Canastota Canal Town Museum
122 Canal Street
Canastota, NY 13032
The museum offers two floors of Erie Canal history and brings to life local folklore and history. Located next to the "Old Erie Canal", the museum is filled with authentic memorabilia, art and other exhibits illustrating Canastota's contributions to the canal, commerce, industry and agriculture. Near the museum are two murals and a number of interpretative waysides along with two towers representing the lift bridge that was once on the canal. Open-May-October Group tours available by appointment year around.
MUSEUM HOURS
Group Tours available by appointment
Leave a message at (315) 697-5002
Open Wednesday - Saturday
Closed Sunday, Monday, Tuesday
Hours
Mid-May & June 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
July & August 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
September & Mid-October 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Closed October 12 - April
ADMISSIONS
$5.00 - Public
Children 12 and under / Members - free
TWO FLOORS OF EXHIBITS
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
Group Tours available by appointment
Leave a message at (315) 697-5002
You Can Win This 250 USA Anniversary Bench Raffle
Sponsored by The Old Erie Canal and Canastota Museum. Estimated Value $400.00
Donation: 1 Book of 6 tickets $5.00 Drawing to be held during “The Italian Festival” on August 15th 2026
Tickets to be sold at the Museum, Kime Hardware-Canastota, Salon 105, Oneida or Board Members
Bench can be seen at the Community Bank on 104 So. Peterboro St. Canastota
Need Not be Present to Win
Order your copy of the 200th Anniversary Book of the Erie Canal. Please email the museum to make arrangements to purchase a copy of the book.
Take a Walking Tour of our Museum Exhibits
Each Gallery has a link to a its own Gallery Map that can be printed so you can take it with you on your tour.
Or,
click here to print a copy of the entire Gallery Map from A through J.
GALLERY A
1. Watercolor of Canastota circa 1900
2. A Village Born by 1850s
3. Original Land Survey of Area
4. The Lee Chair Company
5. Rueben Perkins—Founder
6. Victorian Dresser and Desk
7. Frederick R. Spencer Paintings & Restoration
Techniques
8. Charles Spencer—Birth of the American
Microscope Industry
9. Hands-0n Microscope
GALLERY B
1. Nathan Roberts—Portrait and Home
Clinton’s Ditch
2. Canal Boat Bilge Pump
3. Animated Working of Old Lock
4. Locks and Weighlocks
5. Late 19th Century Canal Maps
6. History of the Erie Canal video
7. Early Canal & Railroad Travel
8. Tribute to the Canastota Bee Journal
9. Canastota Lift Bridge
10. Bridges and Aqueduct
11. Idea of a Connecting Waterway
Gallery C
1. Development of a Canal Town
2. Halls of Learning & Places of Worship
3. Early Home & Kitchen Devices
4. Douglas Pectin Co.—Makers of “Certo”
5. Canastota Match Company
6. Tea Rusk Basket
7. Gramophone (Victrola) & Melodeon
8. Centennial and Bicentennial
9. “Drummers” (Peddlers)
10. Old Telephone and Telegraph
GALLERY D
1. Marvin Electric Drill Company
2. Canastota Motion Picture Industry
Mutoscope & Biograph-Early Movie
Projectors
3. Still 7-Minute Instant Camera
4. Ideal Cut Glass
5. Watson Bottom Dump Wagon
6. Rex-Watson Co. & Oneida Products
7. Comedy Video of Belly Wagon
operation
Gallery D Annex
1. History of Weed Tire Chains
2. History of Old Erie Canal State Park
GALLERY E
. Boxing & the Motion Picture
Bruce Opera House
2. Entertainment—Avon Theatre—Early
Movies
Video “Modern Marvels Erie Canal”
3. Burn Brothers--Cut Glass Cutters
4. Additional Ideal Cut Glass
5. Furniture Makers of Canastota
6. Surveying
7. Canal Engineering & Construction
8. Salt and Gas Borings History
9. Canastota’s Energy Making
GALLERY F
1. Dolores Compton’s Artistic Views of
Old Canastota Canal Town
2. “News From My Palette” by Therese
Gena
3. The Third Rail—NY Electric Railway
4. Phoebe Brady—Painting of a Poor
Lady
5. Railway Mail Delivery
6. Canastota’s Coal Trestle
7. Celery Company & Braum Creamery
Equipment Company
GALLERY G
1. Old Time Shops
2. Hardware & Pharmacies
3. Canastota’s Post Office
WPA Murals
4. Canastota’s Muckland & Video
5. Cigar Box Art & Canastota Cutlery
6. Sherwood Wagons, Sleds, etc.
7. Railroads of Canastota
8. Agricultural Machine Manufacturing
GALLERY H
1. 1907 Erie Canal Break
2. Life on the Barge-Canal System Map Today—
Tug Boat Model Rebres Model Tug and Tug
Boat
Urger—Today’s Erie Canal
3. Dry Docking
4. Tuttle and Lindley Boat Building
5. C. N. Cady Motor Making
6. Scale Model of Captain’s Quarters on a Barge—Model of 240 Ton Laker
7. Wintering & Ice Harvesting on the Canal
8. Life Aboard the Boats
9. Mules, Horses, & Rules of the Road
GALLERY I
1. Frank Channing Soule Collection
2. Utensils Aboard a Family Barge
3. Politics of the Canal
4. 1898 Canal Improvement
5. Magic Lantern & Stereoscope
6. Pottery Along the Canal
7. Erie Canal Commemorative Plates
8. Malt and Beer Industry Erie Canal Brewing
Company
9. Quilting
10. Canal Recreation
11. Kitchen Ware Aboard a Canal Boat
GALLERY J
1. Amelia Earhart & Canastota Airport
2. George Wyman—First Motorized Vehicle
Across the U.S.
3. The Great Race of 1908
4. World War II Homefront
5. Bud Gleason’s “Lucky 13” Video
6. Queensboro Dairy and Milk Industry
7. Canastota Glass Company
(Window & Bottle Glass)
(Glass Canes; “End of Day Cane”)
8. Renditions of Mural Art of Canastota by Corky
Goss
