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Dedication of the Don Owens Center building at 100 Lee Street on the Heritage DiscoveRY Center site took place on November 10, 2011, just four months after the Western New York Railway Historical Society took possession of the building. In addition to Society officers, trustees and members,, present at the dedication were Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, DEC Regional Director Abby Snyder, Steel Plant Museum President Jim Carey and a number of other local officials and guests. |
| The Don Owens Center was opened to the public on November 12th, 2011 and again for the Society’s Train and Toy Show in Hamburg on November 19th and 20th. Currently, the building serves as the site for WNYRHS Trustee and General Membership meetings. The Center is now open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, as well as one evening during the week. The Steel Plant Museum, relocated from Lackawanna Public Library, also opened its displays on November 12th. The DiscoveRY Center also welcomed the Buffalo Lighthouse Association and their artifacts of WNY Maritime history. |
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Under the guidance of Ed Patton, Director for Museum Development for the Western New York Railway Historical Society, more than 30 Society members helped prepare the site for the dedication, and they and others served as tour guides and parking assistants during the dedication ceremony. | ) |
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The purchase of the building was made possible through the very generous support of Don Owens, a principal in Earth Dimensions of East Aurora. “We are extremely grateful to South Buffalo Development, the New York State DEC and Honeywell for working together to remediate this site which will help us to preserve and display important works of Buffalo’s industrial heritage and architecture” said Joe Kocsis, President of the WNYRHS at the dedication ceremony. | ) |
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“We are confident that the Heritage DiscoveRY Center will become a cultural attraction that will make our region proud of its industrial heritage and the significant impact it has had on our community.” At one time, the railroads were the largest private employer in the Buffalo region. |
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These are just a few of the display cases that cover the 25,000 sqft of the Exhibit Hall with more to come. The Center is open from 10am - 5pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. | ) |
| The past month has been a very busy one at the Heritage Discovery Center. We hosted a conference and training session for the Lackawanna Teachers Association. We also conducted a tour for the Rosewood Nursing Home residents, many of whom were former railroaders and steel workers. Board meetings were also held by our own WNYRHS, plus we also hosted the Steel Plant Museum meetings and the Lighthouse Association meetings. In addition, we hosted a meeting of the East Aurora Town Planning Board. We have been quite active with three Scouting groups. We submitted a proposal to have an Eagle Scout troop paint and weed our fence line along Lee Street. We have another group planning to work on our BR&P caboose when it arrives from Texas. And we have a Cub Scout troop looking at painting our fence along Area E. Work parties have been extremely busy over the last two months, averaging three days a week. All the walls in the public areas on the first floor have been painted, and there were quite a few walls. We installed two new glass doors into our food service area and opened a 10-foot archway into the meeting room so we can have banquet service. We started painting and cleaning our new Library on the second floor. Soon we will add shelving and bring in all the books and photos which are now scattered in about a dozen places. We removed 100 lockers from the men's locker room and opened that room up to storage. The flag pole has been made operational and we now fly the flag when the building is open. |
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We had eleven volunteers show up for Saturday's work party! We were able to substantially complete most of the work in the Meeting Room and our serving bar has been completely refinished by Carl Ambuske and is an excellent addition to our food service area. All the painting was completed and Joe Kocsis finished replacing the missing floor tiles. | ) |
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Carl Ambuske is completely refinishing our wooden bar. He fabricated shelves to place inside and added new trim. Paint and wood finishing is also to be applied along with decorative trim. The bar will be a great addition to our Bar Room. | ) |
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Barb Owens washed all the windows and cleaned the restrooms. Bob Snyder did a room full of trim work. Steve Kocsis removed all the tinting from our new double doors in the Bar Room. | ) |
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Jerry Bower finished the trim work and removed all the painting tape. Frank Klaskov and his crew moved some heavy lockers from 100 Lee St to the Hospital Building storage area. In addition other furniture was moved upstairs to storage and the Meeting Rm set up. A CSX derailment outside our property line on Thursday added some excitement to the day. A broken rail was latter to be found the cause. | ) |
| There is a great deal of work left to do though, and we are appealing to all of our members and friends to help out, either though volunteering your time or making a donation to the museum funds. First and foremost, the $50,000 Challenge Grant is still available for the taking. We are still short of the goal and remember every donation will be matched dollar for dollar.If you can make a donation, make your check or money order payable to: WNYRHS, Inc. 407 Rowley Road Depew, NY 14043 You can use the form below to make your donation by mail or use the PayPal option at the bottom of this page. We are setting up regular work parties at the building every Tuesday & Thursday evenings beginning at 6:30, and on Saturdays beginning at 9:30. There are occasional weekday sessions as well, just drop me an email at Heritage_Ltd@msn.com. |
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Contact Us: Orchard Park - 716-662-7002 Williamsville - 716-633-7002
WNYRHS Inc., PO Box 416, Buffalo, New York 14231-0416
All Donations to the Heritage Discovery Center are Tax-Deductable!
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The WNYHDC, Inc. P.O. Box 416, Buffalo, NY. 14231-0416 is an independent organization and has no affiliation with any other local or national group. The Society is a fully qualified organization under 501 (C) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and all donations to the Society are tax deductible. ©Copyright 2010 - 2012 WNYRHS Inc. all rights reserved
