Today, Assemblymember Monica P. Wallace (D-Lancaster) announced that she has secured $15,000 in state funding for the Hull House Foundation, which is dedicated to maintaining and preserving the memory of one of Western New York’s oldest homes, located at 5976 Genesee St. in Lancaster. The Foundation will use the funding to construct a new English barn, or three-bay barn, which was the widespread in the northeastern U.S. throughout the late Eighteen and Nineteenth centuries, according to the National Park Service.

The Hull House was first constructed in 1810, and many of its original inhabitants and their family members played a role in seminal events in early American history, such as the War of 1812 and the nation’s westward expansion. With the construction of the new barn, the Foundation will have a small working farm on site to educate youth and adults alike about the realities of life on a frontier farm in that era.

“The Hull House Foundation is a vital institution for preserving and remembering our local history,” said Assemblymember Monica Wallace. “This new barn will further the Foundation’s mission by giving visitors an immersive, educational experience on agriculture in the early Nineteenth century. It’s my honor to have secured funding to improve this important historical and educational site in our community.”

“In order to accurately portray the farmstead as it would have existed some 200 years ago we are working to return a threshing barn to the historic site,” said Gary Costello, Hull House Foundation President. “We have acquired an excellent example of such a barn – one that is over 200 years old and is now at our site waiting to be erected.These funds secured for us by Assemblymember Monica Wallace will really help us to push the project forward, and we are extremely grateful for her support."