Seeking Unity to Bring Falls History Alive

NIAGARA FALLS — Several initiatives to promote the city’s Underground Railroad history and strengthen its opportunities for heritage tourism could converge under a new task force proposed by Mayor Paul A. Dyster.

“The clock is ticking. The other pieces of the puzzle are falling in place,” Dyster said. “We need to get the stakeholders around the table and start talking about what it is that we want to accomplish, figure out what it is that we can bring to the table.”

Last year, Kevin E. Cottrell and City Councilman Charles A. Walker proposed to create, near Main Street, a themed neighborhood focused on Underground Railroad heritage.

Their “North Star on North Main” concept, which has been supported by State Sen. Antoine M. Thompson, D-Buffalo, is to build a heritage tourism destination. The idea is based on evidence that Harriet Tubman used to bring slaves to freedom across a suspension bridge that once crossed the Niagara River near where the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge stands today.

City leaders have been negotiating since January with regional representatives from the state’s Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation over how the two entities would work together on the Underground Railroad initiative, but Dyster said talks have moved slower than he had hoped. The negotiations focused on designating Cottrell, a state parks grant writer, to the North Star project, but the request has not yet been granted. In the meantime, the mayor plans to bring together a group of community leaders who have been working on parallel paths to promote the city’s Underground Railroad heritage.

Dyster said he feels a “sense of urgency” to move the concepts forward because several components under the city’s control are ready to advance. The city is poised to begin design work on a new Amtrak train station in the former U.S. Customs House near the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge. Plans call for creating an Underground Railroad interpretive center in the renovated customs house.

Meanwhile, a group of University at Buffalo students also has been working on a semesterlong architectural design studio focused on ways to develop the North End neighborhood. It will hold an open house to display the students’ work from 1 to 3 p.m. April 27 in the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center, 1201 Pine Ave. At the state level, Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, D-Lewiston, last month introduced a bill to create an 11- member Niagara Falls Underground Railroad heritage commission that would develop a plan for a heritage corridor in the Falls. The bill is modeled after similar legislation passed last year that created the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor Commission in Buffalo.

New opportunities to promote the region’s Underground Railroad history may also be coming from the federal government, Dyster said. The U.S. Senate last week approved a bill that would create a national heritage area in Niagara Falls with up to $15 million in federal funding.

A study completed by the National Park Service in 2005 cited Niagara County’s Underground Railroad and border-crossing history as one of four potential themes for interpreting the proposed Niagara Falls National Heritage Area.

“What we’re trying to do is look at this from a regional aspect,” said Zach Casale, a Main Street representative who has been working with Cottrell and Walker to develop the North Star concept. “We can really market and brand this area as the premier corridor for Underground Railroad heritage.”