In the town of East Aurora, I stepped into a brick building where a young man was precisely hand-setting tiny but heavy lead letters of the alphabet into a machine. He looked up and told me I had walked into one of the oldest running printing presses in America.
The New York town, 20 miles from more industrial Buffalo, is a haven for antique arts. Since the Victorian era, it’s attracted creatives, writers, and free-thinking visionaries from across the world, who opened businesses dedicated to glass, hand-hammered copper, furniture, printmaking, and music. Today, master artisans are still preserving those century-old crafts.
“East Aurora is not a place, but a state of mind,” says Don Vilder, third-generation owner of an old-fashioned household “five-and-dime” store called Vildler’s 5 & 10, as he referenced an Elbert Hubbard quote from more than a hundred years ago. Hubbard was a former soap salesman-turned-publisher who founded the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora during the 1890s.
Roycroft started with printing then grew to include workshops for hand-bound volumes, quarter-sawn oak furniture, hand-hammered copper, and modeled leatherwork, helping establish East Aurora as a center of the American Arts and Crafts movement. Today, that tactile legacy hums through the walkable, lively village.
Here’s how to slow down this fall to enjoy the harvests and crafts in East Aurora.
Try your hand at these arts and crafts shops
The Roycroft Campus has a printing press and other vintage crafts.
Photo by JoanneStrell/Shutterstock (L); photo by Sharon Cantillon (R)
At the Roycroft Campus Press, visitors can sign up for hands-on workshops and events or one of many tours to see living traditions in action, like letterpress printing with movable type, linocut block prints, book illumination, hand-hammered coppersmithing, leatherwork, stained glass making, and woodworking. If you want to pair craft with folklore, choose the candlelit Roycroft Campus Eerie Tour, which unpacks Victorian legends and ghost lore.
Browse for handmade metal pieces, ceramics, glass, woodwork, prints, paintings, and jewelry at the Copper Shop Gallery, housed in Roycroft Campus’s original metal-smithing building from 1902. Time your visit for autumn to catch the maker-filled Roycroft Campus Fall Show, which gathers regional craftspeople, jewelers, potters, and woodworkers for demonstrations, sales, and food. Or attend the East Aurora Art Society’s annual Fall ArtWalk at the beginning of each October, when village storefronts and pop-up galleries celebrate the region’s contemporary visual artists. Near Main Street, take a hands-on pottery-making class at MUSEjar, and view rotating paintings at Meibohm Fine Arts.
Other things to do in East Aurora
Enjoy a fresh-hopped harvest pint in the beer garden at 42 North Brewing Company.
Photo by Sharon Cantillon
Beyond its arts and crafts scene, East Aurora offers plenty of ways to enjoy unrushed fall colors. Take a leisurely hike or horseback ride on the many trails in the 633-acre rolling estate and equestrian pastures of Knox Farm State Park.
Back along historic Main Street, lose track of time at the nostalgic Vidler’s 5 & 10, a 1930s-era store with toys, candy, books, kitchenware, whimsical gifts, and retro holiday stocking stuffers. Walk down the block to catch a first-run or classic film beneath the glowing neon marquee of the vintage 1925 Aurora Theatre, where original murals painted by children’s book illustrator Margaret Evans Price line the lobby.
Cap the evening with live roots music around the fire pits on 42 North Brewing Company’s taproom, or join the boisterous Buffalo Bills fans to watch a football game (fueled by craft taps and crispy wings) at the Bar at Main & Hamlin.
Where to eat
Elm St. Bakery smells like coffee grounds and fermented dough.
Photo by Sharon Cantillon
On weekends, smell the irresistible, buttery perfume of wood-fired hearth breads wafting from Elm Street Bakery, where you can get freshly roasted coffee and seasonal baked goods like warm coffee cake muffins and caramel apple french toast.
New York’s reputation for fantastic pizza is upheld at Pizzeria Florian, which the Italian 50 Top Pizza guide ranked in the top 50 in the USA; here the crust is the star of any order.
Enjoy standard steaks and seafood risottos alfresco on the patio of Rick’s on Main, or try a mortadella and pistachio sandwich or steaming bowl of meatball-topped “red sauce” pasta along with on-tap hard cider at Marta’s Market, a cozy neighborhood fixture on Main Street.
To finish, squeeze into the legendary watering hole Bar-Bill Tavern for the ultimate, regional cool-weather indulgence: steaming, hand-carved beef on weck piled high with horseradish alongside Cajun honey-butter wings.
Best hotels in East Aurora
Sleep in a historical building at the Roycroft Inn.
Photo by Sharon Cantillon
History and design enthusiasts can immerse themselves in the American Arts and Crafts movement at the Roycroft Inn, a 1905 National Historic Landmark detailed with mission-style oak and original murals painted by 20th-century landscape painter Alexis Jean Fournier.
For a cheeky period setting, Beneath the Bank redesigned a financial vault into moody boutique suites themed after outlaws like Bonnie and Clyde.
Meanwhile, craft beer lovers can bunk at the Lofts at 42N, where overnight guests can get complimentary taproom pours and growler fills, see an active brewhouse floor through second-story observation windows, and sip craft cans stocked in their room.
