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Black Rock, Buffalo — Area Guide & Where to Stay
The Erie Canal took the black limestone ledge that named Black Rock, a Buffalo neighbourhood of canal-era brick and workers' cottages on the Niagara River.
About Black Rock
Where to stay in Black Rock
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Black Rock was built for households and for works along the canal, not for hotel floors. The Eberz House at 285 Dearborn Street took in paying guests for the Pan-American Exposition of 1901, and the street still runs to timber porches and low brick. Dearborn Street has no hotel.
Rooms sit south and east: downtown Buffalo is about three and a half miles down Niagara Street, and Elmwood Village lies past Grant Street. Stay in Black Rock if you want canal-era streets and the Niagara River a few blocks west, and will ride south for a wider choice of beds.
About Black Rock
What are the main landmarks in Black Rock?
Black Rock's landmarks are listed houses, a parish complex and a copper works. The St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Parish Complex stands at 157 East Street, its church raised between 1911 and 1913. Dearborn Street holds three: the Dayton House at 243, brick of about 1840; the Eberz House at 285, a Queen Anne of about 1892; and the House at 218 Dearborn Street, a shotgun cottage on a limestone foundation.
Market Square dates from 1830. The Buffalo Smelting Works, Romanesque Revival brick of 1891, stands at 23 Austin Street. The Buffalo History Museum holds Black Rock's papers a mile east, outside the neighbourhood.
What is the history of Black Rock?
Black Rock grew inside the Mile Strip, the land New York State reserved along the Niagara River, and spent two decades as Buffalo's rival for the Erie Canal. Samuel Wilkeson argued Buffalo's case and Peter B. Porter argued Black Rock's, and the larger harbour at Buffalo carried the vote. The British burned the village in 1813.
Shipwrights laid the keel of Walk-in-the-Water on Scajaquada Creek in 1818, the first steamboat to run on Lake Erie. Peter B. Porter gave Market Square to the village in 1830. Black Rock incorporated as a town in 1839, and Buffalo annexed it in 1853.
Where is Black Rock?
Black Rock runs north from Scajaquada Creek along the Niagara River, with the Black Rock Canal on its water side, Grant Street inland and Riverside to the north.
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Updated September 2026