Save the Forsyth Tavern

This community was able to achieve the impossible once: The creation of a museum, founded by members of the community, using no public assistance in just seven years!

The Forsyth-Warren Tavern Living History Farm and Museum is a non-profit organization created to oversee the restoration and preservation of the historic Forsyth-Warren Tavern. The Tavern predates the Town of Cambria and is a rare example of Dutch American architecture, one of very few buildings to survive from the earliest period of European-American settlement on the Niagara Frontier and the War of 1812 in which the site was used as a depot by American forces.

The site was purchased by the Booth family in 2017, after two years of efforts. By 2019, they had received three zoning variances to allow the operation of a house museum on the property. By 2020, they had successfully petitioned to have the property listed on the National Register of Historic Places and petitioned for an educational charter from the Board of Regents of the State of New York.

In 2021, the Town of Cambria, led by the Town Supervisor, Wright Ellis of Cambria, and the Town Building Inspector, James McCann of Lockport, unlawfully shut the project down.

James McCann issued a series of unsubstantiated accusations against the museum and the property owners in September of 2021 to issue a cease and desist against the museum. James McCann withdrew these accusations before the accusations could be heard in a court of law, and in doing so deprived the Museum of its right to defend itself.

James McCann also took his withdrawn accusations to the Town of Cambria Zoning Board of Appeals headed by local winery owner Peter Smith and demanded that they revoke the property's zoning variances. The Town of Cambria did revoke the property's zoning variances in a secret meeting, once again depriving the museum of any right to defend itself and violating the long-standing notion of innocence until proven guilty.

Despite all accusations against the Museum and the property's owners being withdrawn, the Town of Cambria has refused to reinstate the zoning variances that allowed the museum to exist and have prohibited the property owners from being allowed to apply for any further permits to repair or restore the property.

The Forsyth-Warren Tavern Living History Farm and Museum was previously funded with no government assistance or tax credits. For the last seven years, this project was funded through private donations and income from the Forsyth-Warren Farm; but the unanticipated attacks by the local government have cost the property owners over one hundred thousand dollars and have forced the property to once again be abandoned and at imminent risk of being lost forever.

We are hopeful of saving this worthy historic site again, but we need the public's help to do so!

The Forsyth-Warren Tavern Living History Farm and Museum needs help raising funds to continue fighting for justice in the Supreme Court against the moral and constitutional violations committed by the bad actors in the Town of Cambria government.

The museum also needs help raising money to reopen the museum once it gets back its rights to reopen.

If successful, we will be giving new life to a beautiful historic building. We will be giving the gift of history, culture, and education to future generations. We will be preserving a link to the past, while improving our Town's future.