e-Newsletter

  Historic Palmyra has recently opened a new amazing Erie Canal Depot, 136 Market Street.  This unique little museum stands between the Palmyra Historical Museum and the Wm. Phelps General Store.   The building is called the tenant house and is full of history and artifacts.    The passenger side of this museum holds a ticket counter original to the 1870’s, an 1892 canal map fills one wall to show folks where they will be heading on the Myron Holley the first boat launched in the Palmyra section of the Erie Canal in 1821.   Original  paintings of the Upper Mud Creek “Palmyra” aqueduct, Aldrich Change Bridge, and the canal itself, line the walls along with our newly received National Erie Canal Heritage Corridor “Discover what we are made of”  picture design showing the aqueduct.  This building is original to 1830 and the hand hewn beams are visible showing the age of the building.   An old tool called an adz shows visitors what was used to create these beams.  Two amazing original ramps, found in the basement, are standing in the commercial section showing how the mules walked from the basement to the street for work on the canal.     Photographs of the basement with the horse stalls are predominantly placed for all to see and witness the originality of this building and its history.    The steam trunks, crates, barrels, and a special horsehair trunk give you a look at the original items used in canal travel.   

One question that has always been asked when visitors come to Historic Palmyra is where is the Erie Canal stuff?    We would explain that the buildings and many of the artifacts are from the 1820’sand the Erie Canal.   These buildings served the workers and passengers that stopped in Palmyra.   Sometimes that just isn’t enough and the imagination needs a  bit more help.   We have created this Erie Canal Depot to  answer this question.   Come in and blow the barge whistle,  turn the bench and learn about  POSH seating is used and where it got its name, get your ticket to Newark for a penny a mile which is twenty cents round trip.   Sign the boat’s manifest and learn how that relates to today’s commercial and passenger travel.  See a real canal bilge pump, whippletree,  and an old wood stove from Troy, New York, the same place the railings of the Aldrich Change Bridge were made.    The old warehouses that lined the canal banks are now shown in pictures from the Galloway Malt House to the Lakey Warehouse.   Hear about Rogers Basin and the Session and Durfee  Coal and Lumber building still in its original spot today.    Experience a time long gone and then, take a walk to the Wm. Phelps General Store to see the products, barrels, crates, and an Erie Canal General Store whose originality and authenticity will bring you back in time.   All the Market Street Museums welcome this new addition.   It is the icing on the cake of an already exciting Erie Canal experience.  

 Niagara History Center Celebrates  

  11/11/11
Poppy Day-Armistice Day-Veteran’s Day honored by new exhibit.

  Whether  you call this day Armistice Day, Poppy Day or just Veteran’s Day, the History Center celebrates and honors all of our veterans with a new exhibit called, “Veteran’s Day 11/11/11-Never Before, Never Again.”  The changing exhibit room at 215 Niagara Street, Lockport, features artifacts from the veterans of the Civil War, War of 1812, World War I and II, Korean War, Desert Storm and more current engagements. A Civil War newspaper from Vicksburg chronicles the last issue before General Grant enters town, and is printed on wallpaper, as were many Civil War publications due to the shortage of newsprint. A German armband and helmet recall the booty brought home by soldiers and sailors. A Civil War uniform cradles a battered bugle, its last call stilled. Uniforms from all wars circle the walls. Civil Defense artifacts fill one case, including a tin of biscuits (hopefully still fresh) meant for underground air raid shelters.

 The History Center’s own veteran exhibit planners, Joan Barry and Donna Campbell, have mounted a retrospective of what is most remembered of the sacrifice made by America’s sons and daughters. The talent of these volunteers is also evident in the Meeting Room at the History Center with their new exhibit, “Search and Rescue.” This exhibit includes a bomber pilot’s shearing jacket, helmet, gloves and pants as he prepared to fly above the clouds in below zero temperatures with no heating; examples of the women who flew Western New York’s fighter planes to their remote bases; the silk map of the Himalayas for the airmen who might crash there and the stories of their air rescue crews.

  Always looking for new historical information, the History Center invites all World War II air crews and the men and women of the local airplane industries to share their stories. Just call 434-7433, or stop by to visit the free, public exhibits, Monday through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to5 p.m.