Bird Kingdom - History

History

In 1908, the Spirella Corset Company built a four-story concrete building on the current site of the aviary. By 1958, the company had shrunk in size, resulting in the company's moving their location to a smaller facility. The building was purchased that year by Jacob Sherman, who owned the Niagara Falls Museum. Sherman then renovated the building extensively, adding a five-story viewing tower while also moving 700,000 artifacts to the building. It was discovered later that the museum had been home to the actual mummy of King Ramesses I. By that time of that discovery, however, the museum was closed and the mummy back in Egypt.

The museum was operated by the Sherman family until 1999, when the maintenance of the building and artifacts became too costly. Most of the artifacts were sold or returned to their place of origin. Larry Vann, a resident of the Niagara area, purchased the museum building. Over the next few years, $15 million dollars was spent on renovations to the building. The renovations included a large addition to the south side of the old museum building. In June 2003, the building re-opened as Bird Kingdom at the Niagara Falls Aviary.