Established | October 25, 1962 [1] |
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Website | http://eriecanalmuseum.org/ |
Weighlock Building | |
Location | SE corner of Erie Blvd. E. and Montgomery St., Syracuse, New York |
Coordinates | 43°3′2.4″N76°8′55.8″W / 43.050667°N 76.148833°W Coordinates: 43°3′2.4″N76°8′55.8″W / 43.050667°N 76.148833°W |
Built | 1849 |
NRHP reference No. | 71000552 [2] |
Added to NRHP | February 18, 1971 |
The Erie Canal Museum is a historical museum about the Erie Canal located in Syracuse, New York. The museum was founded in 1962 and is a private, non-profit corporation. [3] It is housed in the Syracuse Weighlock Building dating from 1850. The Syracuse Weighlock Building was in operation as a weighlock from 1850 to 1883. In 1883 the canal decided to stop charging tolls. The weighlock building was essentially used as a big, elaborate scale to weigh the boats traveling on the Erie Canal and determine how much each boat would pay for a toll. Today the museum includes not only artifacts from the Erie Canal, but also a gallery of present canal life. It is the mission of the museum to help people to learn the rich history of the Erie Canal and that it is not just a thing of the past, but still very much exists today in different forms.
The museum's Weighlock Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. [2]
The Weighlock Building was constructed in 1850. After the canal stopped charging tolls in 1883 the building had many different uses. By 1940 the State Department of Public Works was using the building. [4] Since 1962, the building has been occupied by the Erie Canal Museum.
The museum was founded in 1962 by an active group of citizens that wanted to preserve the historic weighlock building.
The Syracuse Weighlock Building itself is the largest and perhaps most significant artifact in the museum's collection. The Erie Canal Museum was founded in 1962 in an effort to save the Syracuse Weighlock Building from demolition. Today the Erie Canal Museum building is the only surviving weighlock from the Erie Canal. [5]
When the weighlock was in operation boats could pass from the canal right into the lock chamber in the Syracuse Weighlock Building. The lock would let the water out after a boat entered and the full weight of the boat would come to rest on the scales. The weight of the boat was used to determine the amount of the toll that a boat would have to pay. To get an accurate weight for each load the weight of the boat itself, as listed on the Empty Weight Certificate of the boat, would be subtracted from its weight as measured in the weighlock. [6]
The museum has the Frank Buchanan Thomson, a full size replica line boat, on display in what was previously the lock chamber of the Weighlock. Today there is no water, but it is easy to imagine what it looked like in the past.
When the museum opened in 1962 it did not have any collection and has acquired its collection slowly and carefully over the years. In addition to the building the boat the museum has over 50,000 items in their collection. Today the museum has a large collection of all things related to the operation of the Erie Canal, lateral canals, and other man made waterways
According to the museum's website, the collections include, “approximately: 1,400 objects (costumes, furnishings, tools, commemorative and documentary items, canal boat equipment, models, and household items); 1,500 prints; 950 sketches and drawings; 45 paintings; 39,000 photographs and negatives; 100 glass plate negatives; 200 rare books; and, miscellaneous maps, plans, receipts, and other manuscript and archival material.” [7]
The museum today is a popular destination for tour groups traveling through Syracuse, NY. The Erie Canal Museum also serves as the Syracuse Visitor's Center. The museum has lectures and events throughout the year. Be sure to check out the Annual Gingerbread Gallery each winter and the ongoing After Hours events Wednesday nights at the museum, during the summer.
There are eight parking spots for Museum visitors located in the New York State parking lot under the highway overpass with entrances on North State Street and on James Street. The spots are labeled “Visitor Center Parking.” Parking is also available on-street surrounding the Museum and in nearby parking lots.
The Erie Canal Museum is dedicated to preserving and showcasing the 1850 National Register Weighlock Building, the last remaining structure of its kind, and to telling the incredible adventure story of the Erie Canal. Come aboard a full size replica canal boat. Explore life in a canal town. Put on a puppet show. Experience a part of history that played an imperative role in the growth and development of the United States. The Erie Canal Museum is a must-see for adults and children of all ages!
The Erie Canal Museum is partially funded by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Admission to the Museum is by donation. A $10.00 donation is suggested.
The Weighlock Building and the Erie Canal Museum can also offer a unique setting for all types of functions, day or evening. You could host your next party, reception or meeting in the indoor or outdoor spaces available.
The Erie Canal is a canal that traverses east–west through upstate New York, eastern United States, as part of the cross-state route of the New York State Canal System. It was built to create a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes Basin, originally stretching for 584 kilometres (363 mi) from the Hudson River at Albany to Lake Erie in Buffalo. Completed in 1825, it was the second-longest canal in the world and greatly enhanced the development and economy of many major cities of New York, including New York City, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, as well as the United States. This was in part due to the new ease of transporting salt and other necessity goods, and industries that developed around those.
Newark is a village in Wayne County, New York, United States, 35 miles (56 km) south east of Rochester and 48 miles (77 km) west of Syracuse. The population was 9,017 at the 2020 census. The Village of Newark is in the south part of the Town of Arcadia and is in the south of Wayne County. It is the most populous community in Wayne County.
Macedon is a town in Wayne County, New York, United States. The population was 9,148 at the 2010 census.
Palmyra is a village in Wayne County, New York, United States. The population was 3,536 at the 2010 census. The village, along with the town, is named after Palmyra in present-day Syria.
The Wabash and Erie Canal was a shipping canal that linked the Great Lakes to the Ohio River via an artificial waterway. The canal provided traders with access from the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 460 miles long, it was the longest canal ever built in North America.
The Chenango Canal was a towpath canal in central New York in the United States which linked the Susquehanna River to the Erie Canal. Built and operated in the mid-19th century, it was 97 miles long and for much of its course followed the Chenango River, along Rt. 12 N-S from Binghamton on the south end to Utica on the north. It operated from 1834 to 1878 and provided a significant link in the water transportation system of the northeastern U.S. until supplanted by the region's developing railroad network.
Downtown Syracuse is the economic center of Syracuse, New York, and Central New York, employing over 30,000 people, and housing over 4,300.
The Miami and Erie Canal was a 274-mile (441 km) canal that ran from Cincinnati to Toledo, Ohio, creating a water route between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Construction on the canal began in 1825 and was completed in 1845 at a cost to the state government of $8,062,680.07. At its peak, it included 19 aqueducts, three guard locks, 103 canal locks, multiple feeder canals, and a few man-made water reservoirs. The canal climbed 395 feet (120 m) above Lake Erie and 513 feet (156 m) above the Ohio River to reach a topographical peak called the Loramie Summit, which extended 19 miles (31 km) between New Bremen, Ohio to lock 1-S in Lockington, north of Piqua, Ohio. Boats up to 80 feet long were towed along the canal by mules, horses, or oxen walking on a prepared towpath along the bank, at a rate of four to five miles per hour.
The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first venture of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which would later build the Delaware and Hudson Railway. Between 1828 and 1899, the canal's barges carried anthracite coal from the mines of Northeastern Pennsylvania to the Hudson River and thence to market in New York City.
The New York State Canal System is a successor to the Erie Canal and other canals within New York. Currently, the 525-mile (845 km) system is composed of the Erie Canal, the Oswego Canal, the Cayuga–Seneca Canal, and the Champlain Canal. In 2014 the system was listed as a national historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in its entirety, and in 2016 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
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A weigh lock is a specialized canal lock designed to determine the weight of barges in order to assess toll payments based upon the weight and value of the cargo carried. This requires that the unladen weight of the barge be known.
The Lehigh Canal, or the Lehigh Navigation Canal, is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania in the United States. It was built in two sections over a span of twenty years, beginning in 1818. The lower section spanned the distance between Easton, Pennsylvania and present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. In Easton, the canal met the Delaware and Morris Canals, which allowed goods to be transported further up the U.S. East Coast. At its height, the Lehigh Canal was 72 miles (116 km) long.
Roscoe Village is a restored Ohio and Erie Canal town located in Coshocton, Ohio, United States. Roscoe Village, was laid out in 1816. It was originally named Caldersburgh after its founder James Calder. After going bankrupt, the Coshocton merchant moved across the Muskingum River to some land he had managed to retain. Setting up a store and naming the place after himself, Calder reasoned that the rural farmers would much rather do business in Caldersburgh than pay the twenty-five cents for the ferry over to Coshocton. In 1830, two prominent citizens petitioned the state legislature to rename the village Roscoe in honor of William Roscoe, the famous English author and abolitionist of the time.
Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, also known as Erie Canal National Historic Landmark, is a historic district that includes the ruins of the Erie Canal aqueduct over Schoharie Creek, and a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) long part of the Erie Canal, in the towns of Glen and Florida within Montgomery County, New York. It was the first part of the old canal to be designated a National Historic Landmark, prior to the designation of the entire New York State Barge Canal as a NHL in 2017.
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Lock 18 of the Enlarged Erie Canal is located off North Mohawk Street in Cohoes, New York, United States. It is made of stone blocks 3 by 2 by 1.5 feet in size, roughly 150 feet (46 m) in length, laid in a random ashlar pattern. The lock's wooden gates are no longer extant.
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