Barcelona Harbor will be the topic of Thursday’s lecture series.

The 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center will present the next program in its Here & There – Chautauqua County History, Travelers and Memories series on Thursday at 7 p.m. “Barcelona Harbor: 1800-1860.”

The harbor we now know as Barcelona played a prominent role in the early settlement and development of Chautauqua County, beginning with improvements by the Holland Land Company and continuing with federal appropriations aimed at improving navigation on Lake Erie.

For nearly 40 years in the 1800s, Barcelona was one of the busiest communities in the county!  Former Chautauqua County Historian Michelle Henry will discuss the investors who built piers and large commercial warehouses at Barcelona, the Lake Erie storms that regularly threatened the shoreline and sailing vessels, and the passenger ships that brought both prominent visitors and newly arriving immigrants to our county in her Opera House talk.

Henry was appointed the Chautauqua County Historian in March 2000 and also served as the County’s Record Management Coordinator until she retired in January 2023. She is currently Research Historian with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.  

Admission to the lecture is free, with donations gratefully accepted. Opera House programming is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by the United Arts Appeal of Chautauqua County.

The 1891 Fredonia Opera House Performing Arts Center is a member-supported not-for-profit performing arts center with a mission to “present the performing arts for the benefit of our community and region … providing access to artistic diversity … and high quality programming at an affordable price.” It is located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.fredopera.org.