New visitors center about Erie Canal will open in Buffalo in time for bicentennial

Renderings courtesy of Governor’s Office: A new visitors center about the Erie Canal is planned for Canalside in Buffalo. “Waterway of Change: A Complex Legacy of the Erie Canal” will share the story of the Erie Canal.

Press Release, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Office

BUFFALO – Governor Kathy Hochul today announced plans for “Waterway of Change: A Complex Legacy of the Erie Canal,” a new Erie Canal bicentennial visitors experience at Canalside in Buffalo.

On May 7, after four years of construction in the Longshed, the replica Erie Canal Boat Seneca Chief will move out to make way for interior construction and installation of the new experience in the building.  Work will be completed in time for next year’s Erie Canal Bicentennial.

“Waterway of Change will share the remarkable story of the Erie Canal and the area now known as Canalside with visitors,” Governor Hochul said. “As the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal approaches in 2025, this visitors experience will draw more people to Buffalo’s waterfront and help them connect to its history in a new and participative way.”

The concept for the 2,900-square-foot Longshed, located at Canalside on the historic western terminus of the Erie Canal, is to create a visitors experience that acts as a gathering space and starting point for visitors beginning their Bicentennial Commemoration journey. Plans include visitors’ experiences that will explain and detail how Canalside’s timeline, from its beginnings as traditional homeland of the Haudenosaunee to the development of a rural village at the time the Erie Canal opened in 1825, to a thriving port and shipping hub at the end of the 19th century.

Waterway of Change will include interactive multimedia exhibits for visitors of all ages and abilities, sharing Buffalo’s Erie Canal story in an inclusive and diverse way through the use of short films, touch screens, audio, historical artifacts and dramatic lighting. A series of outdoor interpretive exhibits will also be created at towpaths along and around the canals.

The 2,900-square-foot Longshed will include interactive multimedia exhibits for visitors of all ages and abilities.

Local Projects, a multi-disciplinary exhibition and media design firm based in New York City, has been working with the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation to create the visitor experiences for the Longshed and Canalside. Other partnerships include exhibit fabrication, with Buffalo’s Hadley Exhibits, and project development with the Buffalo History Museum.

The museum is providing interpretive content and historical guidance through all phases of the project. The collaboration includes consulting with a diverse group of community stakeholders and subject matter experts to ensure Buffalo’s Erie Canal story is shared with visitors from multiple perspectives and viewpoints.

Additionally, the content in the visitors’ experience will be utilized by schools to supplement their Erie Canal history curricula during visits to the Longshed. The content will meet New York State Education Department standards to broadly reach and resonate with Grade 4-12 educational experiences.

New York State Canal Corporation Director Brian U. Stratton said, “On the eve of the Erie Canal’s 200-year anniversary milestone, we are thrilled to be working with Governor Hochul and our agency partners to bring to life Waterway of Change at Canalside in Buffalo. The Erie Canal holds a special significance in New York’s history, and this new interactive exhibit will tell the story of the canal and New York’s Queen City to visitors from near and far. Throughout the next two years and culminating with the 2025 World Canals Conference in Buffalo, the Canal Corporation is eager to celebrate the Erie Canal’s Bicentennial as we prepare for the next century of operations and opportunities along the entire New York State Canal System.”

While the anniversary of the bicentennial will likely be marked at events throughout New York State, Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation is planning a large celebration at Buffalo’s Canalside, which will also host the World Canals Conference in 2025. That event, first announced by Governor Hochul in June 2022, will bring together canal and inland waterway enthusiasts, professionals and scholars from around the world to learn about a variety of canal-related topics.

The event will highlight Buffalo’s transformed waterfront district, which has seen more than $400 million in new investment, including new hotels, a major sports arena, a children’s museum, retail shops and a re-created waterway on the footprint of the original Erie Canal in the Queen City. Today, the Buffalo waterfront attracts more than 1 million annual visitors.

In 2020, a wood frame structure at the northern end of the Central Wharf, now called the Longshed Building, was completed. The structure reflects on the history of the wharf location by incorporating elements from the Joy and Webster Storehouse that was situated on the site in the early 1800s. Work on the building, which incorporates select interior modifications to incorporate a small office, transient boater shower rooms, and public restrooms, is currently being completed.