For visitors to the Central New York area, there is now a building that hopes to attract your attention. The newly opened New York State Equal Rights Heritage Center opened in Auburn, New York is designed to boost tourism in Central New York and it’s part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Central NY Rising initiative.
The Equal Rights Heritage Center honors the legacy of Central New York’ fight for equality and is the first of its kind in the state. The project is one of eleven opened or set to open under Governor Cuomo’s initiative. Auburn resident Lorraine Mahunik says the building offers a reminder of how far the United States has come towards achieving equality.
“I didn’t realize how far we’ve come in this country really. When you go through all this, you think ‘oh my god,’ just since I’ve been born even,” Mahunik said.
A large chunk of how far the US has come can be attributed to the work of Central New Yorkers. Notably, abolitionist Harriet Tubman and William Seward, Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State, called Auburn home. Auburn is also less than half an hour away from Seneca Falls, where the woman’s suffrage movement first started. Courtney Kasper, the Visitor Experience Manager at the Equal Rights Heritage Center, says New Yorkers have always been leading the charge on equal rights.
“So if you think about it, New Yorkers have always been the most progressive throughout the country in fighting for equal rights,” Kasper said.
The building is split into three sections that each honor equal rights according to a corresponding color. Green represents the abolitionist movement, purple represents the women’s rights movement and blue stands for the human right’s campaign. Many of the exhibits featured inside are interactive, allowing visitors to hear moving songs from the early days of these movements, hear speeches from various leaders or see where other major events took place on maps. To complete the building, an Auburn family donated a statue of Harriet Tubman to the facility to honor their late father, who thought highly of the abolitionist.
Auburn had been pushing for a visitor’s center for nearly two decades, with the proposal being voted down every time. However, when Governor Cuomo saw the city’s Downtown Revitalization Plan had a proposal for an equal rights visitors center, the Governor stepped in and helped fund the $10 million dollar cost as part of his Central NY Rising initiative. Now, Central New Yorkers have a hub in Auburn designed to funnel everyone into one building and, in theory, boost tourism. Kasper says before Tuesday’s grand opening, there was no main place to visit in Auburn, which limited tourism.
“In the past, no one has really had a central location, a hub to go, when they come to Auburn. They are kind of touring Auburn on their own,” Kasper said.
Over 240 people attended the grand opening on Tuesday for the Equal Rights Heritage Center, a good start towards that goal of increased tourism. Mahunik says she was initially against the building because of its construction and cost, but now she is fully supporting it and she thinks it will attract many tourists.
“I think it’s going to be nice now that I’ve seen it. I was worried, I wasn’t really for it, but it’s got a lot of information,” Mahunik said.
Construction will continue around the new building as sidewalks and offices have yet to be completed. Auburn’s Downtown Revitalization Plan hopes to earn funding in the spring for the Seward Trolley, a guided tour that would take tourists around to each of the nearby historic sites, such as the Seward and Tubman houses just down the road from the Equal Rights Heritage Center.
