Fort Erie Museum Services promoting its sites this month
May 16, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Jane Davies has been at the helm of the Fort Erie Historical Museum for 39 years, curating its exhibits and working on books about the town’s history among a number of other projects and responsibilities.
And as manager of museum services for the municipality, she meets a lot of people who come through the doors at the historical museum on Ridge Road.
New residents to town are common visitors, many very interested in the War of 1812.
“It’s nice people want to become familiar with where they moved to,” Davies said in an interview with Fort Erie Radio, noting it’s not uncommon for lifelong residents to learn new information about their town’s history.
“They end up leaving with some pride for the community,” she added.
Across Ontario, May is Museum Month, and once a week the Fort Erie Museum Services is posting information to social media about each of its five sites and what they have to offer.
The museum’s main facility in downtown Ridgeway, the Ridgeway Battlefield Heritage Park, and the local railway museum on Central Avenue are three of them included in the awareness campaign.
Credit: Visit Niagara Canada: Fort Erie MuseumsAlso being recognized is the Mewinzha exhibit at the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority (PBA) building, a display of Indigenous and archaeological pieces.
There is also a second exhibit in the PBA building called ‘The Bridge that Peace Built.’
About 15 years ago, the museum moved into the former Mentholatum building on Lewis Street, which still serves as a workspace for archiving and cataloguing. It is not open to the public.
“There are hundreds of thousands of pieces of information in the archives,” said Davies.
“It would be impossible to sit down and read them all,” she added, noting that even though she has been immersed in local history for nearly four decades, she still learns new things occasionally.
The Fort Erie Historical Museum is currently open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and seven days a week starting next month.
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About The Author
Kris Dubé
Kris is a veteran journalist who has worked in Niagara for close to 20 years. He is also a lifelong resident of Fort Erie, a place he plans to call home and raise his family for many more years.
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