Visitors to the Museum in the heart of Niagara Falls will experience history during their visit. While here try on a replica uniform from the War of 1812 and feel the wool and the weight of a musket, build a bridge to span the Niagara Gorge or walk the tightrope like the daredevils from the past.
The Museum is housed within the old Stamford Town Hall built in 1874. The Lundy’s Lane Historical Society was given the building in 1971, becoming the Lundy’s Lane Historical Museum. On January 1st, 2010, the City of Niagara Falls took direct operation of the museum and it became Niagara Falls History Museum. Housing a vast collection of Niagara Falls history, the Museum provides a showcase for the unique past of the famous city. The Museum’s recent $12M renovation and expansion creates a dynamic spaceto examine and explore our diverse history. It re-opened to the public on July 21, 2012. The renovation and expansion was designed by Toronto architecture firm Moriyama and Teshima, and now features three remarkable galleries telling the most compelling Niagara Falls stories with engaging hands-on exhibitions. The Museum is located within steps of the Drummond Hill Cemetery, the focal point of the Battle of Lundy’s Lane, considered the “bloodiest battle” of the War of 1812. The starting point for any trip to this battlefield will be a visit to the Museum.
This gallery interprets the War of 1812 with a primary focus on the Battle of Lundy’s Lane and houses one of Canada’s best 1812 collections. This space is designed with audio-visual ambiance of war and hands-on activities such trying on a military coatee, handling a musket and feeling the weight of a cannon ball. The collection includes uniforms, weaponry, equipment, relics, buttons and archival records relating specifically to the Battle of Lundy’s Lane and to the War of 1812.
The community gallery provides visitors with the opportunity to learn more about various aspects of Niagara Falls as a community. The people, the culture, geology, social life, industry and dare devils who attempted to conquer the falls are among the highlighted topics in this gallery. We have a geology interactive which at the touch of buttons illuminates rocks extracted from different parts of the falls. A bridge building interactive allows visitors the opportunity to build bridges across the falls. And for the brave at heart, we have a “˜tight-rope walk’ going across the falls.
Our temporary gallery houses travelling exhibitions from other museums on a short-term basis, providing us with the opportunity of hosting 3 to 4 different exhibits every year. Our visitors are exposed to exhibits which otherwise may not have been easily accessible, and our regular or repeat visitors have something new to see on each visit. Past exhibitions in this gallery include: “Electricity” from the Ben Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, USA; “Art-of-Fact” from the Niagara Artists Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario; the award winning “Motels: Honeymoon Suite or By-the-Week, Motel Culture in Niagara”; “Fakes and Forgeries” from the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario and “Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Times: Italian Canadian Experiences During World War II” from Columbus Centre, Toronto, Ontario.
Check out our current exhibitions.
When our theatre is not booked for school groups, rentals or other functions, visitors can sit down and explore a wide variety of films that we curate based on themes in our galleries or on the history of Niagara Falls.
Hours:
Monday Closed
Tuesday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Thursday 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Friday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
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