Enlarged Erie Canal Lock No. 56 (also called the Poorhouse lock) is located less than 2 miles west of the Village of Lyons, Wayne County, N.Y, and less than half a mile west of the present Lock No. 28-A and the Canal Corporation's dry dock complex. It is a double-chamber lock, with the north chamber double-length, and had a lift of 10.12 feet to the west. Construction of Lock No. 56 was begun in 1842 and completed in 1849. The north chamber was added in 1873 and lengthened between the 1887 and 1888 seasons.

When the lock was in use, the red brick building adjacent to the lock and visible in the pictures above served as a grocery for the canallers, and had an attached shed, probably for mules. When lock No. 56 was abandoned around 1911, the building was converted to a private residence.