Slow canal pace dooms bicycle museum
A link to Buffalo’s industrial golden age seems about to snap.
The Pedaling History Bicycle Museum in Orchard Park is preparing to sell off its 400-bicycle collection and shut down, after failing to land a spot in the Erie Canal Harbor area, its owner said.
After running the museum for 17 years, Carl F. Burgwardt, 77, said he is ready to retire — and disappointed that a museum district in Buffalo’s Erie Canal Harbor hasn’t taken shape.
“We gave up,” he said. Discussions about being part of a cluster of museums at the downtown site have been fruitless.
The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. is interested in developing a museum district, a spokesman said, but plans haven’t progressed to choosing individual museums.
“We’re still working on finalizing the Canal Side master plan and are not yet at the point of determining who those specific museum tenants might be,” Matt Davison, communications director of the development corporation, said in an e-mail response to questions. So far, informal talks have been held with the bicycle museum and others.
A mixed-use development that would house a museum area and retail outlets, anchored by Bass Pro, is Phase Three of the development plan.
Burgwardt claims harbor planners are leaning away from a strong historic district and toward a “concrete strip mall” that would have little attraction for out-of-area visitors. “They should get this thing done, so they have a destination for tourists,” he said.
The sale of the bicycle museum’s $4 million collection to an overseas businessman could be final as soon as Thursday, Burgwardt said. The private, independent museum would close in January, after the collection is shipped.
A confidentiality agreement with the buyer prevents him from discussing the destination, he said, adding that it would be somewhere abroad.
The museum at 3943 N. Buffalo Road, which Burgwardt owns with his wife, Clarice, attracts about 8,000 visitors a year, he said. The collection ranges from a wooden two-wheeler made in 1817 to high-wheel “ordinary” bicycles of the 1890s and iconic Schwinn designs.
With the collection will go a piece of Buffalo’s history as a bicycle manufacturer, which laid foundations for the auto industry. One-fifth of the museum’s bicycles were produced at regional plants.
“We were big in bicycles,” Burgwardt said. Buffalo was home to multiple bike manufacturers during the 1890s, including the forerunner of the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Co.
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