Client: The Erie County Historical Society
Location: 356 West 6th St., Erie, Pennsylvania
Dates: Original building — 1892; Construction complete — 2015
Size: 40,000 SF facility renovation; 13,000 SF new climate-controlled archive building
National Register of Historic Places: Individually listed and listed as a significant building in the West 6th Street Historic District.
The Richardsonian Romanesque-style Watson-Curtze Mansion was designed by Green and Wicks of Buffalo and constructed in 1891. The home’s exterior is made of Medina sandstone from western New York. The interior features elaborate woodwork, stained glass, marble fireplaces and mosaic work. Now part of the Thomas B. Hagen History Center, this stately mansion and its carriage house were extensively renovated between 2012 and 2015. The project included restoration of the historic Watson-Curtze Mansion; renovation of the mansion’s carriage house into space for a gift shop, staff offices and a public research room; and addition of a 13,000-SF climate-controlled archival storage building.
In 2019, the neighboring Wood-Morrison House was acquired and added to the campus. In 2021, a new exhibit building was constructed on the campus.
Harrison F. Watson (1853–1904) purchased the property from the Morrison family, who owned what is now known as the Wood-Morrison House just to the east. Watson owned a roofing-paper business with two locations, one at the foot of Sassafrass Pier and the other at East 16th Street. The Watson family included Harrison, his wife, Carrie (1853–1923), and their daughter, Winifred (1884-1938). Their older daughter Gertrude (1879–1887) had died of scarlet fever. The Watsons lived in the house until 1923.
After the death of her mother, Winifred sold the property to Frederick Felix Curtze (1858–1941). Curtze was involved in several ventures as treasurer of Erie Dime Savings Bank, and president of Erie Trust Company, Heisler Locomotive Works, Union Iron Works and the Keystone Fish Company. Curtze, his wife Caroline Stohlman (1858-1945), and their children, Louise M. (1886–1981) and Frederick A. (1894–1969), lived in the home until his death in 1941. The family gifted the property to the Erie School District for use as a museum in 1941. In 1959, the carriage house was converted into a planetarium. Erie County Historical Society merged with the museum in 2000.
This Richardsonian-Romanesque style mansion & carriage house on “Millionaire’s Row,” built entirely of Medina sandstone, was designed by prominent Buffalo architects, Green & Wicks for roofing paper maker & inventor, Harrison F. Watson (1853-1908) and his noted gardener wife, Carrie Tracy Watson (1852-1923), sold in 1923 to Frederic F. Curtze (1858-1941), president of Erie Trust Co, and donated in 1941 for a public museum, now owned by Erie County Historical Society and centerpiece for Hagen History Center. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places and Medina Sandstone Hall of Fame. A significant building in West Sixth Street Historic District.
