Visitors to Buffalo’s History Museum and Delaware Park will notice some upgrades to the Museum’s long since sealed portico entrance.
The area, which was originally completed back in 1901 for the Pan-American Exposition, was closed over twenty years ago due to water leakage issues. But by August of 2019, officials expect the entrance that connects Delaware Park and the museum to re-open.
“If you ever come down for Cherry Blossom Festival it’s beautiful, but once you’re down here for Cherry Blossom Festival often the activities are inside, and you have to walk all the way around to get there,” Assemblyman Sean Ryan said. “So as part of this effort, we’re also reclaiming 6,000 square feet of exhibit space.”
Ryan secured $900,000 in state money to help restore the park-side entrance and the exhibit area inside.
The museum will not only be able to use the restored entrance to attract park goers to the museum, but will also be able to utilize the space inside for public programs, school groups, and private events.
Ryan hopes this is just the beginning in a long-term plan to reconnect Buffalo’s arts and cultural destinations.
“It’s not a museum for this neighborhood in Buffalo, it’s not a museum for the West Side of Buffalo. It’s a museum for this entire city and for the entire Western New York,” he said. “And that’s going to be who benefits from this great capital project that’s going to be underway here.”
This restoration effort is part of the museum’s larger “Restore, Reactivate, Reconnect” project.
“You know we’re looking very far into the future, we’re looking at this back door also being a linkage to the Albright Knox art museum,” Ryan said. “We know there’s going to be changes coming with the 198, and with those changes we hope that these two prominent museums will be readily accessible by foot traffic so you can easily walk from one museum to the next.”
