It’s official.
Broderick Park, a stop on the Underground Railroad, is now Freedom Park.
The casino at Martin Luther King Jr. Park is named for the late Joyce Wilson Nixon, a community leader and youth advocate.
And Tuesday, the Buffalo Common Council will name the new fieldhouse at Shoshone Park in North Buffalo in honor of Thomas M. Smith, a key adviser to Mayor Byron W. Brown. Smith, 51, died in August. The city had already set aside about $8.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds for the construction of the indoor sports facility.
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“This was a real man who made a difference in the community … someone who truly made an impact on youth,” said University Council Member Rasheed N.C. Wyatt. His district includes Shoshone Park.
“Tom loved this city and its people … The city lost one of the great ones when we lost Tom, and while we can’t bring him back, we can and should honor his legacy, his love for this city and his extraordinary service to this community,” said Christopher Savage during a public hearing last week. His father, Peter J. Savage, was a special assistant to former Mayor Anthony M. Masiello, a onetime Common Council chief of staff and head of the Division of Urban Affairs under Brown.
Late last month, the Council approved the name change for Freedom Park.
Located at the foot of Ferry Street on the Niagara River, the park is listed as a designated Network to Freedom site by the National Parks Service.
The park was the final stop on the Underground Railroad in the mid-1800s for those seeking to escape slavery by boarding the Black Rock Ferry to freedom in Canada. Historians have pointed to fugitive slave accounts describing the Ferry Street location, attesting to its importance, according to the Friends of Broderick Park. The group began a petition to change the site’s name to Freedom Park.
“This renaming signifies a significant step toward honoring the park’s legacy as a beacon of freedom,” said Niagara Council Member David A. Rivera. “We acknowledge the importance of preserving history and are committed to recognizing the sacrifices made by those who sought freedom through this route.”
The Council will work with the family of Michael Broderick, the former namesake of the park, to commemorate his legacy, Rivera said. Broderick was a co-founder and longtime president of the West Side Rowing Club.
“I am grateful to the Broderick family for recognizing the historical significance of this park and supporting its change in name to reflect that significance. However, we do not want to forget about the impact that Michael Broderick had on this community, and we seek to continue to honor his legacy,” Rivera said. “We have already begun a process to name a part of that park with a marker or bench or something at the southern tip by the boat launch where the row club used to row out into the water,” Rivera added. “We want to honor that family.”
The Council also approved naming the MLK Jr. Park casino for Nixon, a community leader and youth advocate, who died Sept. 1 at age 66. She was the longtime executive director of National Inner Cities Youth Opportunities, which for many years was based at the casino. She also fought to secure funding for organizations including the Randy Smith Basketball League and the Crusaders Drill Team.
She met her husband, Jeff Nixon, a Buffalo Bills free safety from 1979 to 1984, when he was deputy commissioner of Erie County Youth Services and she came to his office to ask for funding. They were married in 1996.
“I appreciate the fact that people want to name the building after her,” her husband said. “That’s something I wish they could have done before she passed, but she sees it now. She’s looking down on us and seeing it now.”