Established | 2018 |
---|---|
Location | Niagara Falls, New York |
Type | African American history |
Director | Ally Spongr |
Public transit access | Amtrak (Niagara Falls Station and Customhouse Interpretive Center) NFTA Route 50 Discover Niagara |
Website | niagarafallsundergroundrailroad |
The Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center is a museum in Niagara Falls, New York, based on the history and legacy of the Underground Railroad. Opened in 2018, it is located on the first floor of a historic former U.S. Customhouse built in 1863 at the Niagara Falls Station and Customhouse Interpretive Center.
The idea of commemorating the Underground Railroad in Niagara Falls picked up steam in 2007 when former City Council Chairman Charles A. Walker and Kevin E. Cottrell pitched an idea they called "North Star on North Main." Funding from New York State began in 2008, when the State Legislature created the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Commission to work on an Underground Railroad museum in Niagara Falls. The following year, a state law governing Niagara Falls' use of Seneca Niagara Casino money was amended to give the commission $350,000 a year, a figure that was reduced to $200,000 a year in 2011. [1]
Opened on May 4, 2018, the museum is sanctioned by the National Park Service as part of the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area and is operated in a partnership between the National Park Service and the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Commission.
Described as an experiential museum, the museum includes such exhibits as "One More River to Cross" featuring the history of the Underground Railroad in Niagara Falls, the role played by the location and geography of Niagara Falls, and the actions of residents particularly African-American residents. Other exhibits include a recreation of the Cataract House, a Niagara Falls hotel that employed an entirely African-American wait staff, who helped numbers of enslaved people to freedom in Canada [2] and a recreation of the International Suspension Bridge, built in 1848, and rebuilt in 1855 to incorporate rail traffic, where Harriet Tubman and other freedom seekers crossed into Canada. [3] [4]
In 2019, "One More River to Cross" won an Award of Excellence by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). [5]
The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, forming part of the border between Ontario, Canada, to the west, and New York, United States, to the east. The origin of the river's name is debated. Iroquoian scholar Bruce Trigger suggests it is derived from a branch of the local Neutral Confederacy, referred to as the Niagagarega people on several late-17th-century French maps. George R. Stewart posits that it comes from an Iroquois town named Ongniaahra, meaning "point of land cut in two."
Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, which straddles the international border of the two countries. It is also known as the Canadian Falls. The smaller American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls lie within the United States. Bridal Veil Falls is separated from Horseshoe Falls by Goat Island and from American Falls by Luna Island, with both islands situated in New York.
Niagara Falls is a city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 48,671. It is adjacent to the Niagara River, across from the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and named after the famed Niagara Falls which they share. The city is within the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the Western New York region.
Niagara Falls is a city in Ontario, Canada, adjacent to, and named after, Niagara Falls. As of the 2021 census, the city had a population of 94,415. The city is located on the Niagara Peninsula along the western bank of the Niagara River, which forms part of the Canada–United States border, with the other side being the twin city of Niagara Falls, New York. Niagara Falls is within the Regional Municipality of Niagara and a part of the St. Catharines - Niagara Census Metropolitan Area (CMA).
Fort Erie is a town in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. The town is located at the south eastern corner of the region, on the Niagara River, directly across the Canada–United States border from Buffalo, New York, and is the site of Old Fort Erie which played a prominent role in the War of 1812.
Lewiston is a village in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 2,701 at the 2010 census. The village is named after Morgan Lewis, an early 19th-century governor of New York. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Fort Niagara State Park is located in the Town of Porter in Niagara County, New York, United States. Historic Fort Niagara is located within the park. The 504-acre (2.04 km2) park is northwest of Youngstown near the northern terminus of the Niagara Scenic Parkway and is in the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area.
Niagara Falls State Park is located in the City of Niagara Falls in Niagara County, New York, United States. The park, recognized as the oldest state park in the United States, contains the American Falls, the Bridal Veil Falls, and a portion of the Horseshoe Falls.
Devil's Hole State Park is a 42-acre (17 ha) state park located in Niagara County, New York, north of the City of Niagara Falls. The day-use park overlooks the lower Niagara River Gorge.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, originally Harpers Ferry National Monument, is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in and around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The park includes the historic center of Harpers Ferry, notable as a key 19th-century industrial area and as the scene of John Brown's failed abolitionist uprising. It contains the most visited historic site in the state of West Virginia, John Brown's Fort.
Niagara Falls station is a former Amtrak railroad station in Niagara Falls, New York. Operating from 1978 to 2016, it was replaced by the current Niagara Falls station. During its time, it was the western end of the Empire Corridor and served the Empire Service, Maple Leaf, and Niagara Rainbow lines.
Augustus S. Porter was an American businessman, judge, farmer, and politician who served as an Assemblyman for the state of New York.
The Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, formerly known as the John Wayne Pioneer Trail and the Iron Horse Trail, is a rail trail that spans most of the U.S. state of Washington. It follows the former railway roadbed of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad for 300 miles (480 km) across two-thirds of the state, from the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains to the Idaho border.
The Niagara Falls Station and Customhouse Interpretive Center is an intermodal transit complex in Niagara Falls, New York. It serves Amtrak trains and Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority buses, houses U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices servicing the Canada–United States border, and houses the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center.
The Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park is a part of the state park system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). This 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) park "recalls the role of canals in transporting raw materials and manufactured goods between emerging industrial centers." The Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park at Uxbridge, Massachusetts, is the midpoint of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor of the National Park System. The Blackstone River and Valley is where the industrial revolution was born in America. The southern entrance to this state park is the site of the historic Stanley Woolen Mill, currently being redeveloped for commercial and tourism. The Native American Nipmuc name for the village here was "Wacentug", translated as "bend in the river".
Canalside, formerly known as Canal Side and also referred to as Erie Canal Harbor, is a commercial and residential district in downtown Buffalo, New York. It is the recreation of the western terminus of the Erie Canal, which was destroyed in the early 20th century. Canalside is situated on the Buffalo River, in an area that was historically home to the Seneca people.
Freedom Crossing Monument is located on the bank of the Niagara River in Lewiston, New York, and honors the courage of fugitive slaves who sought a new life of freedom in Canada, and to the local volunteers who protected and helped them on their journey across the Niagara River. It was dedicated on October 14, 2009.
Niagara Falls National Heritage Area is a federally designated National Heritage Area encompassing the Niagara Falls region of the U.S. State of New York. The heritage area includes the communities of Niagara Falls, Youngstown and Lewiston. The designation provides a framework for the promotion and interpretation of the area's cultural and historic character, and the preservation of the natural and built environment. The heritage area designation recognizes the area's importance to Native Americans, to early European explorers of America, the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the area's role in the Underground Railroad. The area also recognizes the contribution of the Niagara Falls region to the industrialization of the United States, as well as the development of Niagara Falls as a protected natural area.
The Cataract House was a hotel in the neighborhood of Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls, New York. The hotel was established in 1825 but destroyed by fire in 1945. It was a major stop on the Underground Railroad and it was the largest hotel in Niagara Falls. The hotel's name refers to the large and powerful waterfall next to property.