The Southtowns (also known as the Buffalo Southtowns, the South Towns, or Southtown) is a region of

Western New York Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all sources agree WNY in ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, that lies within the

snowbelt The Snowbelt is the region near the Great Lakes in North America where heavy snowfall in the form of lake-effect snow is particularly common. Snowbelts are typically found downwind of the lakes, principally off the eastern and southern shores. Ca ...

ski country Ski country is the hilly, snowy portions of the boundary between the Niagara Frontier and the Southern Tier of the western part of New York. Weather The area is a largely hilly terrain, mostly downwind from Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the F ...

. It includes the southern suburbs of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. This is the common name for the southern part of

Erie County, New York Erie County is a county along the shore of Lake Erie in western New York State. As of the 2020 census, the population was 954,236. The county seat is Buffalo, which makes up about 28% of the county's population. Both the county and Lake Erie w ...

. Its most notable resident was

United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United State ...

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853; he was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Represen ...

, whose former home is a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

. The region has numerous historic landmarks, especially in Springville and

East Aurora East Aurora is a village in Erie County, New York, United States, southeast of Buffalo. It lies in the eastern half of the town of Aurora. The village population was 5,998 per the 2020 census. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Met ...

Details

According to a

telephone directory A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization tha ...

that formerly published specific editions for the area, this region includes

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

, Blasdell,

, Elma,

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, and Orchard Park. Several other towns in the snowbelt south of Buffalo are also considered part of the Southtowns. According to one source the entire southern part of Erie County,

West Seneca West Seneca is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 44,711 at the 2010 census. West Seneca is a centrally located interior town of the county, and a suburb of Buffalo. West Seneca, Orchard Park and Hamburg form the ...

, Elma, Marilla, and southward are part of the Buffalo Southtowns. This region is the northwesternmost foothills of the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

. The

New York State Department of Transportation The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the development and operation of highways, railroads, mass transit systems, ports, waterways and aviation facilities in ...

's Scenic Byways Advisory Board created Western New York's first Scenic Byway, WNY Southtowns Scenic Byway, which travels through the townships of Orchard Park,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

, Colden and

, the three villages of Orchard Park, Springville and

and several rural hamlets including the hamlets of Boston and Colden. (In 2016, the Southtowns Scenic Byway was extended into Ashford, a town in Cattaraugus County and not generally counted in the Southtowns proper.) The

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

defines the Southtowns (forecast zone NYZ085, "Southern Erie County") as anything south of U.S. Route 20A. The region includes the northeastern half of the village of Gowanda, but not the southwestern half. The Buffalo metro area also includes a "Northtown" region north of the city. Some sources divide the entire Buffalo Suburban region into the Southtowns and the Northtowns.

Ski country Ski country is the hilly, snowy portions of the boundary between the Niagara Frontier and the Southern Tier of the western part of New York. Weather The area is a largely hilly terrain, mostly downwind from Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the F ...

runs through the Southtowns,Buffalo Spree
list of "ski country" restaurants and resorts as does the

Niagara Frontier The Niagara Frontier refers to the stretch of land in the United States that is south of Lake Ontario and north of Lake Erie, and extends westward to Cleveland, Ohio. The term dates to the War of 1812, when the northern border was in contention b ...

, both of which continue southwestward from the region along

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

's shoreline; the Niagara Frontier continues north into Buffalo toward

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

while ski country goes eastward toward Bristol Mountain. The region is bounded to the south by the

Cattaraugus Creek Cattaraugus Creek is a stream, approximately long, in western New York in the United States.Cattaraugus County to the south, Chautauqua County to the southwest, to the east by Wyoming County, and to the west by

. The Southtowns, particularly the more southerly towns closer to the Cattaraugus Creek, are very rural in nature and are similar to the Southern Tier; the northern Southtowns (beginning at approximately Orchard Park and Hamburg) begin to take on a more suburban feel.

Attractions

East Aurora, the home of

Fisher-Price Fisher-Price is an American company that produces educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, headquartered in East Aurora, New York, East Aurora, New York (state), New York. The company was founded in 1930 during the Great Depressio ...

, has earned the nickname as "Toy Town, U.S.A." According to the New York State Department of Economic Development's New York State Tourism organization publications produced by the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau, attractions in the Southtowns include,

Toy Town Museum The Toy Town Museum is located on the Fisher-Price campus in East Aurora, New York. It was conceived by a group of local citizens in East Aurora and Western New York to help celebrate the toy making heritage in the area. There have been ove ...

Elbert Hubbard Elbert Green Hubbard (June 19, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Raised in Hudson, Illinois, he had early success as a traveling salesman for the Larkin Soap Company. Hubbard is known best as the ...

-Roycroft Museum,

Millard Fillmore House, the

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

and the Graycliff Estate.

Frommer's Frommer's is a travel guide book series created by Arthur Frommer in 1957. Frommer's has since expanded to include more than 350 guidebooks in 14 series, as well as other media including an eponymous radio show and a website. In 2017, the company ...

also mentions the Kazoo Museum, Eden as an attraction. The

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

includes the following Southtowns venues among its Erie County listings: United States Post Office-Angola, First Church of Evans Complex, Graycliff, Millard Fillmore House, Roycroft Campus,

George and Gladys Scheidemantel House George and Gladys Scheidemantel House is a historic home located at East Aurora in Erie County, New York. It is a locally distinctive example of the Arts and Crafts movement style of architecture built in 1910. It is a two-story, frame, bunga ...

, Kleis Site,

Gamel Hexadecagon Barn Gamel Hexadecagon Barn is a historic barn located at North Collins in Erie County, New York. It is a 16-sided barn with a diameter of . It is a two-story frame structure and covered with board and batten siding. ''Note:'' This includes an''Acc ...

, Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway Station (Orchard, New York),

Johnson-Jolls Complex Johnson-Jolls Complex, also known as the Dr. Willard B. Jolls House, is a historic home located at Orchard Park in Erie County, New York. It is an Italianate style brick house built in 1869. The house was built originally for merchant Ambrose ...

Old Sardinia Town Hall Old Sardinia Town Hall, also known as the Sardinia Meeting House and First Baptist Church of Sardinia, is a historic town hall located at Sardinia in Erie County, New York. It was built between 1828 and 1830, and is a two-story, transitional Feder ...

, Rider-Hopkins Farm and Olmsted Camp, The Baptist Church of Springville, Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad Station (Springville, New York), Citizens National Bank,

East Main-Mechanic Streets Historic District East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

, Scobey Power Plant and Dam, US Post Office-Springville, and

Eaton Site Eaton Site is a historic archeological site located at West Seneca in Erie County, New York. It contains a record of small, intermittently occupied campsites from the Early Archaic (c. 8000 BC) though the Late Woodland (c. 1200 AD) periods and an ...

. Other highly attended attractions in the region include

New Era Field Highmark Stadium is a stadium in Orchard Park, New York, in the Southtowns of the Buffalo metropolitan area. The stadium opened in 1973 as Rich Stadium and is the home venue of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). It was kn ...

, the home of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

, Chestnut Ridge Park, and Buffalo Raceway. Since 1868,

Erie County Fair The Erie County Fair is a fair held in Hamburg in Erie County, New York every August. Based on 2018 attendance statistics, The Erie County Fair is the second largest fair in New York and the fourth largest county fair in North America, often dra ...

has been held annually in Hamburg. Until the 1980s one of the region's largest employers was

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...

Media

Two broadcast stations are explicitly licensed to the Southtowns: religious TV station WDTB-LD in Hamburg, and

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...

affiliate

WBBZ-TV WBBZ-TV (channel 67) is an independent television station licensed to Springville, New York, United States, serving the Buffalo area. It is owned by ITV of Buffalo, a company controlled by former news photographer Philip A. Arno. WBBZ-TV's stu ...

in Springville. Neither of them operate from within the southtowns; WBBZ is based in

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a l ...

and WDTB is a straight satellite feed from Texas. Full-service AM radio station WSPQ was licensed to and operated from Springville during its 31-year existence but shut down in 2017.

WNYB WNYB (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Jamestown, New York, United States, serving the Buffalo area as an owned-and-operated station of Tri-State Christian Television (TCT). Its transmitter is located on Center Road in Arkwright. ...

, a religious station licensed to Jamestown, had its studios in Orchard Park until its owner TCT dropped all local programming. Several of the Buffalo-licensed broadcasters take advantage of the region's higher topography and have placed their broadcast towers there so that they can reach both the Buffalo region and the Southern Tier. One of the more notable examples is the WIVB/WTSS tower, which is located in Colden. ''

The Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...

'' is the primary daily newspaper in the region. Many of the Southtowns communities were served by weekly newspapers until July 2016, when the most recent owner of those newspapers, Community Papers of Western New York, abruptly shut down. Neighbor-to-Neighbor News, a company based in East Aurora, revived many of those newspapers shortly thereafter.

People

United States President Millard Fillmore resided in East Aurora, where the

Seymour Knox I Seymour Horace Knox I (April 1861 – May 17, 1915), was a Buffalo, New York businessman who made his fortune in five-and-dime stores. He merged his more than 100 stores with those of his first cousins, Frank Winfield Woolworth and Charles Wo ...

family has held property. 1996 Vice Presidential nominee

Jack Kemp Jack French Kemp (July 13, 1935 – May 2, 2009) was an American politician and a professional football player. A member of the Republican Party from New York, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bu ...

represented

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and nearby suburban southtowns regions in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

. The area's current political representatives are state assemblyman Kevin Smardz, state senator

Patrick Gallivan Patrick M. Gallivan (born November 18, 1960) is a member of the New York State Senate and the former Sheriff of Erie County, New York, Sheriff of Erie County. Gallivan's district, the New York's 59th State Senate district, 59th, comprises portio ...

(with a small portion represented by Tim Kennedy), and representative

Brian Higgins Brian Michael Higgins (born October 6, 1959) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving since 2005. The district, numbered as the 27th district from 2005 to 2013 but as the 26th since 2013, includes Buffalo and N ...

Notes

External links

WNY Southtowns Scenic Byway website
* {{coord missing, Western NY Regions of New York (state) Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area