landmark, is the world's oldest active what?

Fireboat work is only half its job: a thick belt of Swedish steel lets the vessel break ice on Buffalo's rivers each winter.

On the last full weekend of July, more than 400 Buffalo households open what to the public for a free self-guided tour?

Gardens from Delaware Park to the urban core take part in Garden Walk Buffalo, a volunteer-run event that deliberately has no judging.

Which nickname stuck to the 2014 storm, code-named Knife by local governments, that stranded thousands around Buffalo?

Snowvember buried cars and stranded thousands of people in their homes, and remnants of its snow were still found in Buffalo eight months later.

Which animal is the University at Buffalo's sports mascot, played since 1997 by a costumed character called Victor E.?

Bull mascot Victor E. got his name from a student write-in contest in the campus newspaper, and the teams joined the Mid-American Conference a year later.

Joseph Ellicott's 1804 plan for Buffalo, radiating like bicycle spokes, echoed which city he had helped survey?

Washington was surveyed by Ellicott and his brother Andrew, and he gave Buffalo the same kind of radial streets, which fan out from Niagara Square.