Black Rock, Buffalo, New York

Black Rock, once an independent community, is now part of the city of Buffalo, New York. Black Rock was once the competitor of Buffalo for the terminus of the Erie Canal, but the canal was completed by building a lock on the Niagara River allowing it to terminate in Buffalo on Lake Erie in 1825. The large black boulder along the Niagara for which the area was named was blasted away to make way for the canal.

In 1839, the Town of Black Rock was formed from the northern part of the Town of Buffalo. When Buffalo was re-incorporated as a city in 1853, its territory was expanded to include the Town and Village of Black Rock. Black Rock is now a neighborhood in the northwest part of the city. American poet Robert Creeley lived with his family in a converted firehouse at the corner of Amherst and East Streets in Black Rock from 1990 - 2003.