Following a year of concerts, educational displays, community events, special programs, and more cross-county fun and learning the EC200 bicentennial committee has brought down the curtain on Erie County’s bicentennial celebration with a review of the year’s activities and the announcement of a slate of upcoming heritage projects that will continue the bicentennial legacy. Planning for EC200 began in June of 2018 and eventually included more than 200 participating organizations, with committee planning work focused on Education, Programming, Marketing, Media/Social Media, and Diversity and Inclusion. Over 100 events were hosted in person or virtually by EC200 partners throughout the year, many sponsored with funding from Erie County and calendared by Visit Buffalo Niagara.

“The EC200 bicentennial celebration provided a year of learning, entertainment, and newfound appreciation both for our rich history and for the strong mosaic of our community today. Working with many partners to make this year a success not only made for lighter work, it brought forward rich perspectives, thoughtful input, and creative talents that truly spotlighted the diversity, energy, and resilience of Erie County and its residents,” said Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz. “We are building today for future generations of county residents who may not ever know who we were but will understand that we cared enough about this county to leave it a stronger, better, more inclusive place for them. I deeply thank our partners in the EC200 endeavor for their commitment to making this a true countywide bicentennial celebration that examined the past, celebrated the present, and looked to the future.”

Over 40 billboard designs and a dozen radio spots ran during the bicentennial year that featured local organizations, quick historical facts, or featured an Erie County department. In addition, EC200 events distributed over 5,000 Erie County Heritage Passports through local historic sites and the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library branches as well as merchandise made locally from Oxford Pennant, Parkside Candy, The Kazoo Boutique and Museum, and more.

Melissa Brown, EC200 Co-chair and Executive Director of the Buffalo History Museum, said, “Dozens of EC200 heritage-based partners led projects that showcased our history through the generations- for all its complexity and nuance. Continuum: A History of Erie County is The Buffalo History Museum’s legacy contribution to the bicentennial. The signature exhibit was realized through a generous Erie County capital investment. We hope the community takes advantage of pay-as-you-wish admission and comes by to explore this and more at the Museum.”

“Despite the challenges of commemorating a bicentennial in the middle of a pandemic, the effort has been a great success.  We have had the opportunity to share the untold stories and unheard voices that make Erie County's history so rich and diverse.  From digital billboards to in-person events to museum exhibits, we have worked hard to make sure that every story and every constituency has been represented in the commemoration of our bicentennial.  Commemorating our diversity and amplifying those stories is one of the significant legacies of EC200,” added Erie County Historian Douglas Kohler.

Completed legacy projects sponsored by EC200 include:

• $5,000 to CEPA Gallery to help cover cost of intern assisting with exhibition, permanent digital archiving, and publication for Unearthing Erie County, Faces & Places of the CEPA Archives;

• $10,000 to the Buffalo Green Fund to help cover costs of planting 200 trees, 50 of which are in Erie County Parks;

• $5,000 to WNY Heritage Magazine to help with costs associated with the Erie County 1821-2021: A Bicentennial Profile, which profiles Erie County individual cities and towns;

• $1,800 to the Tonawanda-Kenmore Historical Society for a new display case as they reopen their collection to their immediate community; and

• $2,000 to the Buffalo and Erie County Naval Park to film and document their 20^th Anniversary of September 11^th event.

Additionally, a number of EC200 Legacy projects will be completed after April 2022, including:

• The EC200 Historic Markers Committee will begin meeting in May to begin the process of installing new markers and plaques throughout Erie County. Markers so far are planned for: the Schenk House at Grover Cleveland golf course (future site of Erie County Parks Museum); the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens; the East Presbyterian Church led by Uncrowned Community Builders; a plaque for the Buffalo Green Fund at the Grover Golf Course Club House; and many others being planned to include topics such as local aviation history, LGBTQ+ history, and neighborhood level markers.

• Every April will be Local History and Culturals Month with the committee planning events for the community.

• The EC200 committee will be renamed (to a still-to-be-determined name) and will continue to meet quarterly to help with the future wide-ranging commemorations such as the Erie Canal bicentennial in 2025.

• EC200 social media channels will still be active to continue highlighting local organizations and events related to its committee partners.

Background:

On April 2, 1821 New York State officially recognized Erie County. After the American Revolution, the Holland Land Company purchased 3.2 million acres of land from the Seneca nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). In 1808, New York organized the western-most land as Niagara County. By 1821, the population had increased so much that Niagara County was split. Erie County, the land south of Tonawanda Creek, consisted of ten towns and the Buffalo Creek Reservation. Today, Erie County has twenty-five towns, three cities, two tribal territories and a population of approximately 920,000.

Erie County has ties to several U.S. Presidents. Millard Fillmore practiced law in East Aurora before serving as President. He returned to Erie County and helped establish the University of Buffalo, Buffalo General Hospital and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. Grover Cleveland practiced law in Buffalo before becoming Erie County Sheriff, Buffalo Mayor and Governor of New York. He married Buffalo’s Frances Folsom. In 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and, on September 14 of that year, Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in at the Wilcox Mansion as the nation’s twenty-sixth President.

Once heavily-forested frontier, the region changed as the Erie Canal brought prosperity and made the Niagara Frontier one of the largest shipping and rail centers in the country. Erie County is home to numerous inventors and inventions such as the Ball Jar, Barca Lounger and air conditioning all originated in Buffalo. Wilson Greatbatch developed the implantable pacemaker in Clarence, and Bell Aircraft was one of the nation’s largest suppliers of aircraft during WW II. Erie County boasts many major works by both local and national architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, H.H. Richardson, E.B. Green, William Wicks, and Louise Bethune. Famous writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain and Lauren Belfer have all called the area “home”. Erie County has also given the world Fisher-Price toys and the chicken wing.

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