Three Buffalo facilities get new names honoring history and two who made impact

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 on 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.

“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 Tuesday. 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, more than 100 family, friends, colleagues and people who worked for Smith packed the Council Chambers to offer their support for naming the fieldhouse in his honor.

Also 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.