by Steve Polston
The new Delphi Wabash & Erie Canal Conference & Interpretive Center includes a museum and public meeting space.
The The new Wabash & Erie Canal Conference and Interpretive Center in Delphi has the look and feel of 1850 in a northern Indiana canal town.
With the first step through the front entrance, visitors will feel transported 150 years back in time to another era.
Modern construction, exhibitry designs and fabrication make sure that the lifespan will be much longer than the canal's use as a transportation mode.
Located just a few blocks from the Carroll County Courthouse, the museum and conference center create a spell that lies somewhere between rural and commercial.
An excellent trail system in Delphi leads to Canal Park. You are just as likely to see a great blue heron as a human outside the new 12,000 square-foot facility.
The exterior instantly creates the sense of Downtown, with brick and clapboard facades.
The simple and elegant lobby is finely appointed with brass chandeliers. Who will come through the interior doors of the lobby? Will it be the president of the bank, or fine ladies from a hotel restaurant? Or merchants paying for a boatload of dry goods?
Through one set of doors is a conference room ready for 275 guests at a business meeting, wedding or community event. This space is for hire, according to directors of Carroll County Wabash & Erie Canal Inc., which will help bring in regular income to the facility.
Another set of doors leads to a 3,100 square foot museum that highlights the story of the exciting waterway. With interactive exhibits, now the story of local and regional history can be told.
It's a story of Irish
workers, canal boats, draft mules, businessmen and boat captains.
