The day is almost here. The return to Erie of the US Brig Niagara. The brig is certainly one of the city’s greatest contributions to the 250 year history to our nation and our state. The wooden ship has undergone many rebuilds and renovations over the years. There’s very little of the original Brig Niagara that remains on the ship that will be returning to Erie for the city’s America\/PA250 Celebration. I want to know what happened to that original wood. Where can I find it?<\/p>\n
If it would be anywhere, it would be at the Hagen History Center in Erie. I’m going in for a look. I sit down with Adam Macrino, the director of programming at the center. He tells me the hero ship for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry during the Battle of Lake Erie was deliberately sunk in Misery Bay after the War of 1812. It was hoped the scuttling would preserve the wood. The ship was brought back up in 1913 to celebrate the centennial year of the battle. Adam explains what the situation was after the brig was brought to shore and examined.<\/p>\n
“Some pieces are viable. Some pieces are not,\u201d says Adam. \u201cSo, what do you do with the pieces that are no longer seaworthy?”<\/p>\n
Some of the wood from the glorious Brig Niagara was used to make Erie souvenirs. Adam shows me some examples that are stored in the history center’s archives. He announces the first item.<\/p>\n
“An hourglass made from wood from the Niagara,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He then shows me a judge\u2019s gavel and a toy cannon. I examine a piece of the original planking with an engraved label attached to it explaining that the brig was built in 1812 and remodeled in 1913. Adam shows me another souvenir made from wood from the Brig Niagara. These items probably came in handy in someone’s dining room over 100 years ago.<\/p>\n
“Napkin ring holders,\u201d announced Adam with a smile.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t just wood from the Niagara that was used for souvenirs. Adam shows me a letter opener made from a large metal nail from the ship.<\/p>\n
“They pound it out. Flatten it out. Sharpen it,\u201d he says. The letter opener is engraved with the words, \u201cNIAGARA 1813-1913.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m shown a trinket box made not only from wood from the Niagara, but also from two other ships from the Battle of Lake Erie.<\/p>\n
“The Niagara, The Lawrence, and the British ship, The Detroit,” announces Adam.<\/p>\n
The archives have boxes and boxes of original wood from the Brig Niagara. Some of the wood shows the rotting condition of some of the ship when it was risen from Misery Bay. However, there is also a pristine timber frame that hangs in the history center’s Wood-Morrison House for all to see. The original Niagara lives on!<\/p>\n
The souvenirs made from the original wood from the Niagara will be placed on display at the Hagen History Center beginning August 14. They will be part of an exhibit to honor Oliver Hazard Perry. The exhibit will also include Perry’s sword and telescope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day is almost here. The return to Erie of the US Brig Niagara. The brig is certainly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[10916,94407,136,138,137,9662,15810,100234,79920,15811],"class_list":["post-231831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-battle-of-lake-erie","tag-brig-niagara","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-hagen-history-center","tag-john-last","tag-niagara-souvenirs","tag-oliver-hazard-perry","tag-the-last-word"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}