You never know what you might find when you drive to new areas - even those relatively close to home.
The other day I paid the first visit of my life to Lee Street in Buffalo. I was headed to Rich Products' Powerhouse events center for a memorabilia show. The parking lot was filled, so I had to grab a parking spot a little down the road.
I spotted a sign for a museum by that parking lot, so I made a mental note to visit when I was done with the show ... which didn't take long, because it was basically for card-collectors. The Heritage RecoveRY Center was much more interesting.
The idea is to pay tribute to part of the city's industrial heritage, a worthwhile goal. The stars of the show come from the Western New York Railway Historical Society, and the Steel Plant Museum of Western New York. They have the biggest rooms in the facility. Other groups are represented in the building in one form or another as well. Call it a Museum of Museums, in part.
Buffalo used to be the second-biggest railroad city in the United States; I would guess only Chicago was busier. Steel also was big business back in the city's industrial prime. So there's all sorts of memorabilia and items dedicated to those two industries.
The museum is open three days a week, for a few hours at a time. Some special events, like a speaker series are also on the center's schedule. And no, I have not figured out why the RY in DiscoveRY is capitalized.
Organizers have been working on this project for more than a decade as of this writing. Progress, accompanied by funding no doubt, have been slow in coming. There is a master plan in effect for the area in an attempt to have a regional tourist attraction. Will it work? It's easy to wonder, but it's also easy to appreciate the effort that's going into the project. It's still in an industrial area; the property once belonged to the Buffalo Color Corporation, and there's not much of interest around it.
In the meantime, though, it's not a bad place to spend a half-hour for a quick course on local business history. The volunteer who was working during my visit was friendly and helpful. Be sure to drop a few dollars in the can as a donation if you do drop in.
Most of the available videos date back to the facility's opening:
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