Erie Canal - Table of Contents ............ Buffalo Waterfront - Table of Contents
The Shock of the Old
Buffalo's Struggle With Heritage Tourism
By Elizabeth Licata
Reprinted with permission from "Buffalo
Spree" magazine, Nov/Dec 2000
Tourists are tourists because they want to compensate for
their secular, disenchanted, mundane lives through a temporary exposure to the other
- to the adventurous, foreign, ancient, or spectacular. - Ernest Sternberg, "The Iconography of the Tourism
Experience" (1997)
If Sternberg's statement -- drawn from twenty-five years of tourism scholarship
-- has any validity, Western New York is in good shape. At least three of the elements
he mentions exist to some degree in our region, most notably the spectacular. And
not only do we fulfill Sternberg's high-flown archetypes, we also have plenty of
what, according to pragmatic statistics, over ninety-two million U.S. travelers want
to see: historic sites, museums, art galleries, and live theater. In a word, culture.
Historic sites, in particular, are the most popular destination among thirty-one
percent of travelers surveyed, according to a recent Travel Industry Association
study.
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Now, great architecture is recognized
as one of the most vital elements that sets Buffalo apart from other cities its size.
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So why does the idea of Western New York as a tourism site seem so unattainable to
so many people? It could be that, with the unfulfilled potential of Niagara Falls,
U.S. before us, we've concluded that if we are unable to capitalize on a World Wonder,
we can forget about all of the lesser, though still remarkable, treasures lying around
in our backyard. To many, Buffalo is little more than the depressed leftovers of
late twentieth century industrial decline, its nineteenth century heyday—much of
which is still visible in the form of a remarkable architectural infrastructure --
long forgotten and irretrievable.
That attitude is changing somewhat. We've come a long way from former mayor Jimmy
Griffin's incredulity that anyone would be impressed by the Sullivan Guarantee Building,
and even further from a previous administration's neglect and destruction of Frank
Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building. Now, great architecture is recognized
as one of the most vital elements that sets Buffalo apart from other cities its size.
Finally, Wright's Darwin Martin House is getting the official attention it deserves- along
with the funding it need - to attain national destination status
But once again, Buffalo preservationists are finding out that, regardless of supposedly
enlightened attitudes, protecting what is unique to Buffalo will ways be a battle.
Your junk, my treasure
Right now, it doesn't look like much. An excavation at the foot of Main Street has
partially unearthed the stone walls that used to line the Buffalo terminus of Erie
Canal. I grew up near the banks the Erie Canal, in Lockport, and I must admit that,
in comparison to Lockport's two sets of locks -- one historic, one functional—and
the beautiful tree lined banks of Lockport's Widewaters, what Buffalo has doesn't
look too impressive. At least not at first.
It's when you realize the history, the significance of Buffalo as the gateway of
all commerce to the West, that Buffalo's slice of the Erie Canal begins to seem very
important indeed. The Erie Canal was actually much more than a shallow waterway between
Albany and Buffalo. It linked the New York Harbor with the Gulf of Mexico, with the
help of a few lakes, rivers, and other canals in between.
We all learn these geographical
facts, more or less, as elementary students, but, as anyone who has visited Concord
knows, when you're actually there, your imagination supplies all the awe, the excitement
missing from the dry printed page.
That's the beauty of an historic site, and the
reason that thirty-one percent of ninety-two million American travelers would prefer
to visit historic sites. Leaving the safety of our station wagons and minivans, we're
able to stand in the middle of a nondescript field and know, even feel, the Civil
War battles that took place there. The confirmed documentation that it's the real
deal is enough to make that kind of catharsis possible. As Sternberg explains, tourists
are on a pilgrimage to authenticity
Staging and arranging
In the case of Buffalo's Erie Canal terminus, there has been a great deal of argument
about how "real" the site can become. A recent conference entitled "A
Canal Conversation" brought in speakers who discussed similar historic projects
in other regions and how economically and -- to a lesser degree -- aesthetically
viable they had been. Although the ideas, points, and counterpoints these consultants
from other cities brought up were interesting and worthwhile -- particularly the
saga of how Boston had saved itself from complete generic obliteration -- in the
end, Buffalo has to deal with its own historic realities. We have to decide if we
want to look at the Erie Canal through
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About ten years ago,
a private entrepreneur in Lockport finally had the gumption to start up Lockport
Locks and Canal Cruises, and now other companies have followed suit. Buffalo has
the potential to pursue equally exciting projects.
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Plexiglas or address it on its own terms, as a waterway with plenty of life left
in it - a twenty-first century existence, focusing on recreation and re-creation
(of the past), rather than on day-to-day commerce.
Using Niagara Falls as an example, it does seem as though the experience of a waterway
- a moving force - should not be itself static. As a lifelong resident of the Niagara
region, I can state from experience that the most exciting experience of Niagara
Falls I ever had was from a boat, moving through the mist. Likewise, there's only
so much enjoyment you can get from the Erie Canal by looking at it. Visitors arriving
at the Buffalo terminus as rowdy nineteenth century sailors and speculators once
did - via water - are much more likely to get the catharsis of "authentic"
tourism than visitors lining up to look at a few uncovered rocks.
The fact that the Erie Canal has languished, relatively unexploited by recreation
and tourism, as long as it has, is one of the great mysteries of Western New York
- right up there with our inability to make Niagara Falls work. For years, upscale
travelers have been shelling out for European riverboat Cruises (up and down rivers
not any more scenic than the Canal), while in New York State, we've been idly watching
parts of the Canal fall into complete disrepair. About ten years ago, a private entrepreneur
in Lockport finally had the gumption to start up Lockport Locks and Canal Cruises,
and now other companies have followed suit. Buffalo has the potential to pursue equally
exciting projects.
But it has to mean something. They won't necessarily come if you build it -- but
they might if it's real.
About the author: Elizabeth Licata is
Editor of Buffalo Spree
Page by Chuck LaChiusa
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