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Upper West Side, Buffalo — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Grant Street shopfronts and Olmsted circles mark the Upper West Side, a Buffalo neighbourhood between Richmond Avenue and the Niagara River.
About Upper West Side
Where to stay in Upper West Side
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
The Upper West Side carries almost no hotel floors of its own, so beds sit south in Allentown or east across Richmond Avenue in Elmwood Village. Grant Street is the reason to come. The Grant-Ferry Commercial District trades under the name International Marketplace, and the West Side Bazaar at 1432 Niagara Street gathers a dozen kitchens and a bar under one roof, a few minutes from the Ferry Street lift bridge.
Stay here if you want that street and the Niagara River at the end of the block rather than a lobby.
About Upper West Side
What are the main landmarks in Upper West Side?
The Upper West Side's landmarks are its two Olmsted circles on Richmond Avenue and the schools and churches along Lafayette Avenue. Ferry Circle marks the crossing of West Ferry Street, and its central island was rebuilt in November 2002 with a replica of the five-branch lamp standard that stood there before the Common Council paved the island over. Colonial Circle holds a Bidwell statue.
Lafayette High School stands at 370 Lafayette Avenue, a Beaux Arts building by Esenwein & Johnson finished in 1901 and listed on the National Register in 1980. Our Lady of Hope Parish shares Lafayette Avenue.
What is the history of Upper West Side?
Sicilian immigrants came to the Upper West Side in numbers from around the turn of the twentieth century, and the district has taken in newcomers ever since. Somali, Sudanese, Mexican, Puerto Rican and Southeast Asian communities followed onto the same grid. Grant Street shows it best.
Burmese traders reopened shopfronts along the Grant-Ferry Commercial District after decades of disinvestment had emptied Buffalo's busiest neighbourhood commercial run. The Black Rock ferry worked from the tip of Unity Island across the channel from 1825, and its dock served as an Underground Railroad crossing to Canada until the Civil War.
Where is Upper West Side?
Porter Avenue, Richmond Avenue, the Scajaquada Expressway and the Niagara River bound the Upper West Side, with Black Rock north and Elmwood Village east.
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Updated September 2026