Promoting the area’s ties to the Underground Railroad is no longer just a grassroots effort.

A dozen residents with various backgrounds and education have been appointed to New York state’s first Underground Railroad Heritage Commission. Members will work with sub-committees and be charged with implementing a master strategy to promote cultural heritage and oversee projects. To aid efforts, the commission is slated to receive $350,000 in casino funds annually until 2010.

“This is like the perfect storm, we’ve been waiting a long time for this to happen,” said Kevin Cottrell, who has led local Underground Railroad tours for years and will help coordinate the commission’s efforts. “It gives us an identity, it gives us legs and it gives us dollars. We have no excuses not to do it now ... because the funding is in place.”

According to historians, abolitionist Harriet Tubman guided about 300 slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad in the mid-1800s from Maryland to Canada, making the last stretch over the former Suspension Bridge, now the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge in the city. Grassroots efforts to promote those ties have grown over the years and evolved into tours, re-enactments and an annual Freedom Trail Festival.

Last year, the city and Niagara Falls State Park signed an agreement to appoint Cottrell to serve as project coordinator of the North Star initiative, created to establish a heritage tourism district along North Main Street and near the Whirlpool Bridge.

So far, North Star has proposed three major projects, including transforming the first floor of the old U.S. Custom’s House on Whirlpool Street into an Underground Railroad interpretive center, which will complement the planned International Train Station. Cottrell has also proposed creating a park named after Tubman at Ontario Avenue and Main Street and is trying to partner with the U.S. Bridge Commission to allow pedestrian access halfway up the Whirlpool Bridge so people can relive Tubman’s historic walk.

North Star’s work will now be folded into the new heritage commission. Twelve members of the committee have been named by Gov. David Paterson, Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster and various other local and state officials. Members are Bill Bradberry, Zach Casale, Niagara Falls Senior Planner Tom DeSantis, Denise Easterling, Eva Nicklas, Ken Wagner, Tricia Mezhir, Carol Murphy, Anthony Restaino Sr., Seneca Vaught, Councilman Charles Walker and Lillian Williams.

The commission’s initial duties will be to create a management plan that will connect to various sites throughout Niagara County. Members will also gather community input on potential projects and how they can be realized.

“The goal has always been to lure tourists out of the state park when they’re done there and into the city’s core,” Cottrell said. “The commission is charged with trying to lure them in.”

Next Wednesday, Cottrell will host officials from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and give them a tour of the old Custom’s House and other sites of interest.

Dyster hand-picked DeSantis and Walker based on their prior commitment to Underground Railroad and cultural heritage initiatives and attempts to rebuild North Main Street.

“Tom and Charles are well aware that the history of the Underground Railroad in Niagara Falls has been, for far too long, an unpolished gem and, unfortunately, an ignored piece of our local history,” Dyster said. “With the formation of the (commission) we are going to put this nearly lost part of our history on full display for the world to study, to appreciate and to enjoy.”

Walker, who helped establish North Star with Cottrell, said many people have been skeptical that cultural heritage could become a thriving industry for the city. He believes the formation of the commission helps disprove that theory and shows expectations are high.

“We can rebuild Main Street behind the Harriet Tubman icon,” Walker said.



Commission members

• Bill Bradberry

• Zach Casale

• Tom DeSantis

• Denise Easterling

• Eva Nicklas*

• Tricia Mezhir

• Carol Murphy*

• Anthony Restaino Sr.

• Seneca Vaught

• Ken Wagner

• Charles Walker

• Lillian Williams*

* - pending appointment