The 1863 brick home features a Historic Pantry, Old Toy Room, Civil War Room, and a Changing Exhibit Room. The Outwater house is also home to the Niagara County Historical Society’s Offices, and a Community Meeting room where we hold family nights, host speakers, book signings, art shows, and many other community events. A separate organization, the Niagara County Genealogy Society and Library is located on the 2nd floor of our building.

The Outwater Emporium, our unique gift shop, allows you to browse among historic gifts and publications about Niagara County geared towards all ages. Cat’s Meow Collectibles are also available in our gift shop. You will also find a gift shop at the Erie Canal Discovery Center.

An original 1835 building moved to the museum grounds in 1955. Formerly located on Market Street in Lockport, the building is restored to a c.1835 law and surveyor’s office. In the front portion of the building, surveying equipment owned by Jesse Haines, an early surveyor in the Lockport area, is on exhibit. He developed the first maps of Lockport and leased and sold land in the area. Above the fireplace in the surveyor’s office is a painting of Belva Ann Bennett McNall Lockwood, the first woman ever to run for the Presidency of the United States. She was born in Gasport (Town of Royalton) and spent most of her life teaching and working for women’s suffrage. She was nominated for the Presidency in 1884 by the Equal Rights’ Party. The back portion of the building is the Washington Hunt Law Office. Washington Hunt came to Lockport in 1828 and opened a law office on Market Street in 1835. He was the first judge of Niagara County, served three terms in Congress and was elected to one term as Governor of New York State in 1850. He returned to Lockport and settled into his home, Wyndham Lawn. The room is furnished as a typical law office of the mid 19th century.

The Barn houses the Lockport Fire Department Exhibit. This contains equipment used in early firefighting in the Lockport area (mid to late 19th century) including leather buckets, two hand pumpers and a fire hydrant made by the Holly Manufacturing Company which developed the first fire hydrant system in the world. The remainder of the Barn contains exhibits highlighting trades that were essential for living and working in Niagara County. These trades include the blacksmith, the cooper, the carpenter and the cobbler. Also in the Barn are exhibits devoted to agriculture and farming.

The Pioneer Building contains two different exhibit areas. The Native American area includes information on the Iroquois Confederacy, the clans, beadwork, and games. A diorama of an Iroquois village illustrates how Native Americans lived and worked using and respecting the natural resources around them. Another exhibit highlights Native American dress and artwork and their use of corn husks in making many different items. On the second floor of the building, is the recreated Pioneer Cabin. This area is set-up to illustrate what would have been found in a log dwelling in western New York in the early 19th century. Interesting artifacts include candle molds, a foot warmer, a knitty-knotty, dried herbs, a bathtub and rope and trundle beds. The students can get a feel for what life was like when this area was just a wilderness.

At the rear of the Pioneer Building is the Transportation Building. A scale model of the “Flight of Five” Locks give students the opportunity to see that the locks were dug out of solid rock and how they originally looked and operated in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was this prominent feature of the canal that gave Lockport it’s name. This area also includes maps, photographs and artifacts from the early Erie Canal era. Also in this room are two automobiles with connections to the Harrison Radiator Plant in Lockport. The 1923 “Junior R” was built at Harrison and is an all aluminum body car. The 1954 Pontiac Star Chief was the first car with factory air conditioning made by General Motors based on Harrison technology.

A red brick Italianate-style home built in 1863 and donated to NCHS in 1953, this building has four permanent and two changing exhibit rooms. The first floor contains a furnished late Victorian Parlor (c. 1870s). This parlor highlights how people of the Victorian era spent their leisure time and what activities they engaged in. Musical instruments are throughout the room as are samples of Victorian whimsical crafts (hair pictures; dried and wax floral arrangements) and other forms of amusement. The Victorian era in the United States is interpreted in this room.

Current (Changing) Exhibit areas are on the first floor and rotate frequently.

Also on the first floor is a Historic Pantry. This room has kitchen implements that were common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

On the second floor is the Civil War Room. This room contains photographs and artifacts from the Civil War, particularly from those men who served from Niagara County. It also contains an exhibit on Ely S. Parker, a Seneca from Western New York who served as General Grant’s military secretary.

Across the hall is the Old Toy Room. This room is filled with late 19th and early 20th-century toys. Children can examine how toys have evolved over time and how these toys were very gender-specific to prepare the children for their roles later in life.

This home, purchased by the Society in 1998, is devoted to commercial and manufacturing businesses in Niagara County. These companies included Meakins and McKinnan (floor mats for homes); Cowles (aluminum, metals, alloys); Norton Laboratories (products made from chemicals); Simonds Saw and Steel (steel); Hodge Opera House (music and theater); Holly Manufacturing (hydraulic machinery and pumps); Sutherland Sisters (hair tonic); Merchant’s Gargling Oil (liniment for animals and people); Corson Manufacturing (printing); Ford Gumball (gumballs and vending); Indurated Fibre (fibre board); Lockport Glass Works (glass vials and bottles); Thatcher Manufacturing (milk bottles); Upson (fibre board and puzzles); and Dr. Fitz-Gerald’s Doctor Office.