There It's Not! A String of Absences.

A little after 3:00 on Friday the 8th, I made the one-mile journey from the Resource Center to the Buffalo History Museum because I wanted to see something I knew wasn't there. Certainly I wanted to learn a little more about Buffalo's history, but I especially wanted to see the spot Mr. Meyer had described: the area designated as the new home of the Wiedrich Battery artifacts. He said I'd find a white sheet covering the area where the exhibit would be. Yet another ghost.

The museum itself is an impressive structure. Built in 1901 as the New York State pavilion as part of the Pan-American Exhibition (World's Fair), the architect fashioned at least part of it after the Parthenon.

I was pleasantly surprised to find exhibits representing all periods of Erie County's history within these walls and I was especially impressed with the quality of presentation. Here's an example...

I made my way up to the third floor, and there it wasn't! I could hear construction behind the large partition running the entire length of one side of the building. I paid no attention to the people behind the curtain, walked across the building to the wall opposite the project, and snapped this selfie.

"Continuum: a History of Erie County" promises to be a sizeable exhibit. Judging from the amount of work I saw being poured into it both at the Resource Center and at the museum, I imagine it will be there for quite some time. You can see that the "sheet covering the exhibit" behind me is quite massive!

After leaving the museum, I was off to see where the Wiedrichs had lived. I'd been warned by others that the home no longer stands, but that didn't much matter to me. I soon found myself in an area adjacent to the administration building for Buffalo Public Schools, a place Google Maps identified as 363 Clinton Street. This was the address of record for the Wiedrich home, and I was parking on their front lawn. Or side lawn. Or maybe even their outhouse. It was now paved, and served as a parking lot for a neighborhood baseball diamond.

Then and there I thought, "If my house is destined to be removed one day, I hope it is replaced with a baseball diamond." The sounds of the ball cracking against the bat, cheering parents, a shouting coach. Yeah. If you build it, I will come.

Seven-tenths of a mile away and ten minutes later I was standing in the shadow of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, facing away from it, northward. Why was I staring at the Hilton Garden Inn? Again, I was beholding what wasn't there. As inspiring as the monument itself was, I was fascinated to think that the artilleryman standing at the base of the monument was facing, by design, toward what was formerly the Buffalo German Insurance Company Building at 10 Lafayette Square in the heart of downtown. Michael Wiedrich occupied an office here that looked down upon the monument, and this was no coincidence. For the final decade and a half of Wiedrich's life, he could look upon this monument which honored him and other servicemen from Erie County who had fought to defend the nation. He played a part in seeing to its construction, hence the fitting placement of the artilleryman within its confines.

Note to self: on my next trip to Buffalo, book a room facing south at the Hilton...no higher than the fifth floor. After a bit of research I located a photo of the building that once stood at this address from 1876 to the late-1950s.

Thanks to Diane Pesch-Savatteri, who encouraged me to be sure to take in this monument and its surroundings, I had enjoyed these fascinating moments in the same square block where Michael Wiedrich spent what was probably a vast majority of his waking hours. What a treasure.

With an empty stomach and finally some time to kill, I stopped by the nearest food joint I could find (TGI Fridays) and munched on a burger while exploring maps on my phone. Hmmmm, I wonder if I could make it to Niagara Falls before sundown, and I wonder if they charge admission to view it? 

I couldn't and they didn't.

This was a completely unplanned side trip, just over half an hour away. It occurred to me as I drove into the sunset that my mother, her mom and so on...even some, if not most of the men in Wiedrich's Battery...had made this trek to see this amazing wonder of the natural world. After almost accidentally leaving the United States, I located parking, walked down a concrete path, and WOW!

Unfortunately, all the barrels were taken, so I ended up taking it all in from the shore. Next up: Life in a cemetery...or two.