Buffalo Church-Organ Builders

Mention pipe organs to the average Buffalonian and you're liable to see their faces light up as they remember The Mighty Wurlitzer at Shea's buffalo. If they know nearly Tonawanda, they might think of the Riviera Theatre.

Wurlitzer, the Tonawanda-based manufacturer of the greatest of all theatre organs is rightly famous, but other good organ builders have worked in Western New York, building instruments for churches, the place where most folks first heard the sound of an organ.Church organs, of course, are very different in design and use from theatre organs. Theatre organ design reflects the ideas of an Englishman, Robert Hope-Jones, who used the technology of electricity to virtually reinvent organ building. he created a type of organ that he called a "unit orchestra." which later developed into the theatre organ...

To read more of David Snyder's story, see page 18 of the Winter 2007 Heritage Magazine. Suscribe now!

LaSalle's Shipbuilder of Le Griffon


The story of the building of the first sailing vessel on Lake Erie in 1679 is inseparable from the epic story of La Salle the explorer. That story is vast and riveting: vast in distances and in significance; riveting in its potential to capture and enthrall the imagination.La Salle was himself a complete embodiment of the baroque age. He had an expansive imagination and was driven by a constant sense of urgency. Undaunted by physical hardships or great distances, he moved always with the relentless drive of a Vivaldi concerto. Historian James Hosmer summarized the qualities that made La Salle a legend in his own time. "For all the qualities of rugged manhood, courage, persistency that could not be broken, contempt of pain and hardship, in the story of America he has never been surpassed, and seldom paralleled."

 

To view the rest of this story by John H. Conlin, see page 32 in the Winter 2007 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!

 

At the Point of the Bayonet! The British Capture of Fort Niagara

Reflecting on the outbreak of the War of 1812, Thomas Jefferson wrote to William Duane, "The acquisition of Canada this year...will be a mere matter of marching." There were three routes for an invasion into British Canada; the western Great Lakes, the Saint Lawrence Valley and the Niagara Frontier. The most sustained and bloodiest fighting took place along the thirty-six miles of the Niagara River. On the United States side of the river, Fort Niagara had long guarded a portage around Niagara Falls. When the British reluctantly relinquished Fort Niagara in 1796, they were forced to create a portage on the Upper Canada (Ontario) side of the river. This portage ran from the Queenston at the base of the Niagara Escarpment to Chippawa Creek above the Falls. Additionally, roads to the interior of Upper Canada began a the town of Newark. A quick foray across the river would deliver these resources into the hands of the United States. ..

To read more of C. Douglas Kohler and Douglas DeCroix's story, see page 48 of the Winter 2007 Heritage Magazine. Sus

 

 

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