Photos or actual early 20th century or late 19th century clothing that would have been typically worn by immigrants to America and their families of Polish, German, Italian, Irish, Hungarian, Ukranian heritage. Needed as soon as possible for youth project. Kids wish to copy the clothing in creating costumes. You may also donate the use of the clothing if so inclined, or donate it to be included in the ethnic heritage exhibits of the brand new North Tonawanda History Museum. Call Donna Neal at 692-2681 or email to nthistorymuseum@aol.com.

The New York State Board of Regents of the Education Department granted a provisional charter to the North Tonawanda History Museum at the April 20, 2004, meeting of the Regents at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo. The provisional charter recognizes that the museum is incorporated under the laws of the State of New York.

“We will be a museum, not an historical society,” said John Borycki, Vice President and Acting Curator. “The Historical Society of the Tonawandas' absolute charter as an historical society includes North Tonawanda's history as well as that of the City of Tonawanda.”

Speaking for the Board of Trustees of the new Museum, Donna Zellner Neal, Secretary and Acting Curator, said, “The North Tonawanda History Museum look forward to a productive working relationship with the venerable Historical Society of the Tonawandas, as well as all other historical venues in Western New York.”

The new museum began as the concept of a handful of North Tonawanda residents in June 2003. An Interest Group rapidly developed and formed officially on September 10, 2003, at a meeting called by NYS Senator George D. Maziarz, Mayor David J. Burgio, and Niagara County Legislator William M. Davignon at North Tonawanda City Hall. At this meeting, Mayor Burgio asked Donna Zellner Neal to coordinate the effort to create a museum of the history of North Tonawanda. A steering committee developed almost spontaneously and community support and enthusiasm for the project grew quickly.

A Board of Trustees assumed leadership on October 9 and has met every two weeks since then to develop museum plans and policies. In mid-October 2003 a website museum was established and quickly developed into a virtual museum open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.nthistorymuseum.org. Plans for the actual museum are being developed around the responses to the virtual museum. A part-time volunteer staff of four rapidly came together to carry out day-to-day operations.

Committees were formed in October and a variety of projects began. Interest Group members participated in Winter Walk 2003 in December, sponsored by the Downtown Merchants Association and presented an exhibit in an open house at the Tonawanda News in February. Photos of the group's participation in both events are on the website.

Current projects include a logo design contest for North Tonawanda's school students (public and parochial/private); working with two North Tonawanda youth groups on a parade float for Canal Fest of the Tonawandas; a cooperative effort with the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum to offer 16 weeks of Seaway Trail Walks in North Tonawanda from June 9 – September 29; coordination of a weekly column on local history in the Tonawanda News, “Remembering Yesteryear,” which began on March 29; and development of an oral history program to involve college level and high school, middle school, and elementary school students in preserving the City's history.

The North Tonawanda Common Council approved a resolution in support of the museum's charter petition on April 7. Niagara County Legislator William M. Davignon submitted a resolution in support of the charter petition to the Legislature. The resolution was referred to the Economic Development Committee.

Senator George D. Maziarz recently informed the Board of Trustees that he had obtained a $5,000 Senator Member Initiative Grant for equipment and supplies for the museum's programming.

Call Donna Neal at 692-2681, e-mail at nthistorymuseum@aol.com or visit the virtual museum at www.nthistorymuseum.org for additional information.

NORTH TONAWANDA HISTORY MUSEUM

Attn: Donna Zellner Neal, Acting Director

c/o 195 Goundry Street

North Tonawanda, New York14120

(716) 692-2681

e-mail: nthistorymuseum@aol.com

website: www.nthistorymuseum.org

For Immediate Release

NORTH TONAWANDA COMMUNITY HISTORY DAYS

North Tonawanda History Museum teams with RealtyUSA to invite public to tour historic Goundry Street mansion

The North Tonawanda History Museum encourages you to come visit one of Western New York’s architectural and historic treasures and at the same time learn about the history of North Tonawanda. RealtyUSA is hosting a special Open House at 345 Goundry Street on Saturday, and Sunday, May 15 and 16, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. each day..

The newly-chartered Museum group, which has included taking an active leadership role in promoting the City’s rich history and cultural tourism focus in its mission and vision statements, will have representatives present during the Open House. There will also be exhibits presented by DeGraff Memorial Hospital, which is celebrating its 90 th anniversary this year as a community hospital, the Tonawanda News, which has been preserving the history of the Tonawandas in printed form since 1880. The Chamber of Commerce of the Tonawandas will also participate. There will be literature and displays by other area cultural organizations and businesses as well, including the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum and the Nor-Ton Red Jacket Club. The home will be partially furnished with items by Big Lots Furniture for the Open House. Hodgepodge gift shop and Partners in Art Studios will provide items from their shops as well. Literature will be available about Starry Night Theatre and the Long Homestead also.

Volunteers will be present with information on charter membership in the newly-chartered North Tonawanda History Museum. “The State gave us our Provisional Charter as a birthday present for the City,” said John Borycki, President and Acting Curator. “The charter was approved on April 20, and the City celebrated its 107 th birthday on April 24.” Volunteers will also be selling raffle tickets for a drawing to be held during the Museum’s first fundraising auction and antique appraisal and concert tickets, the auction/appraisal to begin at 3 p.m. and the concert at 7 p.m., both on Saturday, May 22, in the Buffalo Suzuki Strings Musical Arts Center building at 4 Webster Street. Volunteers will also be selling tickets for a 50/50 drawing both days, CD’s of Erie Canal and other folk music, cookies and sugar waffles by Barb’s Sweet Treats, and Sunbird Snacks.

“This former mansion is but one of the many mansions built in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s by the prominent businessmen and civic leaders who made our City known around the world as the lumber capital of the world and the carrousel capital of the world,” noted Donna Zellner Neal, Secretary and Acting Director of the new Museum. “On historic Goundry Street and neighboring streets in the Old First Ward (now the Second Ward), are homes with rich histories, built for the lumber barons, the band organ and other manufacturers, the founder of our 90-year-old community hospital, the leaders of businesses spawned by the lumber trade and the City’s location at the juncture of the Niagara River and the Erie Canal and by the railroads that served the City in its heyday. Ships and boats, home building businesses, hand-carved carrousel horses and related products, jukeboxes, concert pedal harps, organs, paper, silk, iron products, bolts and nuts, plastics, etc., all came from the bustling industrial City of North Tonawanda.”

“The City’s population in those busy days, heavily comprised mainly of immigrants of Polish, German, Italian, Hungarian, Irish, Ukranian heritage and its location as a transportation hub made it an industrial center,” noted John Borycki, Acting Curator of the Museum. “For too long, North Tonawanda, which lost most of its industry in the latter half of the 20th century, has let its historic treasures melt into the background or disappear entirely. It is heartening to see some current owners of historic homes and buildings taking an interest in restoring them to a portion of their original glory. The Wurlitzer mansion at 373 Goundry Street, the Richardson home at 202 Niagara Street, the Kent Place at 208 Goundry Street, are but a few of the venerable old homes that present owners are working to restore.”

“This wonderful home at 345 Goundry Street (at Falconer) was built in 1906 and was designed by North Tonawanda architect Henry G. Mess,” noted Donna Zellner Neal, Acting Director of the Museum. “The original architectural drawings are still in the house. The original owner of 345 Goundry, John Mahar, is said to have made his money in coal. There are two coal bins in the basement and shown in the blueprints. His son, Raymond Mahar, went into the insurance business in Tonawanda. Three owners after the Mahars were all doctors with their examining rooms in the basement. One was Dr. Robert P. Reagan, whose first wife was Theodora Fassett. The most recent was Dr. Carlson. The present and 5 th owner restored the house but never moved in or occupied it. The home still has original leaded glass windows, a front walkway and front steps made of sandstone. Original fireplaces in the home were coal-burning rather than wood-burning fireplaces.”

“ Goundry Street flourished in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, when the Tonawandas were the lumber center of the world, an era of many very large and some small lumber companies. First shown on D. Jay Brown’s map of 1837 as Detroit Street, it was named for George Goundry, who, although he never actually lived here, was one of our City’s first settlers. He, with Col. John and James Sweeney, laid out and developed a large part of the Village of Niagara (which included the settlement on both sides at the mouth of Tonawanda Creek).”

“These gentlemen named it Niagara. In 1824, they made up a handbill advertising: “ Niagara” as “a village 12 miles from Buffalo, 8 miles from the Falls, and 16 miles from Lockport. A line of stages passes through from Buffalo to Lockport every other day. Building lots are now offered for sale to actual settlers. The title is indisputable and good warranty deeds will be executed to purchasers.””

“Prior to 1868, Goundry Street ended at Forest Street ( Payne Avenue). At a meeting of the Village Trustees on October 6, 1868, they passed a resolution that the Niagara County judge be presented an application to appoint commissioners to assess damages for a Goundry Street extension. Goundry Street was a brick road from Manhattan Street to Niagara Street, a dirt road the rest of the way east. Sidewalks were made of wooden planks.”

“George Goundry, although he never lived in North Tonawanda, was land agent for several individuals, who purchased sections of the “mile strip” in 1805. George and his wife, Margret, lived on a 200-acre farm in Geneva, New York.”

“The house was built in an era of large elaborate wooden houses with bay window, balconies, many Tiffany windows. Homes were usually cared for by two maids, with a hired man to care for the horses and cow. A common sight was a hired man leading a family cow down the middle of Goundry Street about 5 p.m.”

“We are pleased when realtors are interested in promoting the role these wonderful old homes played in North Tonawanda’s history along with their marketing efforts,” noted Neal.

The two realtors hosting the event are Michael Mroczka, a North Tonawanda resident and Charter member of the North Tonawanda History Museum, and T. J. Miller, of the Town of Tonawanda, of RealtyUSA’s Amherst South office at 4979 Harlem Road. For further information, call Michael Mroczka at 743-9004 or 866-6063 or T. J. Miller at 603-5454. You may also contact them by email at mmroczka@realtyusa.com.

The North Tonawanda History Museum may be reached at 692-2681 or email to nthistorymuseum@aol.com. The open house will also be listed on the Museum’s website at www.nthistorymuseum.org.

An additional related event that same weekend involving the North Tonawanda History Museum will be a garage sale on May 14, 15, and 16, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, the 14th and 15th, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 16 th, at 315 Schenck Street, corner of Bryant.

This property was once owned by William Vandervoort and is believed to have been built in 1873. In 1901 it was listed as the Tonawanda Brewing Company. In the early 1900’s, it was Bach’s Bar, owned by City Treasurer Leslie Stolzenfels’ great-grandparents. For many years following, it was known as McRae’s Tavern, owned by Gustave C. McRae, who was born in 1884 and died in 1941. Until about five years ago, it was C. J.’s Tavern.

The garage sale will enable the present owners to prepare for the transfer of ownership of the property to the North Tonawanda History Museum later this year.

NORTH TONAWANDA HISTORY MUSEUM

Attn: Donna Zellner Neal, Secretary & Acting Director
195 Goundry Street, North Tonawanda, NY 14120
716-692-2681
e-mail: nthistorymuseum@aol.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A MUSEUM WTIHOUT WALLS

MUSEUM ALREADY FUNCTIONING WITHOUT A BUILDING AROUND IT

The brand new North Tonawanda History Museum is preparing for an active year in 2004.

Although currently operating without being installed in a building as a permanent home, the Interest Group which formed officially on September 10, 2003, after tentatively discussing possibilities for a North Tonawanda History Museum since June 2003, has been functioning since mid-October 2003 with individual volunteers and committees working on various assignments, two full-time volunteer staff members and two part-time volunteer staff members.

“The North Tonawanda History Museum will be a community museum of the heritage of the people of North Tonawanda, not a part of City government,” noted Paul A. Rumbold, Jr., Founding President of the Board of Trustees in the spring of 2004. “It is to be a museum of,
for, and by the people of North Tonawanda. The North Tonawanda History Museum will provide leadership to the North Tonawanda community in the promotion of historic awareness and interpretation of the people’s history in the community.”

The Museum’s website established in October has been reaching numerous former North Tonawanda residents across the country as well as local individuals. It has also connected them with resources on the City’s history and means of telling the City’s history across the country.

“Many former residents took their memories and mementos of life in North Tonawanda with them when they moved away,” notes John Borycki, current President and Acting Curator. “Our website is getting a lot of hits from individuals who still call North Tonawanda home.” Borycki himself is a North Tonawanda native who now lives in Tonawanda. “Newer members of our charter membership currently live in Delaware, Colorado, Maine, Texas, California, and other parts of New York State, among others,” added Borycki.

“We have been receiving significant numbers of inquiries from individuals doing research involving our City’s industrial past,” said Donna Zellner Neal, Acting Director. “We were able to provide a New York City based PBS TV station with information for a program they are doing about products produced in North Tonawanda during World War II. We are working with several authors working on historical projects about items manufactured in North Tonawanda. We are burning up the internet lines passing inquiries around and gathering up the needed information. We are actively pursuing connections with individuals who worked in our former industries, hoping to gather their memories of our City’s industrial past.”

John Borycki noted, “Former North Tonawanda residents, such as me, still have a connection to the City and its past. We have been receiving photos and memories and promises of artifacts from former residents who moved away but took their history with them because there was no place to preserve it in North Tonawanda when they left. We have found that the key words are, “IN NORTH TONAWANDA. Past and present residents have made it clear to us that they want a museum about the City’s history which is located in the City.”

Donna Neal noted, “Our website and e-mail availability makes us accessible all the time, not just during business hours. The only thing we aren’t ready for yet is to put artifacts on display in a building of our own. But that will happen in the near future as well. We have appropriate space available for cataloguing of collections, and exhibit creation and storage, in two locations, one courtesy of Buffalo Suzuki Strings which has been partnering with us from the beginning vision for a North Tonawanda History Museum, and the other courtesy of the North Tonawanda School District.

“Our philosophy as a Museum will emphasize collaboration with other organizations and mutual promotion of the historical and cultural tourism aspect of our entire Western New York region,” notes Neal. “We hope that visitors from elsewhere to our website will realize there is a lot to do in our area and it is worth taking a trip here, which hopefully will include our new Museum when we are open.”

Theresa, a former North Tonawanda resident who created the website will maintain it from her home in southern California. Terry has created an “Ask Mr. History” section in the website so that individuals may submit questions on North Tonawanda history. A. Daniel Bille, North Tonawanda City Historian, and Museum staff respond to those questions. The site also includes a photo section with memories of places shown. “This is proving popular and will be expanded as we go along,” said Terry.

Individuals who contact the Museum through the website or via its e-mail address will find they become connected to a network of members. It is fascinating to follow the interactions and the friendships developing among former residents and local residents.

The North Tonawanda History Museum grew from a handful of interested community activists and community leaders to hundreds rapidly. The Board of Regents of the State University of New York approved a Provisional Charter for the new Museum on April 20, 2004.

For further information, call 716-692-2681or email to nthistorymuseum@aol.com.