The History Center Complex
215 Niagara Street, Lockport, NY 14094
Monday – Saturday: 9:00AM – 5:00PM
Sunday & Holidays: Closed
Directions | Admissions | Phone: (716)-434-7433
The Erie Canal Discovery Center
24 Church Street, Lockport, NY 14094
May 1 – Oct. 31: Open 9:00am-5:00pm daily
November 1 – April 30: Open 10:00am-3:00 pm Fri. & Sat.
Directions | Admissions | Phone: (716) 439-0431
Niagara History Center Historic Sites & Exhibits
The five building Niagara History Center Complex at 215 Niagara Street in Lockport interprets the history of the Niagara Frontier from the time of Native American occupation to the early 20th century.
Outwater Home
Outwater Home (215 Niagara Street)
This red brick Italianate-style home was built in 1863 by Windsor Trowbridge, a brick manufacturer, who sold it in 1867. Over the next 50 years, it was owned by three generations of women in the Mackey/Scott family. It was bequeathed to the Niagara History Center in 1953 by Dr. Samuel Outwater, the widowed husband of Luella Scott Outwater.
Outwater Home (215 Niagara Street) early 20th century
The home currently has an orientation room, a gift shop, staff offices, the museum library and archives, a meeting room and two changing exhibits areas. Three rooms are devoted to permanent exhibits.
Outwater Home (215 Niagara Street): Historic Pantry
On the first floor is a Historic Pantry. This room has kitchen implements from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Changing Exhibits areas are also on the first floor.
Outwater Home (215 Niagara Street): Civil War Room
On the second floor is the Civil War Room. This room contains photographs and artifacts from the Civil War, primarily belonging to men from Niagara County who served in that conflict. It also contains an exhibit on Ely S. Parker, a Seneca from the Tonawanda Reservation who served as General Grant’s military secretary.
Niagara History Center, Outwater Home
215 Niagara Street, Lockport, N.Y
Daily: 9.00AM – 5.00PM
Sunday & Holidays: Closed
Directions | Tickets | Phone: (716)-434-7433
Pioneer Building
Pioneer Building (behind 215 Niagara Street)
This building was originally a carriage house and contains four exhibit areas.
The two Tuscarora Nation Rooms present information on the Haudenosaunee, “the People of the Longhouse,” including clans, beadwork, and games. A small-scale diorama illustrates how Indigenous People lived and worked while using and respecting the natural resources around them. Another exhibit highlights Tuscarora dress and artwork as well as their use of corn husks in making many different items.
Pioneer Building (behind 215 Niagara Street): Tuscarora Nation rooms
On the second floor is the recreated Pioneer Cabin. This area is set-up to illustrate what would have been found in a log dwelling in Niagara County the early 19th century.
Artifacts include candle molds, a foot warmer, a knitty-knotty, dried herbs, a bathtub and rope and trundle beds. Visitors can get a feel for what life was like when this area was just a wilderness.
Pioneer Building (behind 215 Niagara Street): Pioneer Cabin
In the first floor rear of the building is the Transportation Room. This area includes maps, photographs and artifacts from the early Erie Canal era as well as other modes of transportation. There are also two automobiles with connections to the Harrison Radiator Co. in Lockport. The 1923 “Junior R” was built at Harrison and is an all-aluminum body car.
Pioneer Building (behind 215 Niagara Street): Transportation Room, The 1923 “Junior R” Car
The 1954 Pontiac Star Chief was the first car with factory installed air conditioning made by General Motors based on Harrison technology.
Niagara History Center, Pioneer Building
215 Niagara Street, Lockport, N.Y
Daily: 9.00AM – 5.00PM
Sunday & Holidays: Closed
Directions | Tickets | Phone: (716)-434-7433
The Yates Barn
The Yates Barn (behind 215 Niagara Street)
The Barn houses the Lockport Fire Department Exhibit which 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 Co. which developed the first pressurized fire hydrant system in the world.
The Yates Barn (behind 215 Niagara Street): Lockport Fire Department Exhibit
The remainder of the Barn contains trades exhibits highlighting some trades that were essential for living and working in Niagara County. These trades include blacksmith, cooper, carpenter and cobbler.
The Yates Barn (behind 215 Niagara Street): Lockport Trades Exhibit
Also in the Barn are exhibits devoted to agriculture.
The Yates Barn (behind 215 Niagara Street): Lockport Trades Exhibit
There are also several carriages and sleighs, some made by the Bronson Carriage Co. of Lockport, and a 19th century hearse on skids.
Niagara History Center, The Yates Barn
215 Niagara Street, Lockport, N.Y
Daily: 9.00AM – 5.00PM
Sunday & Holidays: Closed
Directions | Tickets | Phone: (716)-434-7433
Kandt House
Kandt House (229 Niagara Street)
This home, built in 1887 and purchased by the Society in 1998, is devoted to commercial and manufacturing businesses in Niagara County. Other exhibits include the Hodge Opera House (music and theater); Holly Manufacturing Co. (fire hydrants and hydraulic pumps); Merchant’s Gargling Oil (liniment for animals and people); Ford Gumball (gumballs and vending); The Upson Co. (fibre board and TUCO puzzles);
the Seven Sutherland Sisters, known for their extremely long hair, singing voices and hair products; the recreated office the three Dr. Fitz-Geralds of Lockport; and a restored 1930s era kitchen.
Kandt House (229 Niagara Street): The Seven Sutherland Sisters Exhibit
Niagara History Center, Kandt House
215 Niagara Street, Lockport, N.Y
Daily: 9.00AM – 5.00PM
Sunday & Holidays: Closed
Directions | Tickets | Phone: (716)-434-7433
The Washington Hunt Law Office
The Washington Hunt House (next to 215 Niagara Street)
This original 1835 building was moved to the museum grounds in 1955. Formerly located on Market Street in Lockport, the building is restored to a c.1835 law and land office.
The Washington Hunt Land and Law Office (next to 215 Niagara Street)
The Albany Land Office, operated by Washington Hunt, was in the front room of the building. It contains surveying equipment once owned by Jesse Haines, an early surveyor in the Lockport area. He drew the first maps of Lockport.
Above the fireplace in the land office is a painting of Belva Lockwood. She was born in the nearby town of Royalton NY in 1830 and became a teacher, a Washington, D.C. lawyer, the first woman to argue a case in the U.S. Supreme Court, and a champion of women’s suffrage.
The Washington Hunt Law Office): the portrait of Belva Lockwood
Lockwood was nominated for President in 1884 and 1888 by the Equal Rights’ Party and was the first woman to run for that office in the United States and she received 4000 votes. Belva Lockwood died in 1917 and is buried in Washington, DC.
Niagara History Center, The Washington Hunt Law and Land Office
215 Niagara Street, Lockport, N.Y
Daily: 9.00AM – 5.00PM
Sunday & Holidays: Closed
Directions | Tickets | Phone: (716)-434-7433