Ischua Valley Hist Soc Museum Rehab

Ischua Valley Historical Society is in Franklinville, New York.  We are on the Southern Tier approximately 50 miles south of Buffalo.  Our organization is non-profit, and we are dedicated to the collection and preservation of the history, artifacts and documents from our region.  All our work is accomplished by volunteers.

We maintain three museum sites.  We have a Victorian Queen Anne mansion furnished in period style, the 1812 Howe-Prescott Pioneer House once a part of the Underground Railroad and an 1881 brick building on the Park Square.

Three Park Square was donated to us in 2013.  We realized that we needed more space for our growing collections.  We needed storage for over 3,000 glass plate negatives that were entrusted to our care.  Ontario Knife Company, one of the oldest knife companies in the United States, also gave us over 100 years of ledgers.  We maintain a huge collection of 19th and 20th century clothing. 

The building on 3 Park Square, once an early billiard hall and later a candy store and ice cream parlor, would solve our storage problems.  The spacious second floor will be used for our collections and will also be a great work area. 

Several donations have made it possible to begin phase I, working on the second floor.   Extensive repairs need to be done, including replacing the floor and windows.  Dry wall must be installed, and we plan to purchase commercial dehumidifiers to protect the glass plate negatives, Ontario Knife Company ledgers, clothing and old newspapers and books. When the construction work on the second floor is completed, all our collections can safely be moved there and properly indexed. 

When the first phase is completed, we hope to develop the first floor into a research and genealogical center. We estimate that the entire cost of the project will be $50,000.  The Society has been busy trying to raise the funds and now we are appealing for help in completing this endeavor.

What IVHS Does for the Community

·        Monthly meetings on historical topics are open to the public and       free of charge

·        Yearly field trips to historical places with transportation provided, handicap friendly, open to the public – IVHS does not profit

·        Annual Flag Day honoring veterans of all the wars and community picnic

·        Annual July picnic

·        Annual April Dinner

·        Victorian Christmas

·        April Maple Festival and parade participation

·        Annual Harvest Dinner

·        Halloween activities – distributing candy

·        Free tours of Miner’s Cabin and Howe-Prescott Pioneer House

·        Monthly historical window displays at 3 Park Square

·        Assistance with genealogical requests

·        Newspaper articles

·        Working with the students

·        Historical research and preservation of artifacts

·        Maintaining vast collection of 19th century tools

·        Making Miner’s Cabin available for various events weddings-showers at reasonable rate


Your donation, large or small, will help us reach our goal.