Top Rated Attractions in Amherst

The Darwin D. Martin House Complex is one of the several historic buildings built by Frank Lloyd Wright in and around Buffalo. Located near Delaware Park, the building is a good example of Wright's Prairie style. Other structures on the complex include the Barton House, with original interior wood and art glass, a covered walkway connecting the main house with the conservatory and a gardener's cottage.

Opened in 1849, the Forest Lawn Cemetery is a 267-acre (108 hectares) property that serves as the gravesite of some of the city's most important citizens. Buried here are former U.S. President Millard Fillmore, Indian Chief Red Jacket, from whom the land to create the city of Buffalo was purchased and Pony Express pioneer William Fargo, to name a few. You can stop at the office inside the main entrance for a self-guiding map. Bird watching and Sunday hayride-style tours of the beautiful grounds are also available.

Considered among the best in the city when it comes to modern and contemporary 20th-century art, this gallery has a rich selection of works by artists like Sol Lewitt, René Magritte, and Mark Rothko. The Delaware Park gallery also features outstanding work from the 17th-19th Centuries. In addition to the gallery, the center also includes a gift shop and the Garden Restaurant for a bite to eat after all that culture.

The jewel of Buffalo's park system, this public space was one of six designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th Century. The Delaware Park's 376 acres (152 hectares) include one of Buffalo's three public golf courses (Delaware Park Golf Course), plus tennis courts, baseball diamonds, the Buffalo Zoological Gardens and it hosts the popular Shakespeare in the Park Festival every summer. The Rose Garden makes a perfect setting for a romantic walk when Spring arrives and in the winter, bring your skis and do some cross-country skiing over the demarcated trails.

Located three miles from downtown Buffalo on the Lake Erie shoreline, this unique urban nature reserve offers 264-acre (106 hectares) of trails, anachronistic boardwalks and a marsh. This preserve is the environmental education site for the Buffalo Museum of Science and it's perfect for bird-watching, hiking, and family picnics—not to mention snowshoeing and cross-country skiing during the cold winters. In the 1950s, the site was used as a refuse dump, but thankfully it was converted to a nature preserve in the 1980s. Admission is free but donations are requested.

Since its opening in January 1926, this all-purpose arts facility in the Buffalo Theater District has presented the drama and comedy of some the most famous stars and scenes in the 20th Century. From the silly antics of the Marx Brothers and Bob Hope to powerful performances in The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon, Shea has seen it all. The National Register of Historic Places bestowed status upon the building in 1975 and today this baroque inspired facility still attracts some 300,000 patrons annually with its eclectic combination of Broadway musicals, opera, dance, children's programming, concerts and classic movies. Some patrons come just to see the theater in order to be dazzled with the ornate filigreed Rococo style and Tiffany-designed crystal chandeliers.