The Terrace, remembered in modern days as Lower Terrace and Upper Terrace streets, was so named because it was the point from which the landscape sloped sharply toward the water's edge. Amid the waterfront industries, grain elevators and train tracks and facilities, there were other structures whose uses that, in the 19th century, gave the area notoriety. Around the Commercial Slip was the canal district, a dangerous neighborhood featuring saloons, dance halls, cabarets, and tenements. Charitable missions and the Catholic Church in the form of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel also had a presence. About the time the above map was drawn, however, the area around Canal Street was changing; Italian-American immigrants were moving into tenements and opening businesses. By 1909 it was estimated that around 20,000 immigrants were living in some of the oldest buildings in the city.

In 1918, the Erie Canal terminus was moved to Tonawanda; the land use of this area was changing. The yellow highlighted areas above show that the Commercial slip had already been filled in; the Erie Canal section in the city was completely filled in by September, 1936. Planning was underway for a new municipal auditorium; it would be constructed in 1939. Italian-Americans were moving out of the tenements at a rapid pace. After the explosion of one inhabited building in 1946 (red dot on 1902 map), the city began to condemn and demolish much of this area.

By 1978, much of the land from the Terrace to the water was used for surface parking. The Thruway had utlized the old Erie Canal bed (1951) and the Marine Drive Apartments were constructed in the old canal district(1951). The Skyway was finished in 1955.