Canastota Canal Town Museum

122 Canal Street
Canastota, NY 13032


Call or Leave a Message

Phone: (315) 697-5002 ~ Call or leave message


The museum offers two floors of Erie Canal history and brings to life local folklore and history. Located next to the "Old Erie Canal", the museum is filled with authentic memorabilia, art and other exhibits illustrating Canastota's contributions to the canal, commerce, industry and agriculture. Near the museum are two murals and a number of interpretative waysides along with two towers representing the lift bridge that was once on the canal. Open-May-October Group tours available by appointment year around.


Canastota and the Erie Canal

OUR HISTORY.....

MUSEUM HOURS


Special Holiday Hours 


Saturday November 30th from 11:00 am - 4:00 pm




Group Tours available by appointment

Contact The Museum

Leave a message at (315) 697-5002



Re-Opens May 2025 with regular hours

Open Wednesday - Saturday
Closed Sunday and Monday


Mid-May & June 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. 

July & August 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 

September & Mid-October 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. 

Closed November - April


ADMISSIONS


$5.00 - Public

Children 12 and under / Members - free


TWO FLOORS OF EXHIBITS

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE


Group Tours available by appointment

Contact The Museum

Leave a message at (315) 697-5002


Take a Walking Tour of our Museum Exhibits

Each Gallery has a link to a its own Gallery Map that can be printed so you can take it with you on your tour.
Or,
click here to print a copy of the entire Gallery Map from A through J.

GALLERY A

1.  Watercolor of Canastota circa 1900

 2.  A Village Born by 1850s

 3.  Original Land Survey of Area

 4.  The Lee Chair Company

 5.  Rueben Perkins—Founder

 6. Victorian Dresser and Desk

 7.  Frederick R. Spencer Paintings & Restoration
     Techniques

 8.  Charles Spencer—Birth of the American
     Microscope Industry

 9.  Hands-0n Microscope

GALLERY B

 1.  Nathan Roberts—Portrait and Home
     Clinton’s Ditch

 2.  Canal Boat Bilge Pump

 3.  Animated Working of Old Lock

 4.  Locks and Weighlocks

 5.  Late 19th Century Canal Maps

 6.  History of the Erie Canal video

 7.  Early Canal & Railroad Travel

 8.  Tribute to the Canastota Bee Journal

 9.  Canastota Lift Bridge

10.  Bridges and Aqueduct

11.  Idea of a Connecting Waterway


Gallery C

1. Development of a Canal Town

2. Halls of Learning & Places of Worship

3. Early Home & Kitchen Devices

4. Douglas Pectin Co.—Makers of “Certo”

5. Canastota Match Company

6. Tea Rusk Basket

7. Gramophone (Victrola) & Melodeon

8. Centennial and Bicentennial

9.  “Drummers” (Peddlers)

10. Old Telephone and Telegraph


GALLERY D

1.  Marvin Electric Drill Company 

2.  Canastota Motion Picture Industry

     Mutoscope & Biograph-Early Movie 

     Projectors

3.  Still 7-Minute Instant Camera

4.  Ideal Cut Glass

5.  Watson Bottom Dump Wagon 

6.  Rex-Watson Co. & Oneida Products

7.  Comedy Video of Belly Wagon 

     operation


Gallery D Annex

1.  History of Weed Tire Chains

2.  History of Old Erie Canal State Park



GALLERY E

.  Boxing & the Motion Picture

      Bruce Opera House

2.  Entertainment—Avon Theatre—Early 

     Movies

     Video “Modern Marvels Erie Canal”

3.  Burn Brothers--Cut Glass Cutters

4.  Additional Ideal Cut Glass

5.  Furniture Makers of Canastota

6.  Surveying

7.  Canal Engineering & Construction

8.  Salt and Gas Borings History

9.  Canastota’s Energy Making


GALLERY F

1.  Dolores Compton’s Artistic Views of 

     Old Canastota Canal Town

2.  “News From My Palette” by Therese 

     Gena

3.  The Third Rail—NY Electric Railway

4.  Phoebe Brady—Painting of a Poor 

     Lady

5.  Railway Mail Delivery

6.  Canastota’s Coal Trestle

7.  Celery Company & Braum Creamery 

     Equipment Company


GALLERY G

1.  Old Time Shops

2.  Hardware & Pharmacies

3.  Canastota’s Post Office

     WPA Murals

4.  Canastota’s Muckland & Video

5.  Cigar Box Art & Canastota Cutlery

6.  Sherwood Wagons, Sleds, etc.

7.  Railroads of Canastota

8.  Agricultural Machine Manufacturing


GALLERY H

 1.  1907 Erie Canal Break

 2.  Life on the Barge-Canal System Map Today—
     Tug Boat Model Rebres Model Tug and Tug
     Boat 

      Urger—Today’s Erie Canal

 3.  Dry Docking

 4.  Tuttle and Lindley Boat Building

 5.  C. N. Cady Motor Making

 6.  Scale Model of Captain’s Quarters on a Barge—Model of 240 Ton Laker

 7.  Wintering & Ice Harvesting on the Canal

 8.  Life Aboard the Boats

 9.  Mules, Horses, & Rules of the Road


GALLERY I

 1.  Frank Channing Soule Collection

 2.  Utensils Aboard a Family Barge

 3.  Politics of the Canal

 4.  1898 Canal Improvement

 5.  Magic Lantern & Stereoscope

 6.  Pottery Along the Canal

 7.  Erie Canal Commemorative Plates

 8.  Malt and Beer Industry Erie Canal Brewing
     Company

 9.  Quilting

10.  Canal Recreation

11.  Kitchen Ware Aboard a Canal Boat


GALLERY J

1.  Amelia Earhart & Canastota Airport

2.  George Wyman—First Motorized  Vehicle
    Across the U.S.

3.  The Great Race of 1908

4.  World War II Homefront

5.  Bud Gleason’s “Lucky 13” Video

6.  Queensboro Dairy and Milk Industry

7.  Canastota Glass Company

     (Window & Bottle Glass)

     (Glass Canes; “End of Day Cane”)

8.  Renditions of Mural Art of Canastota by Corky
    Goss


Share by: