City Honors School has won a long, drawn out battle, over a school/community sports field on the East Side that has been in flux ever since Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority (BMHA) was leveled. Fosdick Field will be returned to City Honors for a whopping $2.03 million. While the price tag might appear to be hefty, the resulting unification of the field and school is said to be priceless (see back story). Plus, the sale price was regulatory, and commanded the going rate for the parcel.
In 1977 The City sold the field for $15K in order to jumpstart development in the neighborhood. Since that time, the field was converted to municipal housing, which was then vacated before ultimately being demolished. Today the parcel sits in a relatively thriving part of the city, bounded by the Medical Campus, one of the top public schools in the country, Allentown, and a section of Main Street that will one day be headed in the right direction when downtown is connected to the University District with proper infrastructure measures.
This acquisition is a big win for the school and the community – one that was hard fought near and wide. Fosdick Field has become the rallying cry for City Honors and will become a beacon for the school and the neighborhood for generations to come.
Fosdick Field joins Pelion Community Garden on Best Street as the school’s olive branch extensions into the neighborhood. These are the types of initiatives that can broach the divides that can sometimes occur between schools and their host communities. There is nothing but upside on this most recent purchase, which will restore the field and in turn pay tribute to the memory of Dr. Frank “Pop” Fosdick, the first principal of the new school.
