Along with a strong prey instinct
and stamina, these characteristics made
dogs ideal for hunting, retrieving, herd-
ing, racing and guarding — as well as
being endearing and faithful friends.
Discover how dogs have adapted to live
with us in modern times.
There are three interactive galler-
ies filled with art works featuring dogs.
Watch how canine movie stars, such as
Lassie and Marley worked the camera.
Learn how dogs work today as rescue,
assistance, therapy and guide dogs.
Meet Balto and learn the story of the he-
roic Siberian Husky who helped deliver
diphtheria antitoxin to Alaska’s children
in 1925.
Base ball (as it was written in the
19th century) has been brought back to
life here in the first replica 19th-cen-
tury base ball park in the country. Two
and sometimes four of the museum’s
six ladies’ and men’s teams, dressed in
period-style uniforms, face off each Sat-
urday and Sunday in Silver Base Ball
Park, playing with period appropriate
equipment and by 1866 rules.
The park also includes: bleachers,
an outfield fence sporting period-style
advertising, a manual scoreboard oper-
ated by two young lads on scaffolding,
a press box, a tower for the tally keeper
and announcer, special seating for unat-
tended young ladies, and a refreshment
tent serving peanuts, birch beer, and
other period-appropriate food.
Visitors also meet and interact with
the players as well as members of the
press, the umpire, the hawker selling
his snacks, the unattended young ladies
there to keep the game respectable, and
the rest of the fans.
Two museum buildings were the
early homes of Rochester’s leading citi-
zens —Nathaniel Rochester and George
Eastman. Colonel Rochester, who gave
the city its name, lived in a frame and
plank house from 1810-1815 with his
wife Sophia and their nine children.
George Eastman, founder of Eastman
Kodak Company, spent his early youth in
a comfortable one-and-a-half story Greek
Revival dwelling in Waterville.
One of the newest village events
is called “A Novel Weekend.” Author
continued on page 48
August 2019 WNY Family 17