We have 12 awardees this year that span across preservation advocacy, preservation craft, residential restoration, commercial restoration, emerging preservation leaders, lifetime achievement, and more. We will be highlighting each of the awardees over the next few weeks – to entice you to attend our award ceremony on Thursday, May 30th at the Buffalo History Museum. You can get your tickets here.
Celebrating Preservation Excellence: Women of Niagara: An Art Installation of Polly King Artworks on the Historic Jenss Department Store Building
Preservation Buffalo Niagara (PBN) is thrilled to announce the recipient of the 2024 Preservation Award for Preservation Advocacy in Niagara County is the Women of Niagara: An Art Installation of Polly King Artworks on the Historic Jenss Department Store Building
The Jenss Department Store building, located at 1708 Main Street in Niagara Falls, New York, stands as a testament to the city’s rich commercial history. Erected in 1916, the grand edifice, once known as the “grand old lady of Main Street,” served as the flagship store for the Jenss Brothers Department store chain, a prominent local retailer for nearly eight decades. Its five floors housed a vast array of merchandise, from apparel and home goods to toys and cosmetics, catering to the needs of Niagara Falls residents and tourists alike.
The Jenss Building “Women of Niagara” public art installation is a project designed and implemented by the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, in partnership with the Polly King Gallery, the King Family and sponsored by the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Located at 1708 Main Street, the installation features 86 works of art installed with vinyl adhesive in the windows of the vacant building. 74 of the 86 works of art are portraits of women who lived in Niagara Falls and were created by renowned Niagara Falls artist, Polly King.
The portraits capture the essence of Niagara Falls women during the 20th century. Each portrait tells a unique story, revealing the challenges and triumphs of women’s lives in the once vibrant and dynamic city. The installation not only serves as a tribute to these remarkable women but also revitalizes the Jenss building, transforming it from an image of abandonment to one of possibility.
Prior to this public art installation, the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area worked hard to ensure the fruition of this project. Identified in 2020 as a potential project, the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area looked to identify funding sources and opportunities, eventually applying for project funding through the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Throughout this rigorous application process, the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area had to prove the importance of this location and show that this public art installation would help to revitalize the Niagara Falls Bridge District. With the funding in place, the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area then had to secure a letter of support from the building owner and obtain approval from the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). A proposal outlining the project and its revitalization potential was created, and both the letter of support and SHPO approval were obtained.
The Niagara Falls National Heritage Area worked with Kleen Windows, Inc. to prepare the windows for the vinyl installation. These windows, which hadn’t been touched in over 30 years, were covered in several coats of primer and additional layers of outdoor latex paint, which necessitated vigorous cleaning from the crew. The window cleaning crew scraped all 86 windows free of paint – going through almost 5,000 paint scrapers in the process – then cleaned the windows to ensure there was no dirt or debris stuck to them, which would impede the vinyl installation.
The window vinyl themselves were fabricated and installed by Streamline Designs, following curation from the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area team. The Polly King Gallery houses over 200 portraits painted by Polly King, featuring Niagara Falls residents and visitors from over seven decades: the 1920s – 1990s. The Niagara Falls National Heritage Area team carefully elected 74 of these portraits, working hard to create a selection that showcases the breadth of society that Polly King captured. This included portraits of different races and ethnicities, different ages, and different backgrounds. Polly King painted the people she knew, people she loved, and people she saw, and these are all represented in the selected portraits. The Niagara Falls National Heritage Area team then worked to arrange these portraits into the 74 available windows, creating a carefully curated collection of women in Niagara Falls through the 20th century.
For a city that has lost so much of its built historical environment to urban renewal, efforts like this highlight the importance of preservation as an intersection for art, community, and memory. The desire to demolish still exists in the City of Niagara Falls. The Niagara Falls National Heritage Area hopes that our efforts will prevent future demolition of our remaining keystone historic buildings in Niagara Falls and lead to revitalization efforts on Main Street.
Additional information can be found on the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area’s website: