The first building for the Finger Lakes Museum is going up along Sugar Creek and Keuka Lake in Branchport.
Executive Director Natalie Payne and it's drawing a crowd of people who want to watch the craftsmen work.
"They just pound things in with just hammers and mallets and so forth. The only really motorized item that they use is this big crane. So, it's pretty neat to see."
Artisans from New Energy Works Timberframers in Farmington have raised most of the timber structure for the new Creekside Center– which is said to be the area's first kayak and canoe livery. Payne looks forward to the start of paddling programs on Keuka Lake in about a month.
"It gives us an opportunity to actually run and showcase and talk and actually live out our mission now, while we continue moving forward in creating the museum and aquarium building, which is going to be a separate project."
The Creekside Center is the first museum building to go up. The museum's headquarters will come later. For now, they use the old Branchport elementary school.
Lumber for the building is from a 19th century family barn in Wisconsin. When the barn came down, a family member in Bloomfield got the aged timbers.
"She never put the barn up, and then contacted us, and wondered if we would be willing to or wanted to take that barn, restore it and have it put up on our property,” said Payne. “We said, by all means, yes we would. So, that's how it came to us."
New Energy Works Timberframers of Farmington are reassembling the barn using old-style techniques, even wooden pegs, which drew a crowd to Sugar Creek and Keuka Lake.
"To finally see this first part become a reality is very, very encouraging. And yesterday, just the show of public support, with individuals stopping in from actually all over the Finger Lakes region...we had quite a few people who took the trip down from Rochester, to just see what this is all about and learn more about the museum project."