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Long Homestead
East Niagara Street
City of Tonawanda
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In 1886, land in the village of Tonawanda was sold to the New York Central Railroad, who built a station on the site. Today, the charming brick building is home to the museum of the Historical Society of the Tonawandas, housing exhibits demonstrating the unique history of the Cities of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, New York.

Outside, at each gable, a piper and his melody capture the attention of a squirrel. The home to the Historical Society of the Tonawandas is situated on its own triangle of land together with a 1925 monument "IN MEMORY OF SOLDIERS, SAILORS & MARINES OF THE CIVIL WAR OF 1861 TO 1865" and a commemorative garden area with stone markers dedicated to World War I veterans.

about the
LONG HOMESTEAD

In the spring of 1829, Benjamin and Mary Hershey Long built their home in the village of Tonawanda on a point of land between Ellicott Creek and the Erie Canal. From Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, they and their five daughters (ranging in age from six months to sixteen years) had arrived here the previous December. Back then, the tiny settlement, encompassing an area immediately north and south of the canal, was comprised (according to daughter Christiana's remarks in later life) of only thirteen buildings.

Constructed of white oak and black walnut timbers with a foundation of Medina red sandstone, the clapboarded homestead is today decorated with antique furnishings and cared for by the Historical Society of the Tonawandas.

You're invited to stop by. Become acquainted with a building which stood in the midst of things as the Tonawandas grew from a sleepy settlement to a booming lumber-distribution and manufacturing center of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.