order to distinguish it from the postal address of Niagara Falls) reveal its varied heritage. Many grand homes still survive from the post-1812 years. This is thanks in large part to a concerted effort by restoration architect Peter John Stokes, who authored the book Old Niagara on the Lake, published in 1971. He was spurred on by the heritage passions of such locals as Kathleen Drope and Carl Banke.
A few years earlier, in 1962, a local lawyer named Brian Doherty had launched the Shaw Festival using the spare space in the old town hall as its first theatre. Built to house the county offices, its role was reduced to that of town hall when the county seat went to the hated rival, St. Catharines, instead. Today it is the popular Court House Theatre and the main street’s most prominent structure.
At the corner of King and Queen stands Ontario’s oldest apothecary. Built in 1820, it is now maintained as a 1860s-era drug store museum by the Ontario Pharmacists Association. Kitty-corner to it, the elegant Prince of Wales Hotel, an iconic landmark, has been much extended. A few blocks away, the Pillar and Post Hotel occupies the shell of a one-time canning factory. The Oban Inn, near Front and Simcoe, was originally built as a private home by the town’s first ship-owner. Moffat’s Inn on Front Street was owned by Richard Moffat, and was one of twenty-eight taverns operating in the town during the bustling 1830s. One of Ontario’s oldest Anglican churches, St. Marks, although refurbished after the 1812 war, was originally built in 1791 and stands on Byron Street. The Olde Angel Inn was established in 1789 and rebuilt in 1816 after it was burnt by the Americans during the War of 1812. Located at 224 Regent Street, it is considered Ontario’s oldest operating inn.
Many black settlers who had escaped servitude south of the border, or had arrived as slaves before Britain abolished the slave trade, took up residence in Niagara. A typical example of one of their early dwellings, with its simple two-room layout, still stands at Gate and Johnson streets. In stark contrast, the rambling Victorian-style mansion at 177 King Street was built in 1886 by merchant Sam Rowley for his black wife, Fanny Rose.
Of all the historic streets in Niagara, perhaps one of the most significant is Prideaux. Several houses here were among the first to have been rebuilt after the destruction of the town by the Americans — some as early as 1815.
In contrast, the historic wharf area is much changed, with little to remind the visitor that the Michigan Central’s tracks once ran beside a wharf-side station. Amid the new condos and wharf-side development, the King George III Inn is a reminder of the location’s key role as a transportation hub. The downtown station on King Street also still stands, though altered somewhat by the addition of a small faux tower.
The most prominent of the military structures in the area is the much touted Fort George. Although a key outpost during the War of 1812, it was never completely rebuilt after its destruction by the Americans. Today’s recreation came about as a Depression-era make-work project. Another military site, Navy Hall, originally consisted of five separate buildings built by the British as early as 1765. Destroyed by the Americans during their rampage through the town, Navy Hall was reconstructed after the war. Today, only one of those buildings still stands, and is now used for private functions. It lies on Ricardo Street, at the east end of the town, opposite Fort George.
Faring somewhat better is the complex known as Butler’s Barracks, located at the corner of King and John streets. These five structures stand on what is known as the Commons, and today house the museum of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, which was descended from the renowned Butler’s Rangers.
The most haunting and original of the town’s military buildings is the ghostly ruin of Fort Mississauga. Following its reconstruction by the British after 1812, it saw military service off and on until 1872, when it was finally abandoned. Today the ruins have been stabilized by Parks Canada. A trail leads through the golf course, marked by historic interpretive plaques. Its rival across the river, Fort Niagara, can be clearly seen from the parapets, though the only missiles hurled at it today are those of the golfers.
Twelve Mile Creek: Port Dalhousie
Before rail lines breached the peninsula, two main routes led from Niagara to Ancaster and the head of the lake. The more popular followed the old raised beaches at the foot of the Niagara Escarpment, left behind by the receding waters of Lake Iroquois. This alignment was higher and drier, allowing easier travel by stage or foot. Another route followed the shore of the lake itself.
Although shorter, it was more difficult, as the many river and creek mouths to be crossed proved time-consuming. But this crude trail led to the naming of those same waterways. Quite simply, the rivers were named based on the distance they were from the mouth of the Niagara River. A short distance from Niagara, Four Mile Creek was the site of an early mill operation.
The first of the Loyalists to arrive at the mouth of Twelve Mile Creek were Peter Broeck and Lieutenant Benjamin Pawling. In 1821, Pawling founded a town site he called Dalhousie, for then governor general, the Earl of Dalhousie. The site also attracted William Hamilton Merritt, who saw the potential for an all-Canadian canal to link Lake Ontario with the upper lakes. The completion of the Erie Canal linking New York with Lake Erie led Canadians to see the need for an all-Canadian route from the Atlantic seaboard to their ports on Lakes Erie and Huron, as well as those on the upper lakes.
But the high cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment posed an engineering nightmare. The first thought was to dig a canal along Twelve Mile Creek to the base of the huge cliff, and from there drag the boats up by means of an incline railway. But Merritt convinced the government that the best route lay in a canal that mounted the escarpment by a series of locks, and then connected with the Welland River, thence to the Niagara River at Chippewa.
In 1824, the canal’s president, George Keefer, turned the sod at Allanburg, and on November 30, 1829, the first two schooners sailed through the canal and into the Niagara River. Because there was insufficient water in the watershed to operate the canal effectively, more was needed, and a feeder canal was opened to Port Maitland to draw the water from the Grand River. However, because of the strong currents on the Niagara River and the shallow draft of the feeder canal, a third channel had to be dug, this one directly from Port Robinson to Port Colborne, right on Lake Erie.
But with forty locks, and ships increasing in size, the first Welland Canal was soon obsolete. A second was started. Completed in 1851, it followed the same route as the first, but the number of locks was reduced to twenty-seven, they were lengthened and deepened, and most wooden locks were replaced with stone ones. The success of the canal brought a boom to St. Catharines, but a decline for places like Niagara and Queenston. New towns sprang into existence along the route, such as Port Robinson at the old junction of the first canal and the Welland River, and Port Colborne and Port Dalhousie as the Lake Erie and Lake Ontario termini respectively.
The Thorold and Port Dalhousie Railway rolled into town in 1853, building its facilities on the east side of the harbour. This line later became part of the Welland Railway and then the Grand Trunk. The east side of the harbour was nicknamed the “Michigan Side” due to the annual winter migration of the tow boys — men who guided the horses that towed the sailboats through the canal to the lumber camps of that state. Even today the beach is known as Michigan Beach.
By 1866, the Muir brothers were operating a permanent dry dock at the north end of Martindale Pond, a business which survived for nearly a century. But many of the new locks remained inadequate, and so between 1873 and 1887 they were doubled in size, while a more direct route between Port Dalhousie and Allanburg was excavated. By 1907, it was evident that this one, too, was outdated, and yet a fourth canal was begun. Interrupted by the war, the new waterway opened in 1932. Now constructed of concrete, the locks were reduced to a mere seven, with a new Lake Ontario entrance at Port Weller. It is this canal (with another bypass at Welland opened in 1972) that today accommodates some of the world’s
