Erie's Hagen History Center is more than a regional attraction.

The West Sixth Street museum complex has been attracting national and international visitors since the fittings and furnishings of Frank Lloyd Wright's San Francisco office were moved to Erie, reassembled and opened to the public in July 2021.

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"The idea underpinning the office was that it would attract a crowd and a demographic that wasn't necessarily interested in Erie's history," said Caleb Pifer, executive director of the Hagen History Center. "And based on market research, that's happening."

Ninety percent of the complex's visitors last summer came from outside the Erie region, Pifer said.

"Visitors came from 19 states and four different countries, and in large part they came to see the Frank Lloyd Wright office," Pifer said.

Typical of the new visitors were a couple waiting outside before the museum opened one day last summer. They came from Washington, D.C., specifically to see the office.

"They had no connection to Erie and weren't coming to see anything else. They were architecture fans who said they travel all over the country to see different sites," Pifer said. "That's the kind of people we're bringing in."

The office is listed by the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust among Wright-designed sites open to the public. It's also listed on the Great Wright Road Trip listed by Visit Buffalo Niagara, the Niagara region's tourism agency.

"We are the newest public Frank Lloyd Wright site in the nation. We are between the Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania sites and Buffalo sites," Pifer said, "and that puts us squarely in the middle for people traversing that path."

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Hagen History Center additionally has done targeted marketing campaigns promoting the Wright office.

The result: Growing attendance.

"Since the office opened in 2021, we've had two of the highest years of visitation in the history of the organization," Pifer said.

That's not to say that there's less emphasis on local history. Changing exhibits, walking tours and other events will continue to focus on Erie past and appeal to Erie crowds. About 3,000 people visited the center's annual Victorian Holidays event in December.

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"We're looking for increased opportunities to attract new and diverse audiences," Pifer said. "What that really means is we're looking for different ways for people to access our history. It's not going to be solely about buying a ticket and coming to the museum."

Walking tours put on hold through the early months of the pandemic returned this past summer with a tour of the West Sixth Street Millionaires' Row. In October, "More Murder and Mayhem Erie" tours with local author Justin Dombrowski also attracted record numbers of participants.

Tours in the works this year include a program highlighting Erie churches and another focusing on Erie taverns and social clubs, Pifer said.

New exhibits and walking tours provide new ways to experience Erie history.

"People often think history is this dry, boring subject, that it's names and dates," Pifer said. "What it really is are stories and experiences. It's where we grew up, the places where we worked and where we recreated. We're creating new opportunities for people to experience those things firsthand and realize that they are in fact experiencing history."

Also planned are new ways to experience the Frank Lloyd Wright office and to highlight local architecture.

"We're going to make some changes to the way we interpret the office and to increase the quality of the visitor experience in the gallery outside the office so we better contextualize it and also tie it back into Erie County architecture in a better way," Pifer said. "It's going to be part traditional exhibit and part technology."

In the works, too, are new plans for the Battles estate in Girard. The 120-acre estate includes two farmhouses, walking trails through woodlands and leased farm fields.

"We're looking at the use of the site in the future and ways that we can help make it support itself financially while creating a draw for, not just the community, but for tourists as well," Pifer said.

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The Hagen History Center's main campus on West Sixth Street has grown to include five buildings, three of them open to the public.

"With this campus and the Battles farm as well, it's a lot of real estate for this organization," Pifer said. "That comes with challenges because you're trying to operate an organization that is substantially larger than in the past on a relatively modest budget. It's a balancing act of competing priorities."

Pifer has been weighing Hagen History Center goals and needs with available funding since June, when he returned to succeed retired Executive Director George Deutsch. Pifer had been Hagen History Center executive director from 2013 until 2016 and before that was director of marketing and development at the Erie Maritime Museum.

Before returning to the History Center, Pifer worked in academia, as vice president of external relations and advancement at Mercyhurst University and more recently as senior adviser to the president at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he handled fundraising, marketing and project management for the $151 million Duquesne College of Osteopathic Medicine expected to open in 2024.

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As planning for the medical school neared completion, the position at Hagen History Center opened.

"The organization has grown substantially since I left, so it's not like being back exactly where I was. On one hand, it's an organization that I know and love. But it's also a place that is larger and more in line with where I was at in my career. And I am just thrilled to be here," Pifer said.

Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Hagen History Center is attraction with national, international appeal