The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village

By Katherine Guenther

              History is full of individuals who were dealt a bad hand in life but found a way to persevere. Now Buffalo history buffs have a new example to look to: the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village. The museum that originally began as the Amherst Museum in 1972 faced a difficult set back in 2010.
“In 2010 we were no longer a department of the town of Amherst,” said Jessica Johnson, Curator of Exhibit Collections, “We took it as an opportunity to not only expand our audience but our regional focus for funding and also for exhibitions and programming ideas as well.” The Amherst museum changed its focus from the small Amherst community to the entire Buffalo-Niagara region—a bold move that changed everything for the museum, even its name.
“With the town of Amherst we were only reaching 120,000 people,” Johnson said, “with the Buffalo Niagara Regional name we’re getting 1.2 million.” Thankfully, the decision was met with success and the museum re-opened under the name: The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village.
While the museum still receives a much smaller stipend from the Town of Amherst most of its funding comes from its own earned revenue through large events such as German Fest.
 “Most of our funding is through special events and earned revenue from special events,” explained Johnson. Events such as the Scottish heritage festival, Rock Camp and Americana Days all help to fund the museum.
“Our biggest event every year is our Scottish festival,” said Events Coordinator, Jaime Brawdy, “And this year it will be our 29th year having our Scottish festival.” According to Brawdy the event draws in a crowd of over 5,000 annually.

The Museum 

The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village is unique in that it not only offers visitors a traditional museum but it also offers visitors a small community of 10 historic buildings to tour just outside.
“Outside in our historic buildings section we have 35 acres and 10 historic buildings,” said Jessica Johnson. The historical village offers visitors a rare glimpse into 19th century Niagara Frontier life and its architecture. The buildings include two school houses, a blacksmith shop, a barber shop, a log cabin and a church.
“We’re really unique for Western New York that we have both of those components- both a museum exhibition area as well as a hand-on interactive and immersive experience on our grounds and in our historic buildings,” said Johnson. The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village is even looking to expand its holdings.
“We are also reconstructing a barn later this fall from the 1820s,” said Johnson, “It was a barn that was dismantled and we’re reconstructing it on the grounds.” The barn predates the establishment of the Erie Canal and according to Johnson this makes the addition a real gem.
“It’s right in an earlier period in Western New York where you didn’t see a lot of settlement,” said Johnson, “So having a barn this early is a nice feature for us.” Johnson’s favorite building is a small log cabin known as the Smith house.
“We have our Smith log house which is a hand-hewn log construction house which was typical of the German construction style in the 1840s,” she said.

“That’s really unique in the sense that you can see the logs when you go inside the house and how there’s spaces in between them and how they had to fill them so there’s plaster over the top. It’s much more rustic than some of the other buildings,” she added.

Traditional Exhibits

It’s easy to forget while getting lost the historic buildings that the BNHV also holds a more traditional indoor museum.
“We have nine galleries inside,” said Johnson, “and they feature things related to regional history, like the Eire canal.” Inside the museum has preserved some of the features of the old Amherst museum with a gallery dedicated specifically to the history of Amherst.

Replica 1980's child's bedroom

“We have a history of our township, Amherst, but it relates really to many regions in Western New York and it’s called From Forest to Front Lawn,” said Johnson, “It explains how our community like many others in Western New York have changed from forested land, to farm land and now eventually suburbs.”
Johnson’s favorite exhibit, Modern Childhood, deals with the invention and evolution of childhood. The exhibit showcases the toys and games of children from the 1800s to the present and opened last February. Board games, dolls and even an old school Atari system were donated to the museum.

1796 boy's outfit

“We had a lot of great donations and objects that were lent to us by people in the community,” said Johnson.
“People’s favorite toys they lent and donated to us for exhibition,” she added. The exhibit includes a replica of a 1980’s child’s bedroom, a pre-1938 Mickey Mouse puppet and many teddy bears from various time periods.
The exhibit also deals with the evolution of children’s clothing and how it developed into a personal style. One of Johnson’s favorite pieces is a 1797 boys’ outfit.
“It was donated to us and it’s a handmade- hand sown outfit for a 3 year-old boy. It’s really elaborate and it really is an early piece for us,” explained Johnson.

How We Moved Here Exhibit

              Another exhibit sure to interest visitors is the How We Moved Here exhibit that explains to visitors how the museum’s historical buildings were moved to the Tonawanda Creek location. The relocation of historic buildings has posed a major expense for the BNHV as the buildings can only be moved using a grueling construction project.
“Basically they jack them up and use high beams underneath the structure and put wheels on them and attach them to a trailer or some sort of towing vehicle,” said Johnson. According to her one of the buildings was even cut in half during the process and later reassembled. The process is both laborious and expensive. However, one of the major expenses is in an unlikely place.
“One of the big expenses is having money for the line drops or pulling the electrical lines up over the buildings,” Johnson said. Ironically, some the historic buildings at the museum have been moved more than once.
“In 1972 when the museum started its original location was on Cayuga road, and then in ’74 they moved to Smith road and they started moving the historic buildings there,” she said, “Then when we moved to our current site and they moved the buildings a second time to the facilities here on Tonawanda Creek Road.” While moving an entire building sounds like a struggle, even in our modern era, Johnson explained that during the 19th century many buildings were moved.
“In the 19th century it wasn’t that unusual to move buildings,” she said, “It’s kind of an interesting counter-point that we did that in the 20th century.”

The German Festival 

A favorite event for BNHV’s Event Coordinator, Jamie Brawdy is the German Festival on June 18th. While not the biggest festival at the BNHV, the German Festival offers many unique and authentic experiences for visitors.
“The people that come to all these heritage festivals that we have, are very laser focused on if it’s correct in their eyes and if it’s authentic,” explained Brawdy, “So it’s important for us especially as an organization that educates to make sure that all of those aspects are correct.” Brawdy makes sure that visitors are treated to an authentic German experience. The event hosts three authentic German bands that preform in authentic costumes. In addition to music the event hosts venders for everything from German Cuckoo clocks to German chocolate.
 “Usually most festivals take place outside, weather permitting. We will leave open some of the homes and we will stock them with interpreters,” she said.
The interpreters are costumed actors that preform everything tin punching to baking pastries. Actors also demonstrate crafts such as, scherenschnitte, a traditional German art form where elaborate scenes and designs are created from cutting paper. The event hosts a strongman competition as well.
 “They’re professional athletes and they come out and they do some of the old fashioned, show-off, bar guy, strong guy competition,” Brawdy said. The German Festival is an all-encompassing event that not only entertains, it educates.
 “You’re not going to come here and get a slice of pizza and a bud-light and watch a blues concert,” said Brawdy, “At the German Fest you’re going to come here and be amerced  in that German culture.”

Kitchen inside the Bigelow House

Front gate of the Hoover House

The Smith Log House

Bigelow House

Front doors of the Transit Road Church

The Eagle House

By: Katherine Guenther

              Before Oziel Smith, the original owner of Williamsville’s Eagle House, could open his doors in 1827 he had one major problem:
“Actually the day before the restaurant was supposed to open it burned to the ground. Basically, he had to start from scratch,” said one of the restaurant’s current owners, Tricia L. Browne. The Eagle House began as a simple inn and tavern in a small community.

“We were a stage coach stop between the big city of Buffalo being built and Batavia,” she said.
A small fire set by workers got out of control and consumed the entire building before it could even open. A devastating setback but one that Smith, a frontiersmen, was able to get through quickly.

 “He owned a lot of things in the area. He had holding in the limestone quarry, and the sawmills. He was definitely like a pioneer – a founding father of Williamsville,” Browne said of Smith.

“The basement is stacked limestone- which is from the quarries around here,” said Browne.

“A lot of this stuff is all old original foundation from when the building was actually a stage coach stop.”

A series of underground tunnels connects several
buildings on Main Street.
Unfortunately many of the tunnels
are now permanently sealed. 

                  The basement is suspected of being part of the Underground Railroad, although this is a fact Browne is still unable to prove. However, Browne showed a reporter the remnants of underground tunnels that she explained connected to multiple buildings on Main Street. The tunnels are currently sealed.
Smith was able to create an established business on the property, one that would switch owners many times throughout its lifetime.

“There’s been a lot of ownership. It’s changed hands a lot,” said Browne. Currently, the restaurant is owned by the Hanny family.

“My family has owned it for a little over 30 years,” said Browne. The early Eagle House was quite different from the current restaurant that now sits on one of Buffalo’s busiest streets.

“There was a lot more woods around us. More like a wild frontier if you will,” said Browne, “I like to think of it as stagecoaches going up and down the street. And we have a horse tie out front so – I envision horses and stagecoaches and wagons being tied up in the front around Main Street.”

A Taste of the Past 

                  This old world charm is something that the Eagle house prides itself in preserving. The restaurant is adorned in dark woods that cover parts of the walls and the bar area. In the dining section, an old brick fireplace ads a different texture to the scenery. By the bar area, there are still reminders of the modern day, including big screen TVs and electronic cash registers, but they are hidden from the view of the diners.

                The restaurant is decorated in memorabilia from Buffalo’s history. Some of the artifacts hanging on the walls were given to Browne from customers and some are family heirlooms. One wall displays a series of old menus from different Buffalo restaurants dating back to the 1930s. These items, Browne explained, were part of her grandmother’s collection. On a wall in the other dining room a 1940s newspaper declaring Germany’s surrender hangs on the wall. This item Browne explained was a gift from a patron. On the wall across from this, actor Fatty Arbuckle can be seen in a photo with two young women that Browne explains are her great aunts.

Many of the Eagle House’s decorations are Hanny family heirlooms.
This large wood carving, however, was donated by a friend
who found it in his garage. 

“I am a fourth generation in the hospitality industry in Buffalo,” said Browne, “So a lot of things have been handed down to me from my grandparents, and my uncle and my father.” This not only includes family heirlooms but also recipes.

“Something my grandparents always served in their restaurants is something called welsh rarebit,” she said.
“It’s made with Canadian very sharp black diamond cheddar cheese. Which you get around the northern parts of the United States more so, and it’s made with stale beer- which is left to sit out and get flat. It’s kind of like a fondue if you will.”

Giving Back

Upstairs in the Eagle House
there is a room dedicated to
St. John Neumann
who rented the room many years ago
when it was still a tavern. 

                 In addition to family recipes, the Eagle House still proudly serves more traditional Buffalo items like Buffalo chicken wings and beef on weck. The restaurant also tries to keep a local Western New York connection.

“We always have New York State wines.” Browne said, “We’ll do some wine specials with things from the Niagara- some ice wines stuff during different times in the season.” One of the Eagle House’s local best sellers is Dr. Franks’ Salmon Run Riesling. In addition to local wine the Eagle House also tries to help out local farmers.

“There’s a farmers’ market out back every Saturday. That starts in May,” she said.

“This summer, we’re going to start a thing called “Farmers’ Market Saturday” and we’re either going to create an entrees or an appetizer, with things that we solely go over to the Farmers’ market and create,” she said.
             The Eagle House has participated in several local events over the years, including the Taste of Williamsville and Wines in the Wild at the Buffalo Zoo. However, Browne is especially proud of her restaurant’s involvement with Hospice Buffalo.

 “There’s about 10 restaurants in Buffalo and every month we take a turn doing ‘A Dinner to Remember’” she explained, “and we bring dinner to hospice – and we do dinner for all the families and all their patients.”
“We bring it all in and then we clean it all up,” she added, “so it’s a nice treat for everybody.”

Q&A: Preserving Historic Mills

By Katherine Guenther
In our troubled time of budget cuts and sequesters, residents of the Village of Williamsville may wonder just how practical a multimillion-dollar restoration project on an old water mill is for the community.
The Society for the Preservation of Old Mills or SPOOM, is a non-profit group founded in 1972 that promotes the historical and societal values of preserving historic mills. The organization’s president, David G. Haines, and Northeastern Chapter President Don Woods explained why historic mills can benefit the community.

Q: Why should communities preserve old mills?

“Old mills are a special category of historical buildings,” said Woods in a joint statement with SPOOM’s Northeastern board of directors. Woods explained that a functioning mill made frontier life possible for many early settlers.
“Usually some of the first buildings built were sawmills to produce the building materials needed to start and grow the new settlements and grist mills to produce food products for themselves and their livestock,” he said. Haines explained that mills were also a technological advancement for the time that has helped shape modern life.
“The modern equipment in our homes and industries are built on adaptations, transformations and combinations of earlier ideas and technology,” Haines said.
“The ‘watermill’ is the single piece of complex technology that enjoys the longest running history the world has ever seen - at least 2,000 years - and has sired more offspring than any other. The mill family ranges from clocks to automatic transmissions, early calculators and the printing press. . .,” he said. According to Haines, many historically preserved mills were owned by some of history’s greatest leaders.
“We have a penchant to honor and remember our great heroes, even our famous millers,” Haines said,   “George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln,  Davy Crocket, [and] Sgt. Alvin York of World War I fame, all have their mills protected as national shrines.” Haines said that even common mills deserve the same treatment.

Q: Will restoring a historic mill benefit the community financially?

                 According to Haines, the community will benefit economically from restoring a historic mill. “A refurbished old grande dame can continue to add value to its home or region,” Haines said, “attracting people to share and enjoy an authentic model of life in an earlier time.  In the long run, historic treasures are far superior to parking lots and pizza shops.”
According to Woods, the loss of mills has created a shortage of industrial jobs.
“In addition, this country started losing our industrial jobs along with our industries to other countries. We are losing our ability to actually produce the physical things that we need.” Woods explained that revitalizing old mills can be a helpful step in establishing more jobs in the community.
“If we save our industrial workforce, industrial heritage, and industrial infrastructure, then there will be something for returning industries to come home to and for emerging industries to tap into and utilize.”
Another financial benefit to the community is the use of a building that would have otherwise gone to waste. “A practical benefit of saving an old and/or historical building is the reuse of existing infrastructure in a community,” Woods said, “If an old building is saved and reused, then resources, neighborhoods, and livelihoods can be saved. This is especially true if the building can be reused for its original general use.”

Q: How common are old mills?

“The number of active mills has dwindled in the latter half of the 20 century,” said Woods, “As an example, there were approximately 11,500 flour mills in the United States in 1920, and currently there are less than 250.”

Q: What challenges do historical buildings face?

According to Haines, the challenge of finding dedicated and “stubborn” volunteers to work towards a building’s preservation is the greatest challenge a historical building can face.
“Interested and willing people are the key to historic preservation,” he said, “Their examples, including, being willing to contribute and to ask others for money, are needed  to start and maintain a project that will often be several years long.”
Don Woods argued that the challenge of, “Overcoming the general perception that new is always better and less expensive than fixing the old,” is the greatest problem facing historical buildings.

Q: What is your opinion of the Williamsville Water Mill?

“I’ve visited over 600 mills and mill sites in the last 20 years, including the Williamsville Mill,” said Haines, “The mill complex, over its lifetime, is a historic gem . . . a sawmill for 102 years, lime works, cement company, a grist mill and cider mill, in an area with a War of 1812 history, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.” According to Haines, the Williamsville Water Mill is an extremely interesting piece of history that the community should hold on to.

Glen Park: Scenery, History and Tap Dance

By Katherine Guenther

Glen Falls after a long rainy week. 

As the Village of Williamsville and the Iskalo Development Corp. work to remodel the Williamsville Water Mill another historic site sits just behind the building: Glen Park.
Williamsville resident, Mike Valentic has a strong attachment to Glen Park.  He built his home directly beside Glen Falls in 1985 and has watched the park change throughout the years.

Locals watch the falls from the observation path.

Glen Park rests on the historic remains of the Williamsville Water Mill which was established and has run continuously since 1811. The park boasts a small but picturesque waterfall that flows through Ellicott Creek and two large duck ponds connected by stone pathways. The park is a common destination for weddings and photography.

Under the Iskalo Corporation’s re-development plan the remodeled Williamsville Mill will connect directly to the park through the back of the building.
“The park as it is today was created in 1976 after a long battle with local government who wished to sell it for development,” said Williamsville Historical Society President and Glen Park Joint Board Trustee Mary Lowther in a written statement.

The park also offers a scenic walking path.

An Integral Part of Frontier Era

The park sits on the rear of the Williamsville Water Mill and the remains of the Dodge Mill which was destroyed in a devastating fire in 1894. Mills were an integral part of frontier life in the 1800’s.

Harry Altman's picture hangs in the
Buffalo Niagara  Heritage Village's Amherst exhibit.

“During the Westward Movement, a working mill-- especially a grist mill-- was often a social and economic magnet for new inhabitants,” said David G. Haines, President of the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills in a written statement.
“It was the mall of the Early Republic,” he said. While the milling industry in Williamsville died down at the turn of the century it was just the beginning for Glen Park.
The area has had a long and eventful history leading up to its establishment as a natural park. In the 1930’s the area was purchased by Harry Altman who built an amusement park and casino on the property. Mike Valentic, who is a professional tap dancer and singer, has many fond memories of the casino and amusement park.

Evidence that rides really were that cheap. Taken at the BNHV.

“You could ride the merry-go-round and play the different games there – just for a nickel,” Valentic said, “They had free entertainment, in fact, as an entertainer I performed in the Glen a couple of times.”
According to Mary Lowther the park is currently maintained through a partnership between the Village of Williamsville and the Town of Amherst.
“Once it was determined that it would be a park,” Lowther wrote, “the Village of Williamsville joined forces with the Town of Amherst to help make it into a beautiful passive natural park that is now enjoyed by thousands of people every year.”

A Place for Photos, Scenery and Art

In addition to a small walking trail and charming scenery Glen Park also offers the community an annual art festival in July. The Glen Park Art Festival is scheduled run July 27th through the 28th according to the Williamsville Business Association’s website.
Mike Valentic, who is on the Williamsville Arts Committee is looking forward to the festival. According to the festival’s Facebook page the festival showcases ten local restaurants and over thirty local artists in addition to displays for High school and Middle school artists. The festival will also showcase twenty musical acts which will be spread out through the two day festival.
Local artists are invited to apply for a spot in the festival on the Village of Williamsville’s website.

The History and Future of the Williamsville Water Mill

The water mill once owned by the namesake of Williamsville will be remodeled into a hotel and boutique retail store that will connect to Glen Park. The renovation project will be a joint effort between the Village of Williamsville and Iskalo Development Corp.
A year after the Iskalo Corp. introduced its initial re-development plan to the village and the registered historic site is still unoccupied and waiting for major rehabilitation.
Iskalo Development Corp. President, David Chiazza explained that the corporation does not own the property but is planning on taking over the property in 2014.
“The village owns the property,” said Chiazza, “and the village is a village- and not a private enterprise is able to get some historic preservation funds to help stabilize the property. We’re working with them on that and once they complete that then the plan is that we would then take ownership of the property and then complete the redevelopment of it.”
According to Chiazza the village has one final grant to secure before Iskalo can take over ownership.
“They are in the process of applying for the last of their grants from the state. That would complete the balance of the stabilization work,” he said.
 “Then we would acquire the property in 2014 and do our piece of the work.” After the village acquires its final grant, according to Chiazza, the village will remodel Spring St.
“They also have an engineering and landscape-architecture team,” Chiazza said, “to completely re-construct Spring St.”
Iskalo’s plan for the building originally incorporated a restaurant but parking concerns caused the corporation to change its goals.
“We submitted a presentation this past December that talked about, maybe eliminating the restaurant concept,” he said. Chiazza explained that the corporation has a perspective tenant that will use the space for food made and consumed on site; however, the name of this illusive tenant has not yet been released.
“We have a perspective user for the mill. We have not identified who that is yet,” Chiazza said.
The new plan calls for 12 to 15 “hospitality units” that would be located in the mill but operated by another Iskalo hotel.

A History Worth Saving
In 2006, Bero Architecture, a Rochester firm, prepared a historic analysis of the building’s history. The firm’s owner, Virginia Searl said: “We wrote a Historic Structure Report on the mill in 2006.” According to the report, the Williamsville Water Mill was once owned by Jonas Williams – who the Village of Williamsville is named after.
According to the Historic Structure Report, Williams built the current mill in 1811 as an improvement to an older mill he operated on the eastern end of the river. According to the report, “he built an improved mill on the west side with a 12 ft. overshot water wheel fed by a raceway from a stone dam built on the south side of Main Street.” This raceway can still be seen today on the rear of the building from Glen Park.
The saw mill was eventually converted into a cement mill around 1818 which ushered in a strong natural cement industry into the area. Throughout the mill’s troubled history the building has switched from owner to owner.
In 1947 the building was bought by Daniel and Grace Niederlander who started the early restoration of the building as well as marketed the mill as a historic site.  “[the] Property continued in use as a “historic mill”, with some milling activity, seasonal cider making, and a gift shop, through 2003,” explained the report.
It was Iskalo’s plan for a remodel that won over the Village Board of Trustees. “We were not selected to continue with redevelopment of the mill,” said Virginia Searl.
Preservation Studios, a Buffalo run consulting firm, which describes itself on its website as a “full-service historic preservation consulting firm”, was placed in charge of negotiating a development deal between the Village of Williamsville and Iskalo Development Corp. in spring of 2011. While Preservation Studios is no longer involved with the project, Jason Yots was willing to explain the firm’s involvement with the project. “Preservation Studios was previously engaged as the consultant to help find an additive reuse,” he wrote in a typed statement.




The Price of a Restoration

According to Iskalo’s 2011 presentation the Williamsville Water Mill renovation will cost $7.940 million dollars to complete.
The village is not alone in funding the project. A multitude of grants and funds are available to the village. According to Jason Yots the Preserve New York program, NYS Environmental Protection Fund and private funds are all available to historic buildings.
 Jason Yots cautioned that remodeling an historical building in a small town can be difficult. He wrote: “Economic challenges... Declining and sprawling populations often make re-use infeasible without incentives.”