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Gratwick (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Map of Gratwick area and dockage illustration" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/93b.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">1877 Survey</span>In 1870 W. H. Gratwick of Buffalo purchases 50 acres along the Niagara River from Benjamin Felton and John Simson. By 1879 the <span>White, Gratwick & Mitchell Lumber Company </span>has a planing mill and substantial lumberyards on the site. They employ 450 men, mostly of German origin, who settle northeast of the facilities. The village’s main street, Felton, is named after Benjamin F. Felton. By 1884 there is a "neat frame" school house with one teacher and 30 pupils, built by Felton (school board president at the time). Gratwick is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897.<br /><br />From the guidebook "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/608">North Tonawanda and Tonawanda</a>" (1891):
<blockquote>Among the pioneers in the wholesale lumber trade of this place was W.H. Gratwick, who, in 1870, purchased fifty acres from Hon. John Simson and B.F. Felton, adjoining the Niagara River, about two miles below the mouth of Tonawanda Creek, and started a lumberyard. A half dozen years later P.W. Ledoux built the sash, door, and blind factory, which a few years later was purchased by Parks & Son, who operated the same until its recent purchase by Hollister Brothers. Mr. Gratwick erected a large planing mill in 1879, and from that time forward the place has steadily grown until it now has about 1,000 inhabitants. The lumber and mill interests of Gratwick, Smith & Fryer, Touawanda Lumber Co., and Hollister Brothers will be mentioned on other pages. <br /><br />Augustus Miller. — After the lumber interests, the next manufactory of importance in Gratwick is the wagon shop at the corner of Oliver and Felton streets. This was built in 1887 by August Miller, and besides doing all kinds of blacksmith and iron repair work, puts up a quantity of wagons, trucks, and other new work. Mr. Miller employs from five to ten men and has added an important industry to Gratwick, in a line of diversified manufacturing for which there is much room for development. <br /><br />Churches, Schools, Etc. — A class of the Methodist Episcopal church was organized in Gratwick in 1887, and the membership, a short time afterwards, commenced the erection of a church, which with lot, is worth about $3,000. This Avas dedicated in 1889 and has been in charge of Rev. J.S. Duxbury up to the present writing. <br /><br />St. Peter's German Evangelical church was organized April 5, 1888, by Rev. Kottler and the house of worship erected the same year. Rev. Conrad Bachman, who was educated at the missionschool ot Basle, Switzerland, came to this charge in October, 1888, and teaches the parochial school. Some sixty families are connected with this church. <br /><br />Gratwick has a public school with about 100 pupils, a brass band, two hose companies, and other societies; numerous hotels, stores, coal offices, and abundance of saloons. It was made a part of North Tonawanda corporation the present year, since which it has been placed in connection with the water mains, has electric lights, and other corporation advantages. <br /><br />Riverside. — From Gratwick station to the corporation limits on the west is nearly a mile, and as the river presents a graceful curve and nice beach in this vicinity, it has been proposed to call the station which will probably be located one and a half miles below Gratwick, "Riverside." Last year the Riverside Land Co. was incorporated and purchased forty acres on the north side of the Erie railroad, mostly within the new corporate limits. The officers are H.E. Warner, Pres.; J.A. Kuck, of Buflalo, V.P.; Charles W. Archibald, of North Tonawanda, Sec, and L. Landauer, of Albion, Treas. <br /><br />Bluff Point. — E.A. Milliman, a farmer and contractor, of Wheatfield town, has been seven times appointed a deputy collector, which office he now holds. Mr. Milliman owns a handsome farm of 120 acres at Bluff Point, bounded on the west and south by the Niagara River. The river at this point has a clean gravel shore with high bluff, making a delightful place for a summer location. <em>Editor's note: <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/607">1878 illustration and modern photo</a></em><br /><br />G.F. Goerss, also a deputy collector, owns a fifty-acre farm near the mile line, which is handsomely located and will presently be within the radius of development. Last year he erected a dwelling in Gratwick. Mr. Goerss was born in Wheatfield and is an authority on real estate values. He has been supervisor, J.P., Justice of Sessions, and in 1887-8 a member of Assembly.</blockquote>
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Gratwick area, W. Stenzel, B.F. Felton, map detail (1875).jpg
Date
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1875
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Gratwick (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Map of Gratwick area and dockage illustration" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/93b.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">1877 Survey</span>In 1870 W. H. Gratwick of Buffalo purchases 50 acres along the Niagara River from Benjamin Felton and John Simson. By 1879 the <span>White, Gratwick & Mitchell Lumber Company </span>has a planing mill and substantial lumberyards on the site. They employ 450 men, mostly of German origin, who settle northeast of the facilities. The village’s main street, Felton, is named after Benjamin F. Felton. By 1884 there is a "neat frame" school house with one teacher and 30 pupils, built by Felton (school board president at the time). Gratwick is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897.<br /><br />From the guidebook "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/608">North Tonawanda and Tonawanda</a>" (1891):
<blockquote>Among the pioneers in the wholesale lumber trade of this place was W.H. Gratwick, who, in 1870, purchased fifty acres from Hon. John Simson and B.F. Felton, adjoining the Niagara River, about two miles below the mouth of Tonawanda Creek, and started a lumberyard. A half dozen years later P.W. Ledoux built the sash, door, and blind factory, which a few years later was purchased by Parks & Son, who operated the same until its recent purchase by Hollister Brothers. Mr. Gratwick erected a large planing mill in 1879, and from that time forward the place has steadily grown until it now has about 1,000 inhabitants. The lumber and mill interests of Gratwick, Smith & Fryer, Touawanda Lumber Co., and Hollister Brothers will be mentioned on other pages. <br /><br />Augustus Miller. — After the lumber interests, the next manufactory of importance in Gratwick is the wagon shop at the corner of Oliver and Felton streets. This was built in 1887 by August Miller, and besides doing all kinds of blacksmith and iron repair work, puts up a quantity of wagons, trucks, and other new work. Mr. Miller employs from five to ten men and has added an important industry to Gratwick, in a line of diversified manufacturing for which there is much room for development. <br /><br />Churches, Schools, Etc. — A class of the Methodist Episcopal church was organized in Gratwick in 1887, and the membership, a short time afterwards, commenced the erection of a church, which with lot, is worth about $3,000. This Avas dedicated in 1889 and has been in charge of Rev. J.S. Duxbury up to the present writing. <br /><br />St. Peter's German Evangelical church was organized April 5, 1888, by Rev. Kottler and the house of worship erected the same year. Rev. Conrad Bachman, who was educated at the missionschool ot Basle, Switzerland, came to this charge in October, 1888, and teaches the parochial school. Some sixty families are connected with this church. <br /><br />Gratwick has a public school with about 100 pupils, a brass band, two hose companies, and other societies; numerous hotels, stores, coal offices, and abundance of saloons. It was made a part of North Tonawanda corporation the present year, since which it has been placed in connection with the water mains, has electric lights, and other corporation advantages. <br /><br />Riverside. — From Gratwick station to the corporation limits on the west is nearly a mile, and as the river presents a graceful curve and nice beach in this vicinity, it has been proposed to call the station which will probably be located one and a half miles below Gratwick, "Riverside." Last year the Riverside Land Co. was incorporated and purchased forty acres on the north side of the Erie railroad, mostly within the new corporate limits. The officers are H.E. Warner, Pres.; J.A. Kuck, of Buflalo, V.P.; Charles W. Archibald, of North Tonawanda, Sec, and L. Landauer, of Albion, Treas. <br /><br />Bluff Point. — E.A. Milliman, a farmer and contractor, of Wheatfield town, has been seven times appointed a deputy collector, which office he now holds. Mr. Milliman owns a handsome farm of 120 acres at Bluff Point, bounded on the west and south by the Niagara River. The river at this point has a clean gravel shore with high bluff, making a delightful place for a summer location. <em>Editor's note: <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/607">1878 illustration and modern photo</a></em><br /><br />G.F. Goerss, also a deputy collector, owns a fifty-acre farm near the mile line, which is handsomely located and will presently be within the radius of development. Last year he erected a dwelling in Gratwick. Mr. Goerss was born in Wheatfield and is an authority on real estate values. He has been supervisor, J.P., Justice of Sessions, and in 1887-8 a member of Assembly.</blockquote>
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Gratwick area, map detail (1891).jpg
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1891
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Avenues / Ironton (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/83e.jpg" alt="Ironton and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr" /><span class="cover-caption">Ironton Street and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr</span> <b><em>See also: <a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/lost-village-of-ironton/">The lost village of Ironton and the birth of the Avenues</a> and <a href="https://nthistory.com/collections/show/141">Avenues Folk: Mary Kijowski-Konstanty of Fifteenth Ave</a>.</em></b><br /><br /><strong>Origins of Ironton</strong><br /><br />The "spark" for Ironton arrives in 1873, when Niagara Furnace (later <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/16">Tonawanda Iron and Steel)</a> locates on the banks of the Niagara River near Wheatfield Street. The unofficial village of "Ironton" is named after the promising venture. After initial excitement (and investment in the surrounding land) however, the furnace shuts down after only a year in operation. <br /><br /><strong>Early doings</strong><br /><br />In 1875 map, h<span>omes are seen in the lower Avenues. Oliver Street business? Churches. Colonel Payne's estate is still intact across Payne and up to Dahlgren Place, the former northern limit of the early Avenues. Ironton Street from 1880s according to ArcGIS.<br /><br /></span>"From 1880-1890, its population increased form 1,492 to 4,793," (Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.110).<br /><br />In 1882, the establishment of a John Cichoki's <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1665">tavern on River Road</a> near Wheatfield street <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1543">is a foothold</a> for early Polish settlers. Grocers and butchers are nearby. In 1884 a "minor school in a small frame building" is established less than a quarter mile east down Wheatfield at Dahlgren Place (<a href="https://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1477">Buffalo Courier Express, 1905)</a>. In 1889 or 1890, the much larger, <span>Richardsonian Romanesque style</span> <span><a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/64">Ironton Public School #2</a> opens at the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street. <br /></span><br /><strong>The furnace burns again; the River Road industrial corridor</strong><br /><br />The old Niagara Furnace site is expanded and relaunched in 1889 by Tonawanda Iron and Steel. The adjacent marshes and former farms once again become valuable real estate, with "manufacturing interests" courted for the valuable land along the river and railroad tracks. More Poles, Hungarians and others flock to the Avenues, bringing their languages, traditions and chickens with them. An 1891 guidebook describes the real estate situation:
<blockquote>It was purchased from Pratt & Jewett by Geo. P. Smith and A. J. Hathaway, Oct. 15, 1889, replatted, and Jan. 1st, 1890, put on the market. Within a year 500 building lots had been sold and 100 houses erected.<br /><br />With June of the present year [1891] the Ironton Land Co. was incorporated with capital of §100,000 and everything bids fair for a prosperous career, as this is the river center of North Tonawanda corporation, and being traversed by all the rail- roads it cannot fail to secure prominent manufacturing interests. <br /><br />The Ironton addition is less than a mile from the North Tonawanda City Hall. With the Iron & Steel Works, the surrounding lumber interests and the bolt and nut works of Plumb, Burdict ct Barnard, which has recently been located on the adjoining property, this section of the city will make a convenient and desirable place for mechanics and business firms. It has the water supply, electric lights, and will soon be connected by the electric street car line. <br /><br />A double two story brick block for stores has just been completed on Oliver street, making a nice addition to the mercantile conveniences there, a $15,000 brick school house was erected a couple of years since, a church dedicated in August and this section has all the modern conveniences of the older part of the city.</blockquote>
<strong>Land<br /></strong><br />In November 1889, <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/smithgeorgep1897bio.html">George P. Smith</a> and <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/hathawayaj1897bio.html">A. J. Hathaway</a> buy land opposite the iron works.<strong><br /><br /><br />Incorporation into the City of North Tonawanda</strong><br /><br />The village of "Ironton" (along with the villages of North Tonawanda, Gratwick and Martinsville) is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897. The last remnant of the old village name is in its "Ironton Street," running along the west edge of the original avenues. It never had its own post office, or government, but it is an interesting part of the patchwork of the original city that has mostly now vanished from public recall.<br /><br /><strong>An increasingly Polish community on the Avenues</strong><br /><br />For the numerous Polish on the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/3436">original seven avenues</a>, their church is the center of their community. OLC is established on Center Ave, exactly where the grotto is today. It is later rebuilt just south. <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/98">Pettit Creek</a> flows through the area (it will be covered).<br /><br /><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200105.pdf">The paving of Oliver Street being planned August 26, 1893.<br /></a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"> A progress report </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200169.pdf">about a month later</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">. October 5 </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200235.pdf">there is labor trouble between Poles and Italians</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">.</a><br /><br />The upper avenues remain essentially woods and marshes until the 1940s, when settlement accelerates with the nationwide Baby Boom. <br /><br /><em>Notes:</em><br /><br /> * <span><em>Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, of the State of New-York</em> (1884,</span> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EEEdAQAAIAAJ">Google Books)</a> Also has lots of details about new Goundry Street school and a brief mention of Gratwick school and enrollment figures.1890 "The village of Tonawanda is up and awake as far as educational matters are concerned. It has a progressive board of education composed of five members, all liberal men in their views. A new brick school building is nearly completed at Ironton, a suburb of the village, that would be a pride to any town."<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"><br /></a> <br />John Carr on Facebook in January 2017: "Go back to the 1800's and my great grandfather's farm, as well as several others, was there, extending from the river inland past Payne. The house was originally along the river. Eventually the lumber yards and steel mills pushed the property, and the house back from the river to Oliver (#849 or #869). In the 1890's, after his death, the property was sold off and developed into individual housing lots. At that time the area was annexed to North Tonawanda, before that the area was part of Wheatfield. Carr Street still exists by the town pool. Many of my great grand parents children and their families had homes in the area. We see the area today pretty much as it was developed then, however modernized a bit and not the capitol of industry it was then."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b5be67cf0e05477e8f4ad3161ab51422">ArcGIS</a> and old map notes:<br />
<ul>
<li>1860 map show Cap. O. Shepard in a few places. From Ohio. Buried there. H(enry) Rosebrock from Hanover, Germany (1880 Census); H. Luttman German. F. Roney</li>
<li>Homes on Ironton Street range between 1870 (96 Ironton), 1880 (144 Ironton) and into the early 1900s. Some Year 0s (e.g., 188).</li>
<li>The River Rd - Wheatfield "businesses" at southeast corner are 1900-1930, couple of year 0s, though 1886 map shows SOMETHING there earlier.</li>
<li>Weston & Son lumber all around in 1886 maps, Stocum & DeGraff south across Summer</li>
<li>Simson Street: Properties start at 1860 (23 Simson), couple 1880s and 0s. "<span>Rua, Joseph M" listed as owned on many. 1875 map it's called "Judd Ave, and names of homeowners are given (several Simsons); Called "Miller" in 1886 map. Early enclave for nearby mill, predating even Iron Works? </span></li>
</ul>
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Ironton addition, George P. Smith and August J. Hathaway subdivision, map (1891-04-27).jpg
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1891-04-27
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City of North Tonawanda, map (Niagara County Atlas, 1908).jpg
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1908
map
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Tonawandas, Sanborn insurance map overview (1913).jpg
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1913
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Tonawanda Iron and Steel (Niagara River Iron Company)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Tonawanda Iron and Steel, illustration" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/16.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">Illustration: Dennis Reed Jr., 2025.</span>
<p class="lede">For a century, a massive riverfront iron works dominates the skyline of North Tonawanda near Wheatfield Street and present-day Fisherman's Park. The furnaces cast a ruddy glow over the west, and power the birth of the village of "Ironton," later known as "The Avenues."</p>
From <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/2891"><em>History of Niagara County</em> (1878)</a>:
<blockquote>The Niagara River Iron Company was formed in pursuance of the general manufacturing law, in 1872, with a paid-up capital of $400,000. The first purchase of real estate was of 165 acres from M. Bush. The buildings were erected in 1873, and manufacturing operations commenced the same year. The engine house stands in a prominent position, and by one not knowing its design might be taken for an elegant mansion or villa; the building is 68 by 74 feet, with a proportionate elevation, and finished in tasteful style. The boiler house, judiciously separated, located 45 feet by 70, contains ten ponderous boilers, four feet in diameter and sixty feet long; an octagon chimney eighty feet high rises in front. The blast furnace was constructed to run out fifty tons of pig iron per day, and is 60 by 200 feet and two stories high; a tower rising above the rounded kert contains the machinery for elevating ore and brick by steam power. The oven is 30 by 41 feet, with iron-bound exterior. The buildings named are massive and substantial brick erections, upon stone foundations. The stock house is a frame building, 72 by 500 feet and two stories high. <br /><br />The dock fronting on the river is 500 feet in length, reaching ten feet depth of water. Located upon the dock is an engine for raising freight from the vessels. <br /><br />Two branch tracks of the Central railroad pass over the docks and into the stock house, to deposit and remove material. The buildings cover an area of four acres. <br /><br />The trustees are P. P. Pratt, president; Josiah Jewett, vice-president; S. S. Jewett, H. H. Glenny, George B. Hays, F. L. Danforth and B. F. Felton. During the present general depression in business the works are not operated; but as they are controlled by men of permanent wealth, willing to use it and able to hold their own until the day dawns upon brighter prospects, the advantages of this great concern will yet be felt by the community that has clustered about it in anticipation. The premises and machinery are kept in the most perfect order and neatness under the care of Alexander Reid.</blockquote>
Pascal P. Pratt, a "hardware man" from Buffalo, is president and principal stockholder.
<blockquote>Mr. [Pascal P.] Pratt also helped to organize the Niagara River Iron Company in 1872. That company operated a blast furnace in North Tonawanda capable of turning out fifty tons of pig iron daily. Pascal Pratt was President of the firm, and among the other principals was S. S. Jewett. This company was later succeeded by the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company, with William A. Rogers as President.</blockquote>
<blockquote>- <a href="https://www.olmstedinbuffalo.com/pascal-p-pratt/#:~:text=city%20of%20Buffalo.-,Mr.,and%20the%20Bank%20of%20Attica.">Olmsted in Buffalo</a></blockquote>
By 1875, in the midst of a general depression in the iron industry, the works are stopped, and lie dormant for years, possibly the next 14.<br /><br />In January 1889 it is reported that the Baird Bros. of Ohio will buy the plant and resume operations. It will require about $50K. 30 workers are expected in March. Ore begins arriving in great quantities in June, and on August 28 the furnace roars again. 100 men work the facility, day and night. The production of 100 tons of iron and steel a day is planned.<br /><br /><a href="https://archive.org/details/historyofcityofb00buff">Seemingly owned</a> at one point by "Rogers, Brown and Company, one of the largest iron companies in the country."<br /><br />The iron plant draws workers to the area, many Hungarian and Polish, who settle in a village called "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/83">Ironton</a>," just north of North Tonawanda proper.<br /><br />Frank Burkett Baird <span>(b.1852 d.11/15/1939) </span><span>organizes the Tonawanda Iron & Steel Co, in 1899. (Baird's singular accomplishment is as "Father of the Peace Bridge" - <a href="https://buffaloah.com/h/panam/forestL.html">Buffalo Architecture & History</a>).</span><br /><br />The new venture is a success, and expanding. President Rogers. New "monster" engine in June 1896.<br /><br />President McKinley fires up its mighty Furnace B with great ceremony and the flip of a switch from his home in Ohio in November 1896. <br /><br />Somewhere around 1912 poor management and a poor economy stop the furnaces again. The plant lies unused until purchased by Tonawanda Iron Corp. in 1922.<br /><br />Gilmore.<br /><br />By 2017, the site has been cleared and converted into a small medical park and Fisherman's Park.
Source
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"Tonawanda Iron Corp., Is One of Largest Manufacturers of Pig Iron." Tonawanda News, 1929 (in this collection).
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Niagara River Iron Corporation, map detail (1876).png
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1876
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/630a50f81806242bf57f8ab41165f930.png
528e2fef14526d9f5f32fd1e5e3c3028
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Title
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Tonawanda Iron and Steel (Niagara River Iron Company)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Tonawanda Iron and Steel, illustration" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/16.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">Illustration: Dennis Reed Jr., 2025.</span>
<p class="lede">For a century, a massive riverfront iron works dominates the skyline of North Tonawanda near Wheatfield Street and present-day Fisherman's Park. The furnaces cast a ruddy glow over the west, and power the birth of the village of "Ironton," later known as "The Avenues."</p>
From <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/2891"><em>History of Niagara County</em> (1878)</a>:
<blockquote>The Niagara River Iron Company was formed in pursuance of the general manufacturing law, in 1872, with a paid-up capital of $400,000. The first purchase of real estate was of 165 acres from M. Bush. The buildings were erected in 1873, and manufacturing operations commenced the same year. The engine house stands in a prominent position, and by one not knowing its design might be taken for an elegant mansion or villa; the building is 68 by 74 feet, with a proportionate elevation, and finished in tasteful style. The boiler house, judiciously separated, located 45 feet by 70, contains ten ponderous boilers, four feet in diameter and sixty feet long; an octagon chimney eighty feet high rises in front. The blast furnace was constructed to run out fifty tons of pig iron per day, and is 60 by 200 feet and two stories high; a tower rising above the rounded kert contains the machinery for elevating ore and brick by steam power. The oven is 30 by 41 feet, with iron-bound exterior. The buildings named are massive and substantial brick erections, upon stone foundations. The stock house is a frame building, 72 by 500 feet and two stories high. <br /><br />The dock fronting on the river is 500 feet in length, reaching ten feet depth of water. Located upon the dock is an engine for raising freight from the vessels. <br /><br />Two branch tracks of the Central railroad pass over the docks and into the stock house, to deposit and remove material. The buildings cover an area of four acres. <br /><br />The trustees are P. P. Pratt, president; Josiah Jewett, vice-president; S. S. Jewett, H. H. Glenny, George B. Hays, F. L. Danforth and B. F. Felton. During the present general depression in business the works are not operated; but as they are controlled by men of permanent wealth, willing to use it and able to hold their own until the day dawns upon brighter prospects, the advantages of this great concern will yet be felt by the community that has clustered about it in anticipation. The premises and machinery are kept in the most perfect order and neatness under the care of Alexander Reid.</blockquote>
Pascal P. Pratt, a "hardware man" from Buffalo, is president and principal stockholder.
<blockquote>Mr. [Pascal P.] Pratt also helped to organize the Niagara River Iron Company in 1872. That company operated a blast furnace in North Tonawanda capable of turning out fifty tons of pig iron daily. Pascal Pratt was President of the firm, and among the other principals was S. S. Jewett. This company was later succeeded by the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company, with William A. Rogers as President.</blockquote>
<blockquote>- <a href="https://www.olmstedinbuffalo.com/pascal-p-pratt/#:~:text=city%20of%20Buffalo.-,Mr.,and%20the%20Bank%20of%20Attica.">Olmsted in Buffalo</a></blockquote>
By 1875, in the midst of a general depression in the iron industry, the works are stopped, and lie dormant for years, possibly the next 14.<br /><br />In January 1889 it is reported that the Baird Bros. of Ohio will buy the plant and resume operations. It will require about $50K. 30 workers are expected in March. Ore begins arriving in great quantities in June, and on August 28 the furnace roars again. 100 men work the facility, day and night. The production of 100 tons of iron and steel a day is planned.<br /><br /><a href="https://archive.org/details/historyofcityofb00buff">Seemingly owned</a> at one point by "Rogers, Brown and Company, one of the largest iron companies in the country."<br /><br />The iron plant draws workers to the area, many Hungarian and Polish, who settle in a village called "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/83">Ironton</a>," just north of North Tonawanda proper.<br /><br />Frank Burkett Baird <span>(b.1852 d.11/15/1939) </span><span>organizes the Tonawanda Iron & Steel Co, in 1899. (Baird's singular accomplishment is as "Father of the Peace Bridge" - <a href="https://buffaloah.com/h/panam/forestL.html">Buffalo Architecture & History</a>).</span><br /><br />The new venture is a success, and expanding. President Rogers. New "monster" engine in June 1896.<br /><br />President McKinley fires up its mighty Furnace B with great ceremony and the flip of a switch from his home in Ohio in November 1896. <br /><br />Somewhere around 1912 poor management and a poor economy stop the furnaces again. The plant lies unused until purchased by Tonawanda Iron Corp. in 1922.<br /><br />Gilmore.<br /><br />By 2017, the site has been cleared and converted into a small medical park and Fisherman's Park.
Source
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"Tonawanda Iron Corp., Is One of Largest Manufacturers of Pig Iron." Tonawanda News, 1929 (in this collection).
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Niagara River Iron Corporation, map detail (1875).png
Date
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1875
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/62ab93fe387e6af5efc6efbbae2bcbe5.jpg
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Niagara County, map (c.1836).jpg
Date
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1836
Description
An account of the resource
"<span>Present day Niagara Street was the original route of the first steam railroad in Western New York. Service from Black Rock to Niagara Falls began on August 26, 1836." - <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=77794">hmdb.org</a></span>
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/90ceaaf4ee968e9d949ad841aadae1ee.jpg
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Title
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Goose Island (Tonawanda)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/26.jpg" alt="Goose Island as seen from Tonawanda Island, postcard detail, ca 1913" /><span class="cover-caption">Goose Island as seen from Tonawanda Island, postcard detail, ca 1913.</span> "Goose Island" was the name of a triangular piece of land in Tonawanda formerly cut off from the mainland by the Erie Canal. The island was first settled by Tonawanda's well-to-do, its shady trees giving "Chestnut Street" its name. It had a cemetery (whose graves were moved to Sweeney Cemetery) and a schoolhouse. As the lumber industry picked up in the 1860s, the character of the island changed dramatically, and it would soon be known all over the country by canawlers and sailors as a "red-light" district. The canal from Tonawanda to Buffalo is filled in around 1927, effectively reconnecting the recalcitrant island to its parent. In 1966 the remaining buildings that housed the old saloons, bordellos and dwellings were razed as part of broader "Urban Renewal" efforts. Today, the only trace of old Goose Island is the old path of Chestnut Street, which is followed by the north edge of Tops parking lot and the southern part of Niagara Shore Drive. 1937 Coppola indictment dismissed.<br /><br />1951 several of the old buildings, slated for demolition anyway by the State Housing Commission as part of their postwar plan, <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201604.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffffbb5d89%26DocId%3D2065199%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D19%26hits%3D49%2B4a%2B90%2B91%2B1a8%2B2c7%2B395%2B3cc%2B409%2B422%2B42a%2B458%2B627%2B744%2Bfee%2B1119%2B115a%2B115f%2B1166%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201604.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffffbb5d89%26DocId%3D2065199%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D19%26hits%3D49%2B4a%2B90%2B91%2B1a8%2B2c7%2B395%2B3cc%2B409%2B422%2B42a%2B458%2B627%2B744%2Bfee%2B1119%2B115a%2B115f%2B1166%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">are set on fire</a> by an arson. <br /><br />A 1923 article claims an 1886 fire "totally destroyed" Goose Island.<br /><br />First mention 1897 (Frank Alliger's novelty concern)
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Title
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Tonawanda Cemetery on 1866 map, map detail (1866).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1866
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/1bac178895c82d25eeea85c4b5e912cd.jpg
224fcdccc7abe9328e6f5fabcbce9b89
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Title
A name given to the resource
Goose Island (Tonawanda)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/26.jpg" alt="Goose Island as seen from Tonawanda Island, postcard detail, ca 1913" /><span class="cover-caption">Goose Island as seen from Tonawanda Island, postcard detail, ca 1913.</span> "Goose Island" was the name of a triangular piece of land in Tonawanda formerly cut off from the mainland by the Erie Canal. The island was first settled by Tonawanda's well-to-do, its shady trees giving "Chestnut Street" its name. It had a cemetery (whose graves were moved to Sweeney Cemetery) and a schoolhouse. As the lumber industry picked up in the 1860s, the character of the island changed dramatically, and it would soon be known all over the country by canawlers and sailors as a "red-light" district. The canal from Tonawanda to Buffalo is filled in around 1927, effectively reconnecting the recalcitrant island to its parent. In 1966 the remaining buildings that housed the old saloons, bordellos and dwellings were razed as part of broader "Urban Renewal" efforts. Today, the only trace of old Goose Island is the old path of Chestnut Street, which is followed by the north edge of Tops parking lot and the southern part of Niagara Shore Drive. 1937 Coppola indictment dismissed.<br /><br />1951 several of the old buildings, slated for demolition anyway by the State Housing Commission as part of their postwar plan, <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201604.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffffbb5d89%26DocId%3D2065199%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D19%26hits%3D49%2B4a%2B90%2B91%2B1a8%2B2c7%2B395%2B3cc%2B409%2B422%2B42a%2B458%2B627%2B744%2Bfee%2B1119%2B115a%2B115f%2B1166%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201604.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffffbb5d89%26DocId%3D2065199%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D19%26hits%3D49%2B4a%2B90%2B91%2B1a8%2B2c7%2B395%2B3cc%2B409%2B422%2B42a%2B458%2B627%2B744%2Bfee%2B1119%2B115a%2B115f%2B1166%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">are set on fire</a> by an arson. <br /><br />A 1923 article claims an 1886 fire "totally destroyed" Goose Island.<br /><br />First mention 1897 (Frank Alliger's novelty concern)
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Tonawanda Cemetery on deed map (1857, 1897).jpg
Date
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1857
Description
An account of the resource
The graves in this early Tonawanda burying grounds (shown on an 1857 map as the "Niagara River Cemetery") are moved starting in the 1840s to Sweeney Cemetery in what will become North Tonawanda. Erosion began exhuming the bodies ahead of the rapture, and children walked by exposed ancestors on the way to school. <br /><br />1857 map found in 1897 deed by Stone and Story Society of North Tonawanda.
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/65e5791c923df823ebdc7ba539f2bde8.jpg
aebe16a7236cd7dda88eb14ad9f57737
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Title
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Sweeney Cemetery
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Old graves in Sweeney Cemetery" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/76-1.jpg" /> <span class="cover-caption">PHOTO: Dennis Reed Jr.</span> The future Colonel John Sweeney Rural Cemetery appears (a tad north of the current grounds) <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/4225">on an 1837 map</a> under the name "Tonawanda Cemetery." Neal writes that it is originally a Sweeney family burial ground. In the 1840s and 1850s bodies from the south side <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/4226">Tonawanda burying grounds</a> are moved to Sweeney Cemetery (the Tonawanda burying grounds was "<a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/4035#village-of-tonawanda">a short distance</a>" below Tonawanda Creek near the Niagara River, and erosion was indifferently disinterring the bodies). <br /><br />The cemetery <span><span>is incorporated in 1868 as "Colonel John Sweeney Rural Cemetery." <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/2383">Its namesake</a> is an early land investor and War of 1812 veteran. From <em><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/606">History of Niagara County 1821-1878</a> </em>(1878):</span></span>
<blockquote>The village has a cemetery, which was organized under the statute, in the year 1868. The incorporators were: Benjamin F. Felton, Garwood L. Judd, Franklin Warren, Hiram Hewell, Selden G. Johnson and John Simpson. Mr. Hewell was the first president, and Mr. Felton the first secretary of the board of organization. At the first meeting of the board of trustees, Mr. Felton presented the corporation with a splendid book for the keeping of the records. Much credit is due to Messrs. Felton, Warren and Judd for the labor and interest they took in organizing the enterprise. Mr. Judd drew up the articles of association; and being an attorney, obtained the requisite order from court, sanctioning the articles of incorporation, which were duly recorded in the office of the county clerk.</blockquote>
By 1887, the rural cemetery is filling up, and looking to expand:
<blockquote>The Sweeney Cemetery association is making preparations to secure more burial space, the original plot of ground having been all taken. At a recent meeting a committee consisting of B. H. Neff, B. F. Fenton and H. Berger was appointed to investigate the advisability of purchasing additions to the cemetery - <em>Suspension Bridge Journal</em>, April 9, 1887.</blockquote>
Around 1920 about 100 graves that stretched across Thompson Street are moved within the cemetery's present limits, including 18 adults and 8 children from a Potter's Field, or removed to other cemeteries. <span>In 1977 the City of North Tonawanda assumes ownership for $1.<br /></span>
<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agenbyte/albums/72157604940790322/">My photos of the cemetry on Flickr.</a></p>
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1837 Tonawanda Cemetery and 2025 Sweeney Cemetery locations, map overlay.jpg
Date
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1837
Description
An account of the resource
Cemetery as it appears on <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/3974">Chart of Tonawanda Harbor, with villages of Tonawanda and Whitehaven (1837)</a>.
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/6e827a0d12725b8ec178c6d581b3d413.jpg
69bfc634cc1f1ddb6f7921782c2215bf
Map
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Niagara River near Tonawanda, map (1876).jpg
Date
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1876
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/a0a79de61c94c56ceca7c49b641e02cd.jpg
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Forts, Battles, Batteries on the Niagara Frontier (as ceded by the Senecas to the British Crown, 1764, 1919).jpg
Date
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1764
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/fb12393a4689aef8001ee6d16bde3068.jpg
1e52faecad62904b048407e100353685
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Tonawanda Harbor, map (archives.gov, 1882-03).jpg
Date
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1882-03
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/6d0a729cb62d700e91e0eca1899fcafe.jpg
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Tonawanda Harbor, map (archives.gov, 1881-06-30).jpg
Date
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1881-06-30
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/f8ce5d47e37781c94371ded4e0dd6465.jpg
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Avenues / Ironton (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/83e.jpg" alt="Ironton and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr" /><span class="cover-caption">Ironton Street and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr</span> <b><em>See also: <a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/lost-village-of-ironton/">The lost village of Ironton and the birth of the Avenues</a> and <a href="https://nthistory.com/collections/show/141">Avenues Folk: Mary Kijowski-Konstanty of Fifteenth Ave</a>.</em></b><br /><br /><strong>Origins of Ironton</strong><br /><br />The "spark" for Ironton arrives in 1873, when Niagara Furnace (later <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/16">Tonawanda Iron and Steel)</a> locates on the banks of the Niagara River near Wheatfield Street. The unofficial village of "Ironton" is named after the promising venture. After initial excitement (and investment in the surrounding land) however, the furnace shuts down after only a year in operation. <br /><br /><strong>Early doings</strong><br /><br />In 1875 map, h<span>omes are seen in the lower Avenues. Oliver Street business? Churches. Colonel Payne's estate is still intact across Payne and up to Dahlgren Place, the former northern limit of the early Avenues. Ironton Street from 1880s according to ArcGIS.<br /><br /></span>"From 1880-1890, its population increased form 1,492 to 4,793," (Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.110).<br /><br />In 1882, the establishment of a John Cichoki's <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1665">tavern on River Road</a> near Wheatfield street <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1543">is a foothold</a> for early Polish settlers. Grocers and butchers are nearby. In 1884 a "minor school in a small frame building" is established less than a quarter mile east down Wheatfield at Dahlgren Place (<a href="https://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1477">Buffalo Courier Express, 1905)</a>. In 1889 or 1890, the much larger, <span>Richardsonian Romanesque style</span> <span><a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/64">Ironton Public School #2</a> opens at the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street. <br /></span><br /><strong>The furnace burns again; the River Road industrial corridor</strong><br /><br />The old Niagara Furnace site is expanded and relaunched in 1889 by Tonawanda Iron and Steel. The adjacent marshes and former farms once again become valuable real estate, with "manufacturing interests" courted for the valuable land along the river and railroad tracks. More Poles, Hungarians and others flock to the Avenues, bringing their languages, traditions and chickens with them. An 1891 guidebook describes the real estate situation:
<blockquote>It was purchased from Pratt & Jewett by Geo. P. Smith and A. J. Hathaway, Oct. 15, 1889, replatted, and Jan. 1st, 1890, put on the market. Within a year 500 building lots had been sold and 100 houses erected.<br /><br />With June of the present year [1891] the Ironton Land Co. was incorporated with capital of §100,000 and everything bids fair for a prosperous career, as this is the river center of North Tonawanda corporation, and being traversed by all the rail- roads it cannot fail to secure prominent manufacturing interests. <br /><br />The Ironton addition is less than a mile from the North Tonawanda City Hall. With the Iron & Steel Works, the surrounding lumber interests and the bolt and nut works of Plumb, Burdict ct Barnard, which has recently been located on the adjoining property, this section of the city will make a convenient and desirable place for mechanics and business firms. It has the water supply, electric lights, and will soon be connected by the electric street car line. <br /><br />A double two story brick block for stores has just been completed on Oliver street, making a nice addition to the mercantile conveniences there, a $15,000 brick school house was erected a couple of years since, a church dedicated in August and this section has all the modern conveniences of the older part of the city.</blockquote>
<strong>Land<br /></strong><br />In November 1889, <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/smithgeorgep1897bio.html">George P. Smith</a> and <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/hathawayaj1897bio.html">A. J. Hathaway</a> buy land opposite the iron works.<strong><br /><br /><br />Incorporation into the City of North Tonawanda</strong><br /><br />The village of "Ironton" (along with the villages of North Tonawanda, Gratwick and Martinsville) is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897. The last remnant of the old village name is in its "Ironton Street," running along the west edge of the original avenues. It never had its own post office, or government, but it is an interesting part of the patchwork of the original city that has mostly now vanished from public recall.<br /><br /><strong>An increasingly Polish community on the Avenues</strong><br /><br />For the numerous Polish on the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/3436">original seven avenues</a>, their church is the center of their community. OLC is established on Center Ave, exactly where the grotto is today. It is later rebuilt just south. <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/98">Pettit Creek</a> flows through the area (it will be covered).<br /><br /><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200105.pdf">The paving of Oliver Street being planned August 26, 1893.<br /></a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"> A progress report </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200169.pdf">about a month later</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">. October 5 </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200235.pdf">there is labor trouble between Poles and Italians</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">.</a><br /><br />The upper avenues remain essentially woods and marshes until the 1940s, when settlement accelerates with the nationwide Baby Boom. <br /><br /><em>Notes:</em><br /><br /> * <span><em>Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, of the State of New-York</em> (1884,</span> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EEEdAQAAIAAJ">Google Books)</a> Also has lots of details about new Goundry Street school and a brief mention of Gratwick school and enrollment figures.1890 "The village of Tonawanda is up and awake as far as educational matters are concerned. It has a progressive board of education composed of five members, all liberal men in their views. A new brick school building is nearly completed at Ironton, a suburb of the village, that would be a pride to any town."<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"><br /></a> <br />John Carr on Facebook in January 2017: "Go back to the 1800's and my great grandfather's farm, as well as several others, was there, extending from the river inland past Payne. The house was originally along the river. Eventually the lumber yards and steel mills pushed the property, and the house back from the river to Oliver (#849 or #869). In the 1890's, after his death, the property was sold off and developed into individual housing lots. At that time the area was annexed to North Tonawanda, before that the area was part of Wheatfield. Carr Street still exists by the town pool. Many of my great grand parents children and their families had homes in the area. We see the area today pretty much as it was developed then, however modernized a bit and not the capitol of industry it was then."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b5be67cf0e05477e8f4ad3161ab51422">ArcGIS</a> and old map notes:<br />
<ul>
<li>1860 map show Cap. O. Shepard in a few places. From Ohio. Buried there. H(enry) Rosebrock from Hanover, Germany (1880 Census); H. Luttman German. F. Roney</li>
<li>Homes on Ironton Street range between 1870 (96 Ironton), 1880 (144 Ironton) and into the early 1900s. Some Year 0s (e.g., 188).</li>
<li>The River Rd - Wheatfield "businesses" at southeast corner are 1900-1930, couple of year 0s, though 1886 map shows SOMETHING there earlier.</li>
<li>Weston & Son lumber all around in 1886 maps, Stocum & DeGraff south across Summer</li>
<li>Simson Street: Properties start at 1860 (23 Simson), couple 1880s and 0s. "<span>Rua, Joseph M" listed as owned on many. 1875 map it's called "Judd Ave, and names of homeowners are given (several Simsons); Called "Miller" in 1886 map. Early enclave for nearby mill, predating even Iron Works? </span></li>
</ul>
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Tonawanda on Survey of the Northern and Northwestern Lakes of Lake Erie, nucleus of Ironton, 1880).jpg
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1880
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Tonawanda Island
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<img class="cover" alt="1853 illustration of Tonawanda Island, showing the Beechwater residence, and a ferry The Saratoga plying the waters of the Niagara River." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/55e.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">1860 illustration showing the southern tip of Tonawanda Island. The lavish Beechwater residence and a smaller building are seen to the left of a mysterious mound (Harper's Monthly Magazine, May 1860) </span><span>This small island in the Niagara River is today home to the N.T. (Water) Pumping Station, Taylor Devices, a booming feral cat population and (we expect) a very few skillful mice. But a mysterious structure at the south end of the island drew some of the earliest widespread attention to our area.<br /><br /><strong>Early explorers encounter burial mounds left by Native Americans. Or giants.</strong><br /><br />Early European explorers notice a roughly 15 foot-high mound of earth near the southeastern end of the island. One explorer dates the peculiarity to the Native American Squawkie Hill phase (100-400 A.D.), which "included a religious aspect involving the burial of high-status individuals" (John Percy).<br /><br />Indeed, human remains are discovered within, though there is little consensus on who (or what) they were. In 1853, <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/557"><em>Gleason's Pictorial</em> reports</a> that resident Mrs. White (more on the Whites below) personally unearthed "the skull and bones of a human body, supposed to be an Indian chief...not...less than eight feet in stature." (The article adds vaguely that "Many other curiosities are found on the island.") An 1860 article in <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2980"><em>Harper's</em> tells</a> of "several heaps of bones, each comprising three or four skeletons" found just under a circle of stones with indications of fire. Modern mysteriophile Mason Winfield poi</span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">nts to sensational accounts in frontier newspapers claiming at least two "very bizarre skulls" were excavated from the enclosure, with a "portentous, protruding lower jaw and canine forehead," and buried in a way inconsistent with the traditions of the locals. An 1865 presentation before the Buffalo Historical Society claims the mounds are of Neutral Nation origin:</span></span>
<blockquote>Once in every ten years the survivors of each family gathered the remains of their deceased ancestors from the platforms on which they had been deposited, and buried them in heaps, with many superstitious ceremonies. This was called the " Feast of the Dead." Many of the mounds thus raised may still be seen in this vicinity. A conspicuous one on Tonawanda Island, is affirmed by the old Senecas to have had such an origin.</blockquote>
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">The skeletons are not confined to the great mound, either. Yet more human remains are found while digging the foundations for the Beechwater mansion, the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326"><em>Tonawanda News</em> reports</a> in 1906.<br /><br />Across the Little River, on the mainland, <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1565">evidence of</a> a Native American armory is discovered, with numerous broken flints and arrows.<br /><br />Earliest birth on the island? (From <em>The Niagara Frontier</em>, p. 29)</span></span>
<blockquote>The Senecas have a different name for Tonawanda Is land. They call it Ni-ga -we-na/i--a-ah, signifying The Small Island. It contains less than one hundred acres. Its upper end having a fine elevation above the surface of the river, was an occasional camping ground of the Senecas, before their final settlement in this region. Philip Kenjockety (hereafter more particularly noticed), claims to have been born there, while his father s family, then residing on the Genesee, were on one of their annual hunting expeditions.</blockquote>
<br /><strong>Carney's Island (1791)</strong><br /><br />The island's first European inhabitant arrives as early as 1791, one <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1070">Edward Carney</a>, who hopes to "squat" his way into possession of the island. The property's value skyrockets however when <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2352">Mordecai Noah's plan</a> to turn nearby Grand Island into a refuge for the world's displaced Jews gets underway around 1825, and the land is purchased at auction from the state by Samuel Leggate of New York City (<a href="https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html"><em>Lockport Union-Sun & Journal</em></a>). <br /><br /><strong>Stephen White's Island and the Beechwater mansion (1833)</strong><br /><br />The next speculators to turn their eyes to our area are the moneyed men of the East Boston Timber Company in 1833. They harvest the white oak of Grand Island to build ships in New England. President Stephen White purchases Tonawanda Island as a headquarters and residence, and it becomes known as "White's Island."
<blockquote>To cement his claim, White built a magnificent mansion at the southern end of the island. “Beechwater,” as White called it, was designed by Boston architect Samuel Perkins in 1835 for $18,000. The interior contained cherry, black walnut and marble embellishments (<a href="https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html"><em>Lockport Union-Sun & Journal)</em></a></blockquote>
The Beechwater mansion <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1565">boasts</a> "chimney pieces from Italy," surrounding pleasure grounds with "choice fruits, ornamental shrubbery and graveled walks," and was called the finest residence in Western New York at the time. Famous American lawyer and politician Daniel Webster (after whom Webster Street is named) <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326">visits Beechwater</a> on several occasions. Webster's son Fletcher is married to White's daughter Caroline there in 1836. <br /><br />Further plans of the East Boston Timber Company are thwarted by a poor economy. By 1840 the white oak of Grand Island has been cut down and floated away to New England. Stephen White dies, and his widow stays on. <br /><br /><strong>Summer resort and pleasure grounds</strong><br /><br />Beechwater is offered as a summer resort beginning around this time. Local organizations come to Tonawanda Island for picnics by the hundreds, brass band blaring away as the tugs pull their boats to the platforms. Writer N.P. Willis <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/4002">extols its beauty</a> in an item in this collection. Some propose turing the island into a <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/4038">sportsmen's paradise</a>: other a military training ground. <br /><br />William Wilkeson purchases the property from the White family in 1869, planting orchards and vineyards. There are some rumors the old mansion is haunted.<br /><br /><strong>Lumber and industrial era</strong><br /><br />In 1881, William Wilkeson sells the property to Smith, Fassett & Company, one of the many lumber concerns flocking to the Tonawandas. The natural harbor of the Little River make the island and opposite shore perfect for stacking, processing and shipping immense quantities of lumber, and North Tonawanda has become a major lumber market.<br /><br /><span>The ferry that operated will no longer be adequate. Apr 21 1883 "An act to incorporate the Tonawanda Island Bridge Company, for the purpose of constructing and operating a bridge from Tonawanda island to North Tonawanda [passed]" - </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IYJZAAAAYAAJ">Gen Statutes of State of New York</a>. <br /><br />Beechwater, Stephen White's mansion, coexists for a while with the lumber around it: "<span>The mansion is now [1887] the home of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore S. Fassett, who have renovated it and thoroughly restored its decaying beauties."<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/3942">1891 Buffalo Express Pictorial:</a> </strong><br /><br />"The Tonawanda Island Lumber District, which is shown in our largest illustration, is rapidly becoming famous as the *ne plus ultra* of all lumber plants. Being an island docked and navigable all around, it allows a compactness in the arrangement of the yards, which on any mainland would be impossible. Visiting buyers appreciate this feature of the district. They are able to get quickly into the midst of 100,000,000 feet of lumber without the usual long tramp to accomplish the same result, in a five-minute walk from North Tonawanda railroad station, they find lumber in front of them, lumber behind them, lumber on each side of them. In every direction millions of white pine are in sight, bright and clean, the gangways all planked, and an air of perfect neatness and cleanliness everywhere.<br /><br />"This property, when nothing but forest, fruit farms, and swamps, was purchased of our deceased townsman, William Wilkeson, by James R. Smith and Theodore S. Fassett with its development into a lumber district solely in view. This meant a very large operation for industrial development, requiring a heavy outlay of money to put the island into any shape for business also of $1,000,000, Mr. Lewis A. Hall becoming a director in the company, with a large holding of the stock. Railroad switch tracks ran into every yard, and while these tracks are owned by the N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R., all other roads have equal privileges on the Island by the provisions of the Bridge Charter.<br /><br />"The Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Co. are now building a $40,000 plant near the north end, to furnish power for an electric street railroad. These facilities, with a telephone service and telegraph office, leave but little to be desired. The docked frontage on the property is now nearly two miles in length. The Tonawanda City Water Works, located on the west side of the island, are fully described elsewhere.<br /><br />"The discouragements met by Messrs. Smith & Fassett in reaching the present grand development of the property are said to have been many and great, but the work is done, and the hurry and bustle of wheeling lumber from every direction, into planing mills or direct into cars, gives no outward evidence that but one year ago orchard and forest and swamp would have seen the sight where now three mammoth planing mills are throwing off their smoke high in air, and millions of lumber loom up in regular piles over 100 acres of level well-drained ground."<br /><br /></span><strong>National Guard billets there</strong> during a labor uprising. Although said to still be largely structurally sound, the mansion is <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326">torn down in 1906</a>, as the "demand for lumber yardage makes its razing imperative." It was long been rumored to be haunted. A section of its fireplace is preserved and cared for by the Historical Society of the Tonawandas.<br /><br />Later significant occupants of Tonawanda Island include the International Paper Company and the R. T. Jones Lumber company.<br /><br />Emile Durkee Bridge.
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html">NIAGARA DISCOVERIES: <em>Tonawanda Island, Stephen White and His Magnificent Mansion,</em> Ann Marie Linnabery</a></li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/details/pioneerhistoryof00turne/page/n6">Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York, 1849</a></li>
<li>Percy, John. <a href="https://www.wnyheritage.org/product/buffalo-niagara_connections_a_new_regional_history_of_the_niagar/index.html"><em>Buffalo-Niagara Connections: A New Regional History of the Niagara Link</em>.</a> Western New York Heritage Inc. 2001</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/92">International Paper Company</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/48">Lumber Scenes</a></li>
</ul>
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Tonawanda Island, map detail (Principal part of Tonawanda Harbor, 1880-06).jpg
Date
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1880-06
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/74d2938be76cbc66887016d597fb84f0.jpg
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/bf1e3d02b83bb107c58f591d3aec5d2d.jpg
f8654c6527c683629a0646a5880d56f7
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Principal part of Tonawanda Harbor, map composite (1880-06).jpg
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1880-06
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/fee32a05de13c02a205135cf83cee90b.jpg
51aa66bc5a24652728b478b748e1c497
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Survey of lands under water for William H. Gratwick and Robert L. Fryer, map (1876-12-07).jpg
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1876-12-07
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Gratwick (Neighborhood)
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<img class="cover" alt="Map of Gratwick area and dockage illustration" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/93b.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">1877 Survey</span>In 1870 W. H. Gratwick of Buffalo purchases 50 acres along the Niagara River from Benjamin Felton and John Simson. By 1879 the <span>White, Gratwick & Mitchell Lumber Company </span>has a planing mill and substantial lumberyards on the site. They employ 450 men, mostly of German origin, who settle northeast of the facilities. The village’s main street, Felton, is named after Benjamin F. Felton. By 1884 there is a "neat frame" school house with one teacher and 30 pupils, built by Felton (school board president at the time). Gratwick is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897.<br /><br />From the guidebook "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/608">North Tonawanda and Tonawanda</a>" (1891):
<blockquote>Among the pioneers in the wholesale lumber trade of this place was W.H. Gratwick, who, in 1870, purchased fifty acres from Hon. John Simson and B.F. Felton, adjoining the Niagara River, about two miles below the mouth of Tonawanda Creek, and started a lumberyard. A half dozen years later P.W. Ledoux built the sash, door, and blind factory, which a few years later was purchased by Parks & Son, who operated the same until its recent purchase by Hollister Brothers. Mr. Gratwick erected a large planing mill in 1879, and from that time forward the place has steadily grown until it now has about 1,000 inhabitants. The lumber and mill interests of Gratwick, Smith & Fryer, Touawanda Lumber Co., and Hollister Brothers will be mentioned on other pages. <br /><br />Augustus Miller. — After the lumber interests, the next manufactory of importance in Gratwick is the wagon shop at the corner of Oliver and Felton streets. This was built in 1887 by August Miller, and besides doing all kinds of blacksmith and iron repair work, puts up a quantity of wagons, trucks, and other new work. Mr. Miller employs from five to ten men and has added an important industry to Gratwick, in a line of diversified manufacturing for which there is much room for development. <br /><br />Churches, Schools, Etc. — A class of the Methodist Episcopal church was organized in Gratwick in 1887, and the membership, a short time afterwards, commenced the erection of a church, which with lot, is worth about $3,000. This Avas dedicated in 1889 and has been in charge of Rev. J.S. Duxbury up to the present writing. <br /><br />St. Peter's German Evangelical church was organized April 5, 1888, by Rev. Kottler and the house of worship erected the same year. Rev. Conrad Bachman, who was educated at the missionschool ot Basle, Switzerland, came to this charge in October, 1888, and teaches the parochial school. Some sixty families are connected with this church. <br /><br />Gratwick has a public school with about 100 pupils, a brass band, two hose companies, and other societies; numerous hotels, stores, coal offices, and abundance of saloons. It was made a part of North Tonawanda corporation the present year, since which it has been placed in connection with the water mains, has electric lights, and other corporation advantages. <br /><br />Riverside. — From Gratwick station to the corporation limits on the west is nearly a mile, and as the river presents a graceful curve and nice beach in this vicinity, it has been proposed to call the station which will probably be located one and a half miles below Gratwick, "Riverside." Last year the Riverside Land Co. was incorporated and purchased forty acres on the north side of the Erie railroad, mostly within the new corporate limits. The officers are H.E. Warner, Pres.; J.A. Kuck, of Buflalo, V.P.; Charles W. Archibald, of North Tonawanda, Sec, and L. Landauer, of Albion, Treas. <br /><br />Bluff Point. — E.A. Milliman, a farmer and contractor, of Wheatfield town, has been seven times appointed a deputy collector, which office he now holds. Mr. Milliman owns a handsome farm of 120 acres at Bluff Point, bounded on the west and south by the Niagara River. The river at this point has a clean gravel shore with high bluff, making a delightful place for a summer location. <em>Editor's note: <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/607">1878 illustration and modern photo</a></em><br /><br />G.F. Goerss, also a deputy collector, owns a fifty-acre farm near the mile line, which is handsomely located and will presently be within the radius of development. Last year he erected a dwelling in Gratwick. Mr. Goerss was born in Wheatfield and is an authority on real estate values. He has been supervisor, J.P., Justice of Sessions, and in 1887-8 a member of Assembly.</blockquote>
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Survey of lands under water for Simson, John, at Grawick, map (1877-07-24).jpg
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1877-07-24
map
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Map
A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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Survey of lands under water for McGraw and Co., Bond and Front Streets, map (1877-07-24).jpg
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1877-07-24
map
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Map
A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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Survey of lands under water for John Simson and Benjamin F. Felton (1877-07-24).jpg
Date
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1877-07-24
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/913d453a61827189ce005dba3625151e.jpg
eb35b9c347cd3077f3d123e2625bec06
Map
A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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Survey of lands under water for John Simson, Benjamin F. Felton (1877-07-24).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1877-07-24
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/9962b833d34175d3d0ce9d79e2e5da65.jpg
268b8718a36bc7863c14b0181fcbe057
Map
A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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Survey of lands under water for John Simson & Theoren W. Woolson, Lots 80, 81 (1877-07-24).jpg
Date
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1877-07-24
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/be7e7aeb4f935ad3b57e9a79db76c385.jpg
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Map
A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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North Tonawanda, Martinsville, Ironton, map detail (1895).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1895
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/dbe1106cf915d9e4070a98ba2c123ba4.jpg
877cc71a1a4538dcc32037b1aa3d8df7
Map
A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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Map of Niagara River, lands ceded to state (1822).jpg
Date
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1822
map
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Map
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Map of Harbor and Lumber District (1877).jpg
Date
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1877
map
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Map
A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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Niagara Frontier War of 1812, map (1888).jpg
Description
An account of the resource
Showing Tonawanda "Guard House." Is this the block house? Maybe. In small outposts, a blockhouse might also serve as a guardhouse if it was the only shelter available. But in formal reports or engineer maps, the two terms were distinct.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1812
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/b51347942139b56cd601874dfa156927.jpg
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Map
A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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Title
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Niagara County, map (D. H. Burr, 1829-01-05).jpg
Description
An account of the resource
Author Burr, David H., 1803-1875
Date 1829
Short Title Niagara County.
Publisher D.H. Burr
Publisher Location New York
Type Atlas Map
Obj Height cm 41
Obj Width cm 43
Scale 1 151,000
Note Hand col. engraved map. Relief shown by hachures. Shows flouring mills, factories, forges, saw mills, churches, parcels, etc. Includes "Remarks" concerning land subdivision in county. Prime meridian: Washington, D.C.
State/Province New York
County Niagara County (N.Y.)
Full Title Map of the County of Niagara. By David H. Burr. Published by the Surveyor General, pursuant to an Act of the Legislature. Entered according to an Act of Congress Jany. 5th. 1829 by David H. Burr of the State of New York. Engd. by Rawdon, Clark & Co., Albany & Rawdon, Wright & Co., N. York.
List No 0103.048
Page No No. 49
Series No 52
Engraver or Printer Rawdon, Clark & Co.
Engraver or Printer Rawdon, Wright & Co.
Publication Author Burr, David H., 1803-1875
Pub Date 1829
Pub Title An atlas of the State of New York, containing a map of the State and of the several counties ... under the superintendance & direction of Simeon DeWitt, Surveyor General, pursuant to an Act of the Legislature, and also the physical geography of the State & of the several counties & statistical tables of the same, by David H. Burr. New York, published by David H. Burr. 1829. Engravd. by Rawdon, Clark & Co. Albany & Rawdon, Wright & Co., New York.
Pub Reference Phillips, 2206; Nestler, H. A bibliography of New York State communities 3d ed., p. 107; Creek, A.B. Maps of the Genesee Valley & Finger Lakes Region 1776-1950, p. 62; LeGear. Atlases of the United States, L2396; Ristow, W.W. American maps and mapmakers,
Pub Note This atlas is the second atlas published in the 19th century of one of the individual states in the U.S., preceded only by Mill's Atlas of South Carolina, issued in 1825, and followed closely, also in 1829, by Greenleaf's Atlas of the State of Maine (Ristow, p96). This copy is the 1st edition, second state, actually published in 1832. Howard Welsh rescued this copy which was obviously about to be broken up and disbound. When we acquired it from his estate it was completely disbound; subsequently we had it rebound and restored. The Map of the City and County of New York is dated 2nd. ed., 1832 ; Haskell 725 lists this as appearing in the 1829 ed. of the Atlas. Therefore, we can presume that there are two 1829 eds., the first state with this map dated 1829 (Haskell 721) and the second state which is this copy with the 1832 map (Haskell 725). The Map of New York State is also dated 1832. All other maps are dated 1829. Full hand painted color. Bound in half leather marbled paper covered boards with "New York Atlas" stamped in gilt on the spine.
Pub List No 0103.000
Pub Type State Atlas
Pub Maps 51
Pub Height cm 56
Pub Width cm 45
Image No 0103048
Download 1 <a href=https://www.davidrumsey.com/rumsey/download.pl?image=/D0051/0103048.sid target=_blank>Full Image Download in MrSID Format</a>
Download 2 <a href="https://www.extensis.com/support/geoviewer-9" target="_blank">GeoViewer for JP2 and SID files</a>
Authors Burr, David H., 1803-1875
Collection Rumsey Collection
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1829-01-05
hd
map
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Map
A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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Map of the western part of the state of New York, 1823, detail (Vance, NYPL).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1823
map
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Title
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Richardson Boat Company
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Richardson Boat Company, c.1929" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/46.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">Richardson Boat Company on Bryant and Sweeney, c.1929.</span> From the <a href="http://www.richardsonboats.com/">Richardson Boat Owners Association website</a>:
<blockquote>In 1909 G.Reid Richardson founded the Richardson Boat Company in North Tonawanda, New York to build high quality boats at a fair price. History has shown that he was quite successful in this undertaking. Over the years many types of boats were produced including not only cruising vessels but sailboats, runabouts, racing boats and military craft during the war years. The Richardson Boat Company organized "Sailaways" where the owners of newly purchased boats were encouraged to congregate in North Tonawanda and join in a cruise down the Erie Canal to New York City. Sadly, Mr. Richardson passed away in 1937 and his wife Ethel took over management until 1941 when the company was sold to a group of local businessmen.</blockquote>
<br />From his <a href="https://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2591">1939 memorial pamphlet</a>:
<blockquote><b>G[EORGE] REID RICHARDSON</b>, boat builder, was born at Midland, Michigan, December 13, 1879, son of Israel Harris Reid and Edith (Turner) Richardson. <br /><br />After a high school education he became a mechanic with the Brooks Boat Company at Bay City, Michigan, and in 1906 entered the employ of the Niagara Motor Boat Company at North Tonawanda, New York, as shop foreman. <br /><br />Three years later he founded the Richardson Boat Company of North Tonawanda, of which he was president and general manager until his death. The company built standardized cruisers and other pleasure craft, ranging in size from twenty-five to thirty-five feet. Starting in a small way, it was at the time of Mr. Richardson’s death the largest company in the world building medium-sized cruisers exclusively. It employed one hundred men and produced annually an average of one hundred and sixty boats which, under the trade names of Little Giant, Junior and Master Cruisabout, were sold all over the world. The Richardson hull is well known for its practicability and beauty. <br /><br />Mr. Richardson was always ready to serve the business, civic and social interests of his community. He was a director of the Certified Finance Company of Tonawanda and from 1935 until his death he was president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Tonawandas. He was particularly interested in the Boy Scouts, held various offices in the council of the organization and for many years was active in promoting the movement. <br /><br />He was a director of the National Association of Engine and Boat Manufacturers and the National Motor Boat Association and a member of the American Power Boat Association, I.O.O.F., and the Tonawanda Kiwanis, Youngstown Yacht, Olcott Yacht, Buffalo Launch and New York Regatta clubs. <br /><br />During the World War the Richardson Boat Company built harbor tugs for the United States government. <br /><br />In religion he was a Unitarian but at the time of his death was a member of the North Presbyterian Church. In his politics he supported the Republican party. <br /><br />His hobby was his interest in boys. Fishing was his favorite outdoor recreation. He was a man of the highest character and was everywhere esteemed for his honesty and trustworthiness. <br /><br />He was married twice: (1) at North Tonawanda, New York, January 25, 1910, to Lottie Belle, daughter of Sylvester Perry, of that place; she died in 1911, leaving a daughter, Jean Elisabeth, wife of James Franklin Moore; (2) at North Tonawanda, June 21, 1924, to Mrs. Ethel (Hill) Hoadley, daughter of Harvey P. Hill, a lumberman, of that place. <br /><br />Mr. Richardson died at North Tonawanda, New York, February 17, 1937.</blockquote>
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Richardson Boat company, map detail (1951).jpg
map
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Title
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Pettit Creek
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="https://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/98.jpg" alt="A 1908 map depicts the course of the State Ditch, which was originally Pettit Creek, and covered in 1925. The background photograph shows the mouth of the creek at the foot of Wheatfield Street." /> <span class="cover-caption">A 1908 map depicts the course of the State Ditch, which was originally Pettit Creek. The background photograph shows the mouth of the creek at the foot of Wheatfield Street.</span> From <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/609"><em>North Tonawanda Centennial Magazine, 1865-1965</em></a>:
<blockquote>A lazy little creek flowed into the river near the foot of what is now Wheatfield Street, just opposite the north end of Little Island. On its bank [in 1810] one of our earliest settlers built a log cabin and gave the stream its name. Even today old timers know where Pettit Creek was. It became the state ditch which was made into a storm drain and covered.</blockquote>
Partially because residents filled Pettit Creek with tin cans and dead animals, it was covered up in 1925 and converted into a culvert. Soon afterward, Durez (later Occidental) began polluting the waterway properly, with carcinogens and gases that killed fish and exploded basements. In the mid-1980s New York State sued Occidental for its abuse, and several cleanup efforts were undertaken.
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Petit Creek, map detail (1837).jpg
Date
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1837
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/44465f8343b5c95bfdd8bf75812482d8.jpg
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Map
A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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Genesee Lands with County Subdivisions, map (1829?).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1829
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/773384c6b590dbf733be5e38b269ae26.jpg
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J & T Charlton, map detail (1893).jpg
Date
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1893
map
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Title
A name given to the resource
Trains and Trolleys
Description
An account of the resource
<strong>Trains</strong> <br /><br />Soon after the Erie Canal is completed, railroads begin to compete for business.<br /><br />From <a href="https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/930152959">researchworks.oclc.org</a>:
<blockquote>In 1834 the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad Company was incorporated to take over the Buffalo and Black Rock Company. It extended the lines to Niagara Falls and into Tonawanda. In 1853 the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad Company was leased by New York Central Railroad and was merged in 1855.</blockquote>
From <a href="https://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/niagara-falls-history/niagara-falls-municipal-history/railroads-of-niagara-falls/the-buffalo-niagara-falls-railroad/">niagarafallsinfo.com</a>:
<blockquote>The Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad was incorporated on May 3rd, 1834. The Legislature of the State of New York passed a law to empower the railroad to construct a single or double track railroad between the City of Buffalo and the <a href="https://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/niagara-falls-history/niagara-falls-municipal-history/the-city-of-the-falls-plan/the-idea-for-the-city-of-the-falls/">Village at Niagara Falls</a>. <br /><br />The railroad had a mandate to operate for a 50 year term and was empowered to absorb all rights, privileges and franchises belonging to the Buffalo and Black Rock Railroad Company, which had been built and was being operated by horse power.<br /><br />The Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad began operating in 1845. The 28 mile trip from Buffalo to Niagara Falls was a three hour journey being pulled by a wood stoked steam locomotive....<br /><br />In 1852, the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad relocated their tracks to the west side of the Erie Canal. <br /><br />On December 22nd 1853, the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad was leased to the New York Central Railroad. <br /><br />On April 23rd 1869, the New York Central Railroad began operations within the Niagara escarpment.</blockquote>
From <a href="https://buffalohistory.org/Explore/Exhibits/virtual_exhibits/buffalo_anniversary/175th/page_e1.htm">buffalohistory.org</a>:
<blockquote>The Buffalo and Niagara Falls Rail Road was the first in Erie County to use steam locomotives. Service from Black Rock to Tonawanda began in August, 1836; from Buffalo to Tonawanda in September; and by November, 1836, the train ran on a regular schedule between Buffalo & Niagara Falls.</blockquote>
<strong>Railroads on the maps</strong><br /><br />The <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/3974">1837 Tonawanda/Whitehaven map</a> shows the B&NF railroad already established on Webster. It also shows a "Road to Lockport" and a "Proposed railroad to Lockport" heading out "Detroit Street" (later, Goundry Street).<br /><br />In <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/1258">this 1838 map</a>, it appears the former "road" hosts a new "Tonawanda & Lockport Railroad." Some more info from <a href="https://www.newyorkcentraltrainstation.org/history-new-york-central-train-station">newyorkcentraltrainstattion.org.</a><br /><br />By <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/3560">1852</a>, a third line, "The Canandaigua and Niagara Falls," is added. From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmira_and_Lake_Ontario_Railroad">Wikipedia</a>:
<blockquote>On July 1, 1853, the Canandaigua and Niagara Falls Railroad opened between Canandaigua and North Tonawanda. It was also 6 ft (1,829 mm) broad gauge, and was leased by the Canandaigua & Elmira RR, giving it access to the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge.</blockquote>
<br />In <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/1664">this 1854 map</a>, The Canandaigua route has changed to run south of the Erie Canal and then be carried over the canal into North Tonawanda at the foot of Oliver street. The cantilever bridge will later be built here.<br /><br />By the time of <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/240">this 1875 map</a>, a third railroad crosses the canal into North Tonawanda: The Erie, at the foot of Vandervoort street.<br /><br />As late as 1908, there are still tracks on the east side of Webster street. Looks like the railroad agrees to remove them in December 1921, not sure when it happens.<br /><br /><strong>Trolleys</strong> <br /><br />Before everybody in North Tonawanda could afford their very own muffler-less Honda Civic to run up and down Oliver Street, trolleys were an important means of personal transportation. Several lines ran throughout the city, moving people to and from their jobs, churches, or just out for a look around. Though they may seem romantic to us now, people griped about the trolleys the same way we complain about snow plows today. Apparently their slow speed was sometimes targeted: An item in this set describes a "well-known peddler" in the Gratwick area who is injured by a trolley car. The author drolly observes, "'Twould have been a real miracle if a Gratwick car could have got up enough speed to have killed him" (Tonawanda News, 1908-2-13). <br /><br />The trolley era did not last long. By the 1920s, the electric streetcar had been passed by the gasoline-powered bus as the most prevalent means of public transportation. Another article in this set from the Tonawanda News, "Carpenter now operates 14 busses in the Tonawandas," outlines the rise of the Carpenter Rapid Transit buses.
Map
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A name given to the resource
Matthews, Northrup & Co.'s new map of the city of North Tonawanda, Niagara Co., N.Y. (1891).jpg
Description
An account of the resource
Showing trolley and train routes
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1891
hd
map
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Early Accounts of the Tonawandas
Description
An account of the resource
These book excerpts and articles describe the earliest days of the white settlers in the Tonawandas, as well as the nearby villages of Martinsville, Sawyer's Station, Gratwick and Ironton (incorporated into the city of North Tonawanda in 1897).
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Downtown Village of Tonawanda, guard lock, map detail (1837).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1837
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/26cf81794558c56e8dc461b21f08c75c.jpg
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Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda Island
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="1853 illustration of Tonawanda Island, showing the Beechwater residence, and a ferry The Saratoga plying the waters of the Niagara River." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/55e.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">1860 illustration showing the southern tip of Tonawanda Island. The lavish Beechwater residence and a smaller building are seen to the left of a mysterious mound (Harper's Monthly Magazine, May 1860) </span><span>This small island in the Niagara River is today home to the N.T. (Water) Pumping Station, Taylor Devices, a booming feral cat population and (we expect) a very few skillful mice. But a mysterious structure at the south end of the island drew some of the earliest widespread attention to our area.<br /><br /><strong>Early explorers encounter burial mounds left by Native Americans. Or giants.</strong><br /><br />Early European explorers notice a roughly 15 foot-high mound of earth near the southeastern end of the island. One explorer dates the peculiarity to the Native American Squawkie Hill phase (100-400 A.D.), which "included a religious aspect involving the burial of high-status individuals" (John Percy).<br /><br />Indeed, human remains are discovered within, though there is little consensus on who (or what) they were. In 1853, <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/557"><em>Gleason's Pictorial</em> reports</a> that resident Mrs. White (more on the Whites below) personally unearthed "the skull and bones of a human body, supposed to be an Indian chief...not...less than eight feet in stature." (The article adds vaguely that "Many other curiosities are found on the island.") An 1860 article in <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2980"><em>Harper's</em> tells</a> of "several heaps of bones, each comprising three or four skeletons" found just under a circle of stones with indications of fire. Modern mysteriophile Mason Winfield poi</span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">nts to sensational accounts in frontier newspapers claiming at least two "very bizarre skulls" were excavated from the enclosure, with a "portentous, protruding lower jaw and canine forehead," and buried in a way inconsistent with the traditions of the locals. An 1865 presentation before the Buffalo Historical Society claims the mounds are of Neutral Nation origin:</span></span>
<blockquote>Once in every ten years the survivors of each family gathered the remains of their deceased ancestors from the platforms on which they had been deposited, and buried them in heaps, with many superstitious ceremonies. This was called the " Feast of the Dead." Many of the mounds thus raised may still be seen in this vicinity. A conspicuous one on Tonawanda Island, is affirmed by the old Senecas to have had such an origin.</blockquote>
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">The skeletons are not confined to the great mound, either. Yet more human remains are found while digging the foundations for the Beechwater mansion, the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326"><em>Tonawanda News</em> reports</a> in 1906.<br /><br />Across the Little River, on the mainland, <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1565">evidence of</a> a Native American armory is discovered, with numerous broken flints and arrows.<br /><br />Earliest birth on the island? (From <em>The Niagara Frontier</em>, p. 29)</span></span>
<blockquote>The Senecas have a different name for Tonawanda Is land. They call it Ni-ga -we-na/i--a-ah, signifying The Small Island. It contains less than one hundred acres. Its upper end having a fine elevation above the surface of the river, was an occasional camping ground of the Senecas, before their final settlement in this region. Philip Kenjockety (hereafter more particularly noticed), claims to have been born there, while his father s family, then residing on the Genesee, were on one of their annual hunting expeditions.</blockquote>
<br /><strong>Carney's Island (1791)</strong><br /><br />The island's first European inhabitant arrives as early as 1791, one <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1070">Edward Carney</a>, who hopes to "squat" his way into possession of the island. The property's value skyrockets however when <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2352">Mordecai Noah's plan</a> to turn nearby Grand Island into a refuge for the world's displaced Jews gets underway around 1825, and the land is purchased at auction from the state by Samuel Leggate of New York City (<a href="https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html"><em>Lockport Union-Sun & Journal</em></a>). <br /><br /><strong>Stephen White's Island and the Beechwater mansion (1833)</strong><br /><br />The next speculators to turn their eyes to our area are the moneyed men of the East Boston Timber Company in 1833. They harvest the white oak of Grand Island to build ships in New England. President Stephen White purchases Tonawanda Island as a headquarters and residence, and it becomes known as "White's Island."
<blockquote>To cement his claim, White built a magnificent mansion at the southern end of the island. “Beechwater,” as White called it, was designed by Boston architect Samuel Perkins in 1835 for $18,000. The interior contained cherry, black walnut and marble embellishments (<a href="https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html"><em>Lockport Union-Sun & Journal)</em></a></blockquote>
The Beechwater mansion <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1565">boasts</a> "chimney pieces from Italy," surrounding pleasure grounds with "choice fruits, ornamental shrubbery and graveled walks," and was called the finest residence in Western New York at the time. Famous American lawyer and politician Daniel Webster (after whom Webster Street is named) <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326">visits Beechwater</a> on several occasions. Webster's son Fletcher is married to White's daughter Caroline there in 1836. <br /><br />Further plans of the East Boston Timber Company are thwarted by a poor economy. By 1840 the white oak of Grand Island has been cut down and floated away to New England. Stephen White dies, and his widow stays on. <br /><br /><strong>Summer resort and pleasure grounds</strong><br /><br />Beechwater is offered as a summer resort beginning around this time. Local organizations come to Tonawanda Island for picnics by the hundreds, brass band blaring away as the tugs pull their boats to the platforms. Writer N.P. Willis <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/4002">extols its beauty</a> in an item in this collection. Some propose turing the island into a <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/4038">sportsmen's paradise</a>: other a military training ground. <br /><br />William Wilkeson purchases the property from the White family in 1869, planting orchards and vineyards. There are some rumors the old mansion is haunted.<br /><br /><strong>Lumber and industrial era</strong><br /><br />In 1881, William Wilkeson sells the property to Smith, Fassett & Company, one of the many lumber concerns flocking to the Tonawandas. The natural harbor of the Little River make the island and opposite shore perfect for stacking, processing and shipping immense quantities of lumber, and North Tonawanda has become a major lumber market.<br /><br /><span>The ferry that operated will no longer be adequate. Apr 21 1883 "An act to incorporate the Tonawanda Island Bridge Company, for the purpose of constructing and operating a bridge from Tonawanda island to North Tonawanda [passed]" - </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IYJZAAAAYAAJ">Gen Statutes of State of New York</a>. <br /><br />Beechwater, Stephen White's mansion, coexists for a while with the lumber around it: "<span>The mansion is now [1887] the home of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore S. Fassett, who have renovated it and thoroughly restored its decaying beauties."<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/3942">1891 Buffalo Express Pictorial:</a> </strong><br /><br />"The Tonawanda Island Lumber District, which is shown in our largest illustration, is rapidly becoming famous as the *ne plus ultra* of all lumber plants. Being an island docked and navigable all around, it allows a compactness in the arrangement of the yards, which on any mainland would be impossible. Visiting buyers appreciate this feature of the district. They are able to get quickly into the midst of 100,000,000 feet of lumber without the usual long tramp to accomplish the same result, in a five-minute walk from North Tonawanda railroad station, they find lumber in front of them, lumber behind them, lumber on each side of them. In every direction millions of white pine are in sight, bright and clean, the gangways all planked, and an air of perfect neatness and cleanliness everywhere.<br /><br />"This property, when nothing but forest, fruit farms, and swamps, was purchased of our deceased townsman, William Wilkeson, by James R. Smith and Theodore S. Fassett with its development into a lumber district solely in view. This meant a very large operation for industrial development, requiring a heavy outlay of money to put the island into any shape for business also of $1,000,000, Mr. Lewis A. Hall becoming a director in the company, with a large holding of the stock. Railroad switch tracks ran into every yard, and while these tracks are owned by the N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R., all other roads have equal privileges on the Island by the provisions of the Bridge Charter.<br /><br />"The Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Co. are now building a $40,000 plant near the north end, to furnish power for an electric street railroad. These facilities, with a telephone service and telegraph office, leave but little to be desired. The docked frontage on the property is now nearly two miles in length. The Tonawanda City Water Works, located on the west side of the island, are fully described elsewhere.<br /><br />"The discouragements met by Messrs. Smith & Fassett in reaching the present grand development of the property are said to have been many and great, but the work is done, and the hurry and bustle of wheeling lumber from every direction, into planing mills or direct into cars, gives no outward evidence that but one year ago orchard and forest and swamp would have seen the sight where now three mammoth planing mills are throwing off their smoke high in air, and millions of lumber loom up in regular piles over 100 acres of level well-drained ground."<br /><br /></span><strong>National Guard billets there</strong> during a labor uprising. Although said to still be largely structurally sound, the mansion is <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326">torn down in 1906</a>, as the "demand for lumber yardage makes its razing imperative." It was long been rumored to be haunted. A section of its fireplace is preserved and cared for by the Historical Society of the Tonawandas.<br /><br />Later significant occupants of Tonawanda Island include the International Paper Company and the R. T. Jones Lumber company.<br /><br />Emile Durkee Bridge.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html">NIAGARA DISCOVERIES: <em>Tonawanda Island, Stephen White and His Magnificent Mansion,</em> Ann Marie Linnabery</a></li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/details/pioneerhistoryof00turne/page/n6">Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York, 1849</a></li>
<li>Percy, John. <a href="https://www.wnyheritage.org/product/buffalo-niagara_connections_a_new_regional_history_of_the_niagar/index.html"><em>Buffalo-Niagara Connections: A New Regional History of the Niagara Link</em>.</a> Western New York Heritage Inc. 2001</li>
</ul>
Relation
A related resource
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/92">International Paper Company</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/48">Lumber Scenes</a></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
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Title
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Mansion house and Indian Mound on Tonawanda Island, map detail (1837).jpg
Description
An account of the resource
Stephen White's Beechwater.
Date
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1837
beechwater
map
tonawandaisland
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/7d25218e521ba22301b0963ca28386c2.jpg
aef061e9594e97851973cc127c743774
Dublin Core
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Title
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Avenues / Ironton (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/83e.jpg" alt="Ironton and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr" /><span class="cover-caption">Ironton Street and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr</span> <b><em>See also: <a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/lost-village-of-ironton/">The lost village of Ironton and the birth of the Avenues</a> and <a href="https://nthistory.com/collections/show/141">Avenues Folk: Mary Kijowski-Konstanty of Fifteenth Ave</a>.</em></b><br /><br /><strong>Origins of Ironton</strong><br /><br />The "spark" for Ironton arrives in 1873, when Niagara Furnace (later <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/16">Tonawanda Iron and Steel)</a> locates on the banks of the Niagara River near Wheatfield Street. The unofficial village of "Ironton" is named after the promising venture. After initial excitement (and investment in the surrounding land) however, the furnace shuts down after only a year in operation. <br /><br /><strong>Early doings</strong><br /><br />In 1875 map, h<span>omes are seen in the lower Avenues. Oliver Street business? Churches. Colonel Payne's estate is still intact across Payne and up to Dahlgren Place, the former northern limit of the early Avenues. Ironton Street from 1880s according to ArcGIS.<br /><br /></span>"From 1880-1890, its population increased form 1,492 to 4,793," (Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.110).<br /><br />In 1882, the establishment of a John Cichoki's <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1665">tavern on River Road</a> near Wheatfield street <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1543">is a foothold</a> for early Polish settlers. Grocers and butchers are nearby. In 1884 a "minor school in a small frame building" is established less than a quarter mile east down Wheatfield at Dahlgren Place (<a href="https://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1477">Buffalo Courier Express, 1905)</a>. In 1889 or 1890, the much larger, <span>Richardsonian Romanesque style</span> <span><a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/64">Ironton Public School #2</a> opens at the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street. <br /></span><br /><strong>The furnace burns again; the River Road industrial corridor</strong><br /><br />The old Niagara Furnace site is expanded and relaunched in 1889 by Tonawanda Iron and Steel. The adjacent marshes and former farms once again become valuable real estate, with "manufacturing interests" courted for the valuable land along the river and railroad tracks. More Poles, Hungarians and others flock to the Avenues, bringing their languages, traditions and chickens with them. An 1891 guidebook describes the real estate situation:
<blockquote>It was purchased from Pratt & Jewett by Geo. P. Smith and A. J. Hathaway, Oct. 15, 1889, replatted, and Jan. 1st, 1890, put on the market. Within a year 500 building lots had been sold and 100 houses erected.<br /><br />With June of the present year [1891] the Ironton Land Co. was incorporated with capital of §100,000 and everything bids fair for a prosperous career, as this is the river center of North Tonawanda corporation, and being traversed by all the rail- roads it cannot fail to secure prominent manufacturing interests. <br /><br />The Ironton addition is less than a mile from the North Tonawanda City Hall. With the Iron & Steel Works, the surrounding lumber interests and the bolt and nut works of Plumb, Burdict ct Barnard, which has recently been located on the adjoining property, this section of the city will make a convenient and desirable place for mechanics and business firms. It has the water supply, electric lights, and will soon be connected by the electric street car line. <br /><br />A double two story brick block for stores has just been completed on Oliver street, making a nice addition to the mercantile conveniences there, a $15,000 brick school house was erected a couple of years since, a church dedicated in August and this section has all the modern conveniences of the older part of the city.</blockquote>
<strong>Land<br /></strong><br />In November 1889, <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/smithgeorgep1897bio.html">George P. Smith</a> and <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/hathawayaj1897bio.html">A. J. Hathaway</a> buy land opposite the iron works.<strong><br /><br /><br />Incorporation into the City of North Tonawanda</strong><br /><br />The village of "Ironton" (along with the villages of North Tonawanda, Gratwick and Martinsville) is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897. The last remnant of the old village name is in its "Ironton Street," running along the west edge of the original avenues. It never had its own post office, or government, but it is an interesting part of the patchwork of the original city that has mostly now vanished from public recall.<br /><br /><strong>An increasingly Polish community on the Avenues</strong><br /><br />For the numerous Polish on the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/3436">original seven avenues</a>, their church is the center of their community. OLC is established on Center Ave, exactly where the grotto is today. It is later rebuilt just south. <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/98">Pettit Creek</a> flows through the area (it will be covered).<br /><br /><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200105.pdf">The paving of Oliver Street being planned August 26, 1893.<br /></a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"> A progress report </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200169.pdf">about a month later</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">. October 5 </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200235.pdf">there is labor trouble between Poles and Italians</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">.</a><br /><br />The upper avenues remain essentially woods and marshes until the 1940s, when settlement accelerates with the nationwide Baby Boom. <br /><br /><em>Notes:</em><br /><br /> * <span><em>Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, of the State of New-York</em> (1884,</span> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EEEdAQAAIAAJ">Google Books)</a> Also has lots of details about new Goundry Street school and a brief mention of Gratwick school and enrollment figures.1890 "The village of Tonawanda is up and awake as far as educational matters are concerned. It has a progressive board of education composed of five members, all liberal men in their views. A new brick school building is nearly completed at Ironton, a suburb of the village, that would be a pride to any town."<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"><br /></a> <br />John Carr on Facebook in January 2017: "Go back to the 1800's and my great grandfather's farm, as well as several others, was there, extending from the river inland past Payne. The house was originally along the river. Eventually the lumber yards and steel mills pushed the property, and the house back from the river to Oliver (#849 or #869). In the 1890's, after his death, the property was sold off and developed into individual housing lots. At that time the area was annexed to North Tonawanda, before that the area was part of Wheatfield. Carr Street still exists by the town pool. Many of my great grand parents children and their families had homes in the area. We see the area today pretty much as it was developed then, however modernized a bit and not the capitol of industry it was then."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b5be67cf0e05477e8f4ad3161ab51422">ArcGIS</a> and old map notes:<br />
<ul>
<li>1860 map show Cap. O. Shepard in a few places. From Ohio. Buried there. H(enry) Rosebrock from Hanover, Germany (1880 Census); H. Luttman German. F. Roney</li>
<li>Homes on Ironton Street range between 1870 (96 Ironton), 1880 (144 Ironton) and into the early 1900s. Some Year 0s (e.g., 188).</li>
<li>The River Rd - Wheatfield "businesses" at southeast corner are 1900-1930, couple of year 0s, though 1886 map shows SOMETHING there earlier.</li>
<li>Weston & Son lumber all around in 1886 maps, Stocum & DeGraff south across Summer</li>
<li>Simson Street: Properties start at 1860 (23 Simson), couple 1880s and 0s. "<span>Rua, Joseph M" listed as owned on many. 1875 map it's called "Judd Ave, and names of homeowners are given (several Simsons); Called "Miller" in 1886 map. Early enclave for nearby mill, predating even Iron Works? </span></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
River Road and Wheatfield, Ironton section, map detail (1886) .jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1886
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/34d36ef6274962cdae6232265153e911.jpg
f413bf20dde659703e87de998006f053
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Avenues / Ironton (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/83e.jpg" alt="Ironton and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr" /><span class="cover-caption">Ironton Street and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr</span> <b><em>See also: <a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/lost-village-of-ironton/">The lost village of Ironton and the birth of the Avenues</a> and <a href="https://nthistory.com/collections/show/141">Avenues Folk: Mary Kijowski-Konstanty of Fifteenth Ave</a>.</em></b><br /><br /><strong>Origins of Ironton</strong><br /><br />The "spark" for Ironton arrives in 1873, when Niagara Furnace (later <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/16">Tonawanda Iron and Steel)</a> locates on the banks of the Niagara River near Wheatfield Street. The unofficial village of "Ironton" is named after the promising venture. After initial excitement (and investment in the surrounding land) however, the furnace shuts down after only a year in operation. <br /><br /><strong>Early doings</strong><br /><br />In 1875 map, h<span>omes are seen in the lower Avenues. Oliver Street business? Churches. Colonel Payne's estate is still intact across Payne and up to Dahlgren Place, the former northern limit of the early Avenues. Ironton Street from 1880s according to ArcGIS.<br /><br /></span>"From 1880-1890, its population increased form 1,492 to 4,793," (Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.110).<br /><br />In 1882, the establishment of a John Cichoki's <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1665">tavern on River Road</a> near Wheatfield street <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1543">is a foothold</a> for early Polish settlers. Grocers and butchers are nearby. In 1884 a "minor school in a small frame building" is established less than a quarter mile east down Wheatfield at Dahlgren Place (<a href="https://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1477">Buffalo Courier Express, 1905)</a>. In 1889 or 1890, the much larger, <span>Richardsonian Romanesque style</span> <span><a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/64">Ironton Public School #2</a> opens at the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street. <br /></span><br /><strong>The furnace burns again; the River Road industrial corridor</strong><br /><br />The old Niagara Furnace site is expanded and relaunched in 1889 by Tonawanda Iron and Steel. The adjacent marshes and former farms once again become valuable real estate, with "manufacturing interests" courted for the valuable land along the river and railroad tracks. More Poles, Hungarians and others flock to the Avenues, bringing their languages, traditions and chickens with them. An 1891 guidebook describes the real estate situation:
<blockquote>It was purchased from Pratt & Jewett by Geo. P. Smith and A. J. Hathaway, Oct. 15, 1889, replatted, and Jan. 1st, 1890, put on the market. Within a year 500 building lots had been sold and 100 houses erected.<br /><br />With June of the present year [1891] the Ironton Land Co. was incorporated with capital of §100,000 and everything bids fair for a prosperous career, as this is the river center of North Tonawanda corporation, and being traversed by all the rail- roads it cannot fail to secure prominent manufacturing interests. <br /><br />The Ironton addition is less than a mile from the North Tonawanda City Hall. With the Iron & Steel Works, the surrounding lumber interests and the bolt and nut works of Plumb, Burdict ct Barnard, which has recently been located on the adjoining property, this section of the city will make a convenient and desirable place for mechanics and business firms. It has the water supply, electric lights, and will soon be connected by the electric street car line. <br /><br />A double two story brick block for stores has just been completed on Oliver street, making a nice addition to the mercantile conveniences there, a $15,000 brick school house was erected a couple of years since, a church dedicated in August and this section has all the modern conveniences of the older part of the city.</blockquote>
<strong>Land<br /></strong><br />In November 1889, <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/smithgeorgep1897bio.html">George P. Smith</a> and <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/hathawayaj1897bio.html">A. J. Hathaway</a> buy land opposite the iron works.<strong><br /><br /><br />Incorporation into the City of North Tonawanda</strong><br /><br />The village of "Ironton" (along with the villages of North Tonawanda, Gratwick and Martinsville) is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897. The last remnant of the old village name is in its "Ironton Street," running along the west edge of the original avenues. It never had its own post office, or government, but it is an interesting part of the patchwork of the original city that has mostly now vanished from public recall.<br /><br /><strong>An increasingly Polish community on the Avenues</strong><br /><br />For the numerous Polish on the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/3436">original seven avenues</a>, their church is the center of their community. OLC is established on Center Ave, exactly where the grotto is today. It is later rebuilt just south. <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/98">Pettit Creek</a> flows through the area (it will be covered).<br /><br /><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200105.pdf">The paving of Oliver Street being planned August 26, 1893.<br /></a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"> A progress report </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200169.pdf">about a month later</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">. October 5 </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200235.pdf">there is labor trouble between Poles and Italians</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">.</a><br /><br />The upper avenues remain essentially woods and marshes until the 1940s, when settlement accelerates with the nationwide Baby Boom. <br /><br /><em>Notes:</em><br /><br /> * <span><em>Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, of the State of New-York</em> (1884,</span> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EEEdAQAAIAAJ">Google Books)</a> Also has lots of details about new Goundry Street school and a brief mention of Gratwick school and enrollment figures.1890 "The village of Tonawanda is up and awake as far as educational matters are concerned. It has a progressive board of education composed of five members, all liberal men in their views. A new brick school building is nearly completed at Ironton, a suburb of the village, that would be a pride to any town."<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"><br /></a> <br />John Carr on Facebook in January 2017: "Go back to the 1800's and my great grandfather's farm, as well as several others, was there, extending from the river inland past Payne. The house was originally along the river. Eventually the lumber yards and steel mills pushed the property, and the house back from the river to Oliver (#849 or #869). In the 1890's, after his death, the property was sold off and developed into individual housing lots. At that time the area was annexed to North Tonawanda, before that the area was part of Wheatfield. Carr Street still exists by the town pool. Many of my great grand parents children and their families had homes in the area. We see the area today pretty much as it was developed then, however modernized a bit and not the capitol of industry it was then."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b5be67cf0e05477e8f4ad3161ab51422">ArcGIS</a> and old map notes:<br />
<ul>
<li>1860 map show Cap. O. Shepard in a few places. From Ohio. Buried there. H(enry) Rosebrock from Hanover, Germany (1880 Census); H. Luttman German. F. Roney</li>
<li>Homes on Ironton Street range between 1870 (96 Ironton), 1880 (144 Ironton) and into the early 1900s. Some Year 0s (e.g., 188).</li>
<li>The River Rd - Wheatfield "businesses" at southeast corner are 1900-1930, couple of year 0s, though 1886 map shows SOMETHING there earlier.</li>
<li>Weston & Son lumber all around in 1886 maps, Stocum & DeGraff south across Summer</li>
<li>Simson Street: Properties start at 1860 (23 Simson), couple 1880s and 0s. "<span>Rua, Joseph M" listed as owned on many. 1875 map it's called "Judd Ave, and names of homeowners are given (several Simsons); Called "Miller" in 1886 map. Early enclave for nearby mill, predating even Iron Works? </span></li>
</ul>
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Avenues (Ironton), map detail (1893).jpg
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1893
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John and Hannah Johnson (ca. 1833 - 1883)
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<img class="cover" alt="A low‐angle view shows a weathered split-rail fence in the foreground, beyond which a lone cow and calf graze on a grassy field. About 100 ft behind them is a humble one-story frame farmhouse with old tools and a wooden wheel leaning against its side. Rows of crops stretch toward a distant treeline under warm, late-evening light from the west." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/8c.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">The Johnsons lived in a small frame house on a 12-acre farm in the area of present-day South Meadow Drive. Photo made with AI.</span> <br /><strong>Around campfires and during sleepovers</strong>, under covers and under stars, generations of North Tonawanda children heard the tale of “Black Hannah.” It was whispered that she was an escaped slave from the South, a fortuneteller, a seer of past lives who was silent about her own beginnings. Ancient beyond estimation, she was said to keep company with unseen forces in a shack in the primordial woods at the village edge. After she died, folks said strange flowers sprung up around the place—a sign that Hannah had never entirely belonged to this world, or that her spirit refused to leave her old home.<br /><br />Her real name was Hannah Johnson. <br /><br />Hannah Johnson’s story is not just a ghost story. It is one of those local legends where fact and invention have grown together until the roots are hard to untangle. How did a Black woman born a slave come to settle in a small, overwhelmingly white canal town—one that, it needs to be said, had a reputation for hostility toward Black people? Was she connected to the Underground Railroad, as some have hoped to prove? And if her 1883 obituary is right that she was buried in Sweeney Cemetery, where is her grave? <br /><br />To get anywhere near the real Hannah Johnson, we have to leave the woods and campfires of the raw west and go back east, to the older, post-colonial New York that produced her. According to her obituary, before she was a legend in North Tonawanda, Hannah was a Black girl born into the uneasy aftermath of slavery in the Hudson-Mohawk world—a place where freedom arrived slowly, grudgingly, and even then, often only on paper.<br /><br />
<h2>Hannah’s early life</h2>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">The aftermath of slavery in New York State</h3>
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<p>Hannah—we do not know her maiden name—was born in Albany County, New York, around 1803. If later accounts of her birth are correct, she entered the world in the strange half-freedom created by New York’s Gradual Abolition Act of 1799. Under that law, Black children born to enslaved mothers after July 4, 1799 were not enslaved for life, but neither were they free in any meaningful childhood sense. Girls remained bound servants until age 25.</p>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Serving in the house of the governor?</h3>
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<p>In her obituary, we encounter a startling claim: that Hannah “lived for a time” in the household of Joseph Christopher Yates of Schenectady, one of the most powerful men in New York State. During Hannah’s girlhood and young adulthood, Yates served as mayor of Schenectady, New York state senator, New York Supreme Court judge, and finally governor from 1823 to 1824.</p>
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<p>If the obituary is correct, Hannah’s girlhood and young adulthood placed her unusually close to the rituals of power. She may have listened from the edges of rooms where judges, senators, governors, college men, canal boosters, and visiting dignitaries passed through. In 1825, when Lafayette came through Schenectady during his triumphal return to America, he called upon Governor Yates; if Hannah was still attached to the household, she may have been near enough to witness the machinery of public honor from the servant’s side of the room. The later legend of Hannah as a reader of tea leaves also looks different in this light. Whether or not she learned such arts there, an elite household would have exposed her to genteel rituals of tea, visiting, gossip, performance, and feminine social authority—worlds far removed from the rough settlements of the Niagara frontier.</p>
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<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The obituary leaves some daylight between itself and this claim, adding only, “we are told.” That phrase matters. Can we take the story at face value? Was it something Hannah herself told people? Was she already shaping her own legend in life, as others would do after her death?</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Conclusive evidence has been difficult to find either way. The 1820 federal census does show an unnamed free Black female, aged 14 to 26, living in the Yates household; however, as customary on this census, only the head of household (Joseph Christopher Yates) is named. Hannah later consistently gave her county of birth as Albany to state census-takers, which roughly fits the geography of the Yates claim: Schenectady County was not formed from Albany County until 1809.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Gradual emancipation</h3>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If Hannah was born around 1803, she would have become legally free around 1828. But legal freedom was not social equality. In Schenectady, for Black women, that “freedom” often meant domestic service, washing, cooking, childcare, or continued dependence on the households where they had served. Schools, skilled trades, property, and public authority remained difficult to reach. Some looked westward, toward canal towns, port cities, and frontier settlements, where opportunity might be rougher but less fixed.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">When Hannah next appears in the record, she appears almost 300 miles west in the Town of Wheatfield, alongside John Johnson.<br /><br /></p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Hannah’s husband: John Johnson</h2>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">John Johnson was a Black man born around 1800 in Washington County, a little further up the Hudson River from Hannah and the Yateses. Though not from the same county, both were from the old upper Hudson–Capital District world, close enough for their paths to plausibly cross through work, family, or chance.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">John’s early status is unknown. He may have been free-born, or he may have been, like Hannah, one of the Black New Yorkers caught in gradual abolition — legally free on paper, but bound to service until adulthood. For men, bound servitude lasted until age 28. If he were also born “in bondage,” it would mean John and Hannah would both be newly free around 1828.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">The Erie Canal and the promise of the west</h3>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">When the Erie Canal opened in October 1825, it transformed the movement of goods and people across New York. What had once been a long, expensive, uncertain overland journey could now be made by water, from the Hudson River toward the Great Lakes, through a forty-foot-wide, four-foot-deep artificial river cut across the state. From the Johnsons’ perspective, the Grand Canal may have looked like a corridor to a new life: away from the old world, westward into the interior of a changing country.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">According to Hannah’s obituary, she arrives in 1834. It is very unlikely that the Johnsons’ move to Wheatfield was random. A Black couple born into slavery’s aftermath in eastern New York did not simply travel hundreds of miles west and select a wooded corner of someone else’s farm by chance. Their arrival almost certainly depended on some prior connection — work, permission, kin, church, land-company labor, or a relationship with an owner or agent.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">“A place to be avoided”</h3>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One later source says Hannah arrived from the south with a small “colony” of Black people who settled along the banks of Tonawanda Creek. (Ten years later, German Lutherans establish Martinsville there.) But according to this account, the earlier Black settlement did not last. “Some trouble” arose with the white residents. A white mob raided the settlement, scattered its people, burned their cabins, and threw their belongings into Tonawanda Creek.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Hannah alone was permitted to stay, the account says, because she was useful: she did housework for white families.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It is a grim story, and a thinly documented one. The only possible support I have found is a 1909 article about human bones discovered during sewer work in Tonawanda. In that article, an old resident claims the remains are from what the paper calls an “old colored war.” I have found no other evidence of this “war,” nor the raid. But the larger premise is not difficult to believe. The Tonawandas were not welcoming places for Black people. The same 1909 article continues:</p>
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Tonawandas are known to the negroes of the South as a place to be avoided and since the time that Black Hanna left North Tonawanda, 40 years ago, no negroes have lived here. Many times they have hired out here, but not longer than a week or two. The Tonawandas are two of the few cities in the country that have no negro population.<br /><br />“Human Bones Tell Old Story,”<span> </span><em>Niagara Democrat</em>, February 5, 1909.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">The first census appearance: 1840</h3>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The first record of the Johnsons in the area is the 1840 U. S. federal census for the Town of Wheatfield. Only John Johnson, as the head of household, is identified by name. The household includes three free Black individuals: one man and one woman aged roughly 24 to 36, likely John and Hannah Johnson, and an older Black man between 55 and 100. All three are marked as “employed in agriculture.” This could mean working their own farm, hiring out to work on someone else’s or both.</p>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Great Lot 10</h3>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">When the Johnsons arrived, the region was still sparsely settled and heavily wooded. Tonawanda was a small canal village near the junction of the Erie Canal and the Niagara River. Along Tonawanda Creek, flooding remained common, worsened by canal construction and damming. The Tonawanda village. Not much here. But whites had already been carving up the land for 150 years. Holland Land Company and Joseph Ellicott carved up lots.By no means wilderness you could just plunk down in.,</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">On the 1840 Census, nearby Johnson on enumerator’s route, we see two names that are also in the land records: Jacob Hook and George (Christopher) Van Slyke</p>
<br /><br /><iframe style="width: 920px; height: 510px; max-width: 100%;" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g8_GGxU7uvM?si=ZpnulipHiWLoMM9F" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> <br /><span style="font-size: .9em; color: #666;"><em>Hannah is the subject of a song by my musical gang Yellow Jack on our album <a href="https://yellowjack.bandcamp.com/album/a-horse-apiece">"A Horse Apiece"</a></em></span>
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John Johnson on Town of Wheatfield map (1860).jpg
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1860
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/3df3420089dd439c201939d49df8f3f1.jpg
86bfb405c5777c25c5b723329af8b69b
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Avenues / Ironton (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/83e.jpg" alt="Ironton and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr" /><span class="cover-caption">Ironton Street and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr</span> <b><em>See also: <a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/lost-village-of-ironton/">The lost village of Ironton and the birth of the Avenues</a> and <a href="https://nthistory.com/collections/show/141">Avenues Folk: Mary Kijowski-Konstanty of Fifteenth Ave</a>.</em></b><br /><br /><strong>Origins of Ironton</strong><br /><br />The "spark" for Ironton arrives in 1873, when Niagara Furnace (later <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/16">Tonawanda Iron and Steel)</a> locates on the banks of the Niagara River near Wheatfield Street. The unofficial village of "Ironton" is named after the promising venture. After initial excitement (and investment in the surrounding land) however, the furnace shuts down after only a year in operation. <br /><br /><strong>Early doings</strong><br /><br />In 1875 map, h<span>omes are seen in the lower Avenues. Oliver Street business? Churches. Colonel Payne's estate is still intact across Payne and up to Dahlgren Place, the former northern limit of the early Avenues. Ironton Street from 1880s according to ArcGIS.<br /><br /></span>"From 1880-1890, its population increased form 1,492 to 4,793," (Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.110).<br /><br />In 1882, the establishment of a John Cichoki's <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1665">tavern on River Road</a> near Wheatfield street <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1543">is a foothold</a> for early Polish settlers. Grocers and butchers are nearby. In 1884 a "minor school in a small frame building" is established less than a quarter mile east down Wheatfield at Dahlgren Place (<a href="https://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1477">Buffalo Courier Express, 1905)</a>. In 1889 or 1890, the much larger, <span>Richardsonian Romanesque style</span> <span><a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/64">Ironton Public School #2</a> opens at the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street. <br /></span><br /><strong>The furnace burns again; the River Road industrial corridor</strong><br /><br />The old Niagara Furnace site is expanded and relaunched in 1889 by Tonawanda Iron and Steel. The adjacent marshes and former farms once again become valuable real estate, with "manufacturing interests" courted for the valuable land along the river and railroad tracks. More Poles, Hungarians and others flock to the Avenues, bringing their languages, traditions and chickens with them. An 1891 guidebook describes the real estate situation:
<blockquote>It was purchased from Pratt & Jewett by Geo. P. Smith and A. J. Hathaway, Oct. 15, 1889, replatted, and Jan. 1st, 1890, put on the market. Within a year 500 building lots had been sold and 100 houses erected.<br /><br />With June of the present year [1891] the Ironton Land Co. was incorporated with capital of §100,000 and everything bids fair for a prosperous career, as this is the river center of North Tonawanda corporation, and being traversed by all the rail- roads it cannot fail to secure prominent manufacturing interests. <br /><br />The Ironton addition is less than a mile from the North Tonawanda City Hall. With the Iron & Steel Works, the surrounding lumber interests and the bolt and nut works of Plumb, Burdict ct Barnard, which has recently been located on the adjoining property, this section of the city will make a convenient and desirable place for mechanics and business firms. It has the water supply, electric lights, and will soon be connected by the electric street car line. <br /><br />A double two story brick block for stores has just been completed on Oliver street, making a nice addition to the mercantile conveniences there, a $15,000 brick school house was erected a couple of years since, a church dedicated in August and this section has all the modern conveniences of the older part of the city.</blockquote>
<strong>Land<br /></strong><br />In November 1889, <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/smithgeorgep1897bio.html">George P. Smith</a> and <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/hathawayaj1897bio.html">A. J. Hathaway</a> buy land opposite the iron works.<strong><br /><br /><br />Incorporation into the City of North Tonawanda</strong><br /><br />The village of "Ironton" (along with the villages of North Tonawanda, Gratwick and Martinsville) is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897. The last remnant of the old village name is in its "Ironton Street," running along the west edge of the original avenues. It never had its own post office, or government, but it is an interesting part of the patchwork of the original city that has mostly now vanished from public recall.<br /><br /><strong>An increasingly Polish community on the Avenues</strong><br /><br />For the numerous Polish on the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/3436">original seven avenues</a>, their church is the center of their community. OLC is established on Center Ave, exactly where the grotto is today. It is later rebuilt just south. <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/98">Pettit Creek</a> flows through the area (it will be covered).<br /><br /><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200105.pdf">The paving of Oliver Street being planned August 26, 1893.<br /></a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"> A progress report </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200169.pdf">about a month later</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">. October 5 </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200235.pdf">there is labor trouble between Poles and Italians</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">.</a><br /><br />The upper avenues remain essentially woods and marshes until the 1940s, when settlement accelerates with the nationwide Baby Boom. <br /><br /><em>Notes:</em><br /><br /> * <span><em>Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, of the State of New-York</em> (1884,</span> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EEEdAQAAIAAJ">Google Books)</a> Also has lots of details about new Goundry Street school and a brief mention of Gratwick school and enrollment figures.1890 "The village of Tonawanda is up and awake as far as educational matters are concerned. It has a progressive board of education composed of five members, all liberal men in their views. A new brick school building is nearly completed at Ironton, a suburb of the village, that would be a pride to any town."<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"><br /></a> <br />John Carr on Facebook in January 2017: "Go back to the 1800's and my great grandfather's farm, as well as several others, was there, extending from the river inland past Payne. The house was originally along the river. Eventually the lumber yards and steel mills pushed the property, and the house back from the river to Oliver (#849 or #869). In the 1890's, after his death, the property was sold off and developed into individual housing lots. At that time the area was annexed to North Tonawanda, before that the area was part of Wheatfield. Carr Street still exists by the town pool. Many of my great grand parents children and their families had homes in the area. We see the area today pretty much as it was developed then, however modernized a bit and not the capitol of industry it was then."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b5be67cf0e05477e8f4ad3161ab51422">ArcGIS</a> and old map notes:<br />
<ul>
<li>1860 map show Cap. O. Shepard in a few places. From Ohio. Buried there. H(enry) Rosebrock from Hanover, Germany (1880 Census); H. Luttman German. F. Roney</li>
<li>Homes on Ironton Street range between 1870 (96 Ironton), 1880 (144 Ironton) and into the early 1900s. Some Year 0s (e.g., 188).</li>
<li>The River Rd - Wheatfield "businesses" at southeast corner are 1900-1930, couple of year 0s, though 1886 map shows SOMETHING there earlier.</li>
<li>Weston & Son lumber all around in 1886 maps, Stocum & DeGraff south across Summer</li>
<li>Simson Street: Properties start at 1860 (23 Simson), couple 1880s and 0s. "<span>Rua, Joseph M" listed as owned on many. 1875 map it's called "Judd Ave, and names of homeowners are given (several Simsons); Called "Miller" in 1886 map. Early enclave for nearby mill, predating even Iron Works? </span></li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
River Road and Wheatfield, Ironton section, map detail (1886).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1886
ironton
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/a537836fc397cfc937f64f9a3cdf5adf.jpg
49a5e1e6cff18df9f4e4bf58d5c60075
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Firefighting in the Tonawandas
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="https://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/80.jpg" alt="Gratwick Hose No.6, Felton Street, c.1929" /><span class="cover-caption">Gratwick Hose No.6, Felton Street, c.1929</span>
<blockquote>The greatest enemy the lumbermen had was fire. Annually it destroyed millions of dollars of lumber and cost many lives. A step forward came on May 7, 1876, when twenty of the most prominent residents of the Village of North Tonawanda gathered together in the school house at the corner of Main and Tremont Streets and formed themselves into a Company for the protection of property against the ravages of fire. The newly formed Company petitioned the Village Board and in special session on May 15, 1876, the board approved and appointed them firemen of the Village and their company was called the North Tonawanda Bucket Company, later to be called the Columbia Hook and Ladder Company No. 1. <br /><br />North Tonawanda depended heavily on Volunteer Firemen and quickly grew to seven companies located at important places around the city.</blockquote>
- Sarah E. Walter's thesis (nthistorymuseum.org). Allan Herschell "helped to organize the first fire company of North Tonawanda" <span>(Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.361).</span><br /><br />
<table border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Started</strong></td>
<td><strong>Name</strong></td>
<td><strong>Notes</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>May 7, 1876</td>
<td>North Tonawanda Bucket Company / Columbia Hook and Ladder Company No.1</td>
<td>Thompson in 1893 directory</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>March 1, 1886</td>
<td>Active Hose Company No.2</td>
<td>"Ironton Boys", Robinson south of Marion in 1893</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1886-1909</td>
<td>Hydrant Hose Company No.3</td>
<td>Sweeney and Main at bridge</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>April 1887</td>
<td>Live Active Hose Co. No.4</td>
<td> Thompson St (1893), now Goundry and Vandervoort</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>January 26, 1891</td>
<td>Rescue Fire Company No.5</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1886?</td>
<td><a href="https://yellow.place/en/gratwick-hose-fire-company-6-north-tonawanda-usa">Gratwick Hose Company No.6</a></td>
<td>Felton until 1962.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1894</td>
<td>Sweeney Hose No.7</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Of <b>Hydrant Hose Co. No. 3</b>, it was said somewhere:
<blockquote>The fighting crew of the old Hydrant Hose Company liked to fight fires so much, they would first fight the men of any other fire company who raced to a North Tonawanda fire to see who got the pleasure of conquering the flames. Often the flames ended up as the victor as the firefighters spent their energies in a brawl rather than on the element of nature.</blockquote>
According to Harry Dorn in an article in this set,
<blockquote>The Tonawanda Fire Dept. was organized in the early 1860s when the Village of Tonawanda had a population of 2,000...One of the frst companies was the Shepard Hose Company which after several years was known as the DeGraff Hose, Hydrant Hose Company and thewn on Aug 25, 1898 became National Hose No.1 [Ed. Hydrant Hose appears in newspaper record until at least early 1900s].</blockquote>
<br /><br /><b>Columbia Hook & Ladder</b> in <em>The Tonawanda News, May 9, 1896:</em>
<blockquote>Monday, June 15, has been selected as the date of the Firemen's Annual Parade. It is expected that it will prove of more than ordinary interest as unusual efforts will be put forth this year to make it an enjoyable spectacular affair. <br /><br />In this connection it is interesting to note that Thursday of this week was the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the first fire company In North Tonawanda. Previous to this date North Tonawanda had paid Tonawanda $300 a year for the fire protection that the Tonawanda companies afforded. <br /><br />The parent company of North Tonawanda was the <strong>Columbia Hook and Ladder Company</strong>; it is still in existence, but is now one of eight splendid companies of which North Tonawanda can boast. As before stated it was organized May 7, 1876, and its first president was Frank Fellows. It was organized under a famous old hickory tree which stood on the ground now occupied by the parsonage of the First Methodist Church. Nicholas Beckrich was the first foreman of this company and other members of this crack organization were John E. Oelkers, Frank Batt, H. U. Berger, M. J. Wattengel, W. P. Hayes, Jno. Spillman, Aug. Duckwitz, Fred Schultz, Isaac Gardei, Geo. Miller, John Haas, Julius Miller and others. A number of these early firemen are numbered among the most prominent residents of North Tonawanda but it is with considerable pleasure that they recall the days of their early triumphs.</blockquote>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Fire engine house (Columbia Hook & Ladder), Thompson Street, map detail (1893).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1893
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/82182eca2340fb27ad4a18161efc570f.jpg
b4e120bd856ff7cfe9aea8d4053277c3
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Firefighting in the Tonawandas
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="https://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/80.jpg" alt="Gratwick Hose No.6, Felton Street, c.1929" /><span class="cover-caption">Gratwick Hose No.6, Felton Street, c.1929</span>
<blockquote>The greatest enemy the lumbermen had was fire. Annually it destroyed millions of dollars of lumber and cost many lives. A step forward came on May 7, 1876, when twenty of the most prominent residents of the Village of North Tonawanda gathered together in the school house at the corner of Main and Tremont Streets and formed themselves into a Company for the protection of property against the ravages of fire. The newly formed Company petitioned the Village Board and in special session on May 15, 1876, the board approved and appointed them firemen of the Village and their company was called the North Tonawanda Bucket Company, later to be called the Columbia Hook and Ladder Company No. 1. <br /><br />North Tonawanda depended heavily on Volunteer Firemen and quickly grew to seven companies located at important places around the city.</blockquote>
- Sarah E. Walter's thesis (nthistorymuseum.org). Allan Herschell "helped to organize the first fire company of North Tonawanda" <span>(Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.361).</span><br /><br />
<table border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Started</strong></td>
<td><strong>Name</strong></td>
<td><strong>Notes</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>May 7, 1876</td>
<td>North Tonawanda Bucket Company / Columbia Hook and Ladder Company No.1</td>
<td>Thompson in 1893 directory</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>March 1, 1886</td>
<td>Active Hose Company No.2</td>
<td>"Ironton Boys", Robinson south of Marion in 1893</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1886-1909</td>
<td>Hydrant Hose Company No.3</td>
<td>Sweeney and Main at bridge</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>April 1887</td>
<td>Live Active Hose Co. No.4</td>
<td> Thompson St (1893), now Goundry and Vandervoort</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>January 26, 1891</td>
<td>Rescue Fire Company No.5</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1886?</td>
<td><a href="https://yellow.place/en/gratwick-hose-fire-company-6-north-tonawanda-usa">Gratwick Hose Company No.6</a></td>
<td>Felton until 1962.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1894</td>
<td>Sweeney Hose No.7</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Of <b>Hydrant Hose Co. No. 3</b>, it was said somewhere:
<blockquote>The fighting crew of the old Hydrant Hose Company liked to fight fires so much, they would first fight the men of any other fire company who raced to a North Tonawanda fire to see who got the pleasure of conquering the flames. Often the flames ended up as the victor as the firefighters spent their energies in a brawl rather than on the element of nature.</blockquote>
According to Harry Dorn in an article in this set,
<blockquote>The Tonawanda Fire Dept. was organized in the early 1860s when the Village of Tonawanda had a population of 2,000...One of the frst companies was the Shepard Hose Company which after several years was known as the DeGraff Hose, Hydrant Hose Company and thewn on Aug 25, 1898 became National Hose No.1 [Ed. Hydrant Hose appears in newspaper record until at least early 1900s].</blockquote>
<br /><br /><b>Columbia Hook & Ladder</b> in <em>The Tonawanda News, May 9, 1896:</em>
<blockquote>Monday, June 15, has been selected as the date of the Firemen's Annual Parade. It is expected that it will prove of more than ordinary interest as unusual efforts will be put forth this year to make it an enjoyable spectacular affair. <br /><br />In this connection it is interesting to note that Thursday of this week was the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the first fire company In North Tonawanda. Previous to this date North Tonawanda had paid Tonawanda $300 a year for the fire protection that the Tonawanda companies afforded. <br /><br />The parent company of North Tonawanda was the <strong>Columbia Hook and Ladder Company</strong>; it is still in existence, but is now one of eight splendid companies of which North Tonawanda can boast. As before stated it was organized May 7, 1876, and its first president was Frank Fellows. It was organized under a famous old hickory tree which stood on the ground now occupied by the parsonage of the First Methodist Church. Nicholas Beckrich was the first foreman of this company and other members of this crack organization were John E. Oelkers, Frank Batt, H. U. Berger, M. J. Wattengel, W. P. Hayes, Jno. Spillman, Aug. Duckwitz, Fred Schultz, Isaac Gardei, Geo. Miller, John Haas, Julius Miller and others. A number of these early firemen are numbered among the most prominent residents of North Tonawanda but it is with considerable pleasure that they recall the days of their early triumphs.</blockquote>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Fire engine house (Active Hose No. 2), Robinson Street, map detail (1893).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1893
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/b395b62ae86d0455dcbb9c382e7fd5c0.jpg
b0dab132886be3ba5982d71ce621cbc5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Firefighting in the Tonawandas
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="https://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/80.jpg" alt="Gratwick Hose No.6, Felton Street, c.1929" /><span class="cover-caption">Gratwick Hose No.6, Felton Street, c.1929</span>
<blockquote>The greatest enemy the lumbermen had was fire. Annually it destroyed millions of dollars of lumber and cost many lives. A step forward came on May 7, 1876, when twenty of the most prominent residents of the Village of North Tonawanda gathered together in the school house at the corner of Main and Tremont Streets and formed themselves into a Company for the protection of property against the ravages of fire. The newly formed Company petitioned the Village Board and in special session on May 15, 1876, the board approved and appointed them firemen of the Village and their company was called the North Tonawanda Bucket Company, later to be called the Columbia Hook and Ladder Company No. 1. <br /><br />North Tonawanda depended heavily on Volunteer Firemen and quickly grew to seven companies located at important places around the city.</blockquote>
- Sarah E. Walter's thesis (nthistorymuseum.org). Allan Herschell "helped to organize the first fire company of North Tonawanda" <span>(Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.361).</span><br /><br />
<table border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Started</strong></td>
<td><strong>Name</strong></td>
<td><strong>Notes</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>May 7, 1876</td>
<td>North Tonawanda Bucket Company / Columbia Hook and Ladder Company No.1</td>
<td>Thompson in 1893 directory</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>March 1, 1886</td>
<td>Active Hose Company No.2</td>
<td>"Ironton Boys", Robinson south of Marion in 1893</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1886-1909</td>
<td>Hydrant Hose Company No.3</td>
<td>Sweeney and Main at bridge</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>April 1887</td>
<td>Live Active Hose Co. No.4</td>
<td> Thompson St (1893), now Goundry and Vandervoort</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>January 26, 1891</td>
<td>Rescue Fire Company No.5</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1886?</td>
<td><a href="https://yellow.place/en/gratwick-hose-fire-company-6-north-tonawanda-usa">Gratwick Hose Company No.6</a></td>
<td>Felton until 1962.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1894</td>
<td>Sweeney Hose No.7</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Of <b>Hydrant Hose Co. No. 3</b>, it was said somewhere:
<blockquote>The fighting crew of the old Hydrant Hose Company liked to fight fires so much, they would first fight the men of any other fire company who raced to a North Tonawanda fire to see who got the pleasure of conquering the flames. Often the flames ended up as the victor as the firefighters spent their energies in a brawl rather than on the element of nature.</blockquote>
According to Harry Dorn in an article in this set,
<blockquote>The Tonawanda Fire Dept. was organized in the early 1860s when the Village of Tonawanda had a population of 2,000...One of the frst companies was the Shepard Hose Company which after several years was known as the DeGraff Hose, Hydrant Hose Company and thewn on Aug 25, 1898 became National Hose No.1 [Ed. Hydrant Hose appears in newspaper record until at least early 1900s].</blockquote>
<br /><br /><b>Columbia Hook & Ladder</b> in <em>The Tonawanda News, May 9, 1896:</em>
<blockquote>Monday, June 15, has been selected as the date of the Firemen's Annual Parade. It is expected that it will prove of more than ordinary interest as unusual efforts will be put forth this year to make it an enjoyable spectacular affair. <br /><br />In this connection it is interesting to note that Thursday of this week was the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the first fire company In North Tonawanda. Previous to this date North Tonawanda had paid Tonawanda $300 a year for the fire protection that the Tonawanda companies afforded. <br /><br />The parent company of North Tonawanda was the <strong>Columbia Hook and Ladder Company</strong>; it is still in existence, but is now one of eight splendid companies of which North Tonawanda can boast. As before stated it was organized May 7, 1876, and its first president was Frank Fellows. It was organized under a famous old hickory tree which stood on the ground now occupied by the parsonage of the First Methodist Church. Nicholas Beckrich was the first foreman of this company and other members of this crack organization were John E. Oelkers, Frank Batt, H. U. Berger, M. J. Wattengel, W. P. Hayes, Jno. Spillman, Aug. Duckwitz, Fred Schultz, Isaac Gardei, Geo. Miller, John Haas, Julius Miller and others. A number of these early firemen are numbered among the most prominent residents of North Tonawanda but it is with considerable pleasure that they recall the days of their early triumphs.</blockquote>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Fire engine house, Hydrant Hose Co., Sweeney and Main, map detail (1893).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1893
Description
An account of the resource
Although generically named on the map, <a href="https://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2877">the 1893 city directory</a> identifies this location as "Hydrant Hose Company."
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/09e49d089133b738ee90f1bc63d90f3b.jpg
ac61da1937b826a26c38b9677f8c9af7
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Backer House (118-124 Webster Street), Backer Alley
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="An 1886 map shows Backer's House and associated outbuildings" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/121.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">The Backer House on an 1886 map.</span> The long-gone, three-story "Backer House" at the crook of Main and Webster Streets has been called the city's first hotel, purportedly built in 1850 with timber from the Williamsville sawmill owned by John Batt. An 1860 map identifies a "Jackey, Union Hotel" on the site, and no Backer House. The hotel and associated buildings were on a great wooden platform under which ran the state ditch, and stood opposite the former New York Central train depot, where passengers could conveniently become clientele. (A gas station is on the depot site today.) <br /><br /><strong>Owned by the Backer family</strong><br /><br />I haven't learned anything about the first Backer who presumably founded the hotel. But in 1867 (according to a 1929 article), Henry B. Backer becomes the proprietor of the hotel, and will continue until 1891. (Perhaps as a family affair, the hotel enjoyed multiple "proprietors," as we see a different Backer so named below). <br /><br /><strong>A desperate family denied</strong><br /><br />On October 13, 1886, the Backer House is the site of a sensational news story. A traveling Rochester family is returning home when the wife, Julia Trimmer, begins experiencing severe labor pains. The train makes an emergency stop at the New York Central depot opposite the hotel. The husband and wife clamber down the platform and rush across the street to the hotel, desperate for help. They don't find it. <br /><br />The proprietor, Dr. Conrad Backer, refuses to permit Mrs. Trimmer space even on the floor, and the couple is instead "forcibly ejected with profane and abusive language." The distraught family struggles to the nearby Sears House, and although accepted immediately by staff and attended to with great humanity, by then "the child had been born and had died from its brief exposure." The wife brings a $20,000 lawsuit for "personal damages" against the proprietor of the Backer House. She will be awarded a small fraction of that, $600. When Backer refuses to pay even that small fraction, he is jailed. <br /><br /><strong>More Backers</strong><br /><br />In 1891 (according to a 1929 article, which describes a return visit to the area), proprietor Henry B. Backer and his wife leave North Tonawanda for lumber interests in New York City. Before that, he was village clerk, and "took a leading part in the laying out of Thompson, Schenck, Robinson and other streets," donated the land for Live Hose, and founded defunct Alert Hose Company. <br /><br />On October 28, 1892, Dr. Conrad C. Backer dies at 73 and two days, leaving a wife and two children. <br /><br /><strong>Esther at the helm, her secret closet pillaged</strong><br /><br />By 1893, the hotel is being operated by a woman, Esther Backer, her husband having died the year before. The operation arrangement is novel enough for the News to write an article, included in this collection. <br /><br />On November 30, 1896, Mrs. Backer's hotel is again in the news, when she is the victim of robbery and arson. "In a peculiarly formed closet...,Mrs. Backer secretly kept her jewelry and silver plate, which had been in the family for many years." Someone stole these, along with linen, lace curtains and clothing. They then set a fire, seemingly in an effort to cover up the crime. The next day a 25 year-old "tramp" by the name of Walter Kimler is apprehended in West Falls, N. Y., and sent to the penitentiary for 30 days in connection with the burglary. A partner escapes. <br /><br /><strong>1897-1920: The City Hotel, The International Hotel</strong><br /><br />In the summer of 1897 it is renamed the "City Hotel," and by February 6, 1900, it is "The International Hotel." On October 31, 1900, Theodore Roosevelt makes a campaign speech nearby to some 7,000 locals; a historical marker erected in 2021 marks the event. <br /><br /><strong>1920: Simon Marone and the Washington Hotel, deadly fire</strong><br /><br />In 1920 the hotel is sold to Simon Marone, owner of a fruit and candy store on the first floor of the building. <br /><br />July 7, 1924 an item advertises "Hotel and boarding house, 21 rooms, complete sitting room, dance hall place and barber shop, bargain, for quick sale, owner leaving city, inquire 122 Webster Street." <br /><br />By 1924, it is being called the Washington Hotel. In late December, another fire guts the hotel, and claims three lives. <br /><br />In January 1925, proprietor Simon Marone intends to rebuild the interior. The address is given around this time as 122 Webster, and 118-124 Webster. <br /><br /><strong>1930s: The "indecent acts" of Ferris Saffires</strong><br /><br />January 20, 1934, proprietor Ferris Saffire is fined $25 for "permitting disorderly acts in his place of business," after a 24 year-old male and 20 year-old female were arrested and charged with indecency at the hotel. <br /><br />In February, seven of eight people who have been arrested with charges of public intoxication in a "room in the rear of" the hotel are given jail sentences. The eighth, a young woman, beats the charge.<br /><br /><strong>1935: Abraham G. Lewis and the "Lewis Hotel"</strong><br /><br />Somewhere around 1935, Syrian-born Abraham G. Lewis takes over the hotel, and names it in his image, as is often the custom. After the death of his first wife, in 1935 North Tonawanda furnishes him a second, and they are members of Ascension church.<br /><br />April 20, 1946 a boarder (Boleslaus Brodnicki, 58) dies of "heart disease" while on strike from Spaulding Fibre. <br /><br />On May 3, 1952, Lewis dies. A Courier Express claims he has operated the hotel for the last 20 years. The hotel seems to go on in his name for a few years, as in 1955 "Lewis Hotel" is mentioned in ads, and A "Lewis Hotel" (120 Webster) is mentioned in a September 1959 item. <br /><br /><strong>1960s and beyond: Del-Web Inn, demolition, tax sale</strong><br /><br />In 1964 a man is arrested at "Del-Web Inn," 122 Webster, for threatening patrons with a razor. A 1975 item mentions a building permit given to Walter J. Edin for 120 Webster "remodel." In 1978-12-19, 122 Webster is listed in a tax sale auction, with Walter Edin identified. In 1985-11-11 parcel is being auctioned, 120-122 Webster, "including part of abandoned state ditch." <br /><br /><strong>Legacy</strong><br /><br />The alley behind the site is still known as "Backer Alley."
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Jackey, Union Hotel near site of Backer Hotel (map detail, 1860).jpg
Date
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1860
downtown
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/69c2cb5aecdc54fbca2325357d67d73f.jpg
4a1ce78aefa8a926398641a07b1b31fe
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142 Oliver
Description
An account of the resource
This Oliver Street address appears to have its foundation laid in 1886, in the midst of a grist mill, boiler and engine works, a train depot, and a flour mill.
By 1893, maps show a saloon with two stories in the front, and several single-story buildings behind it.
Around 1914, Andrew Dorn and his Bavarian-born wife Katharina come to North Tonawanda from New York City, and begin operating a tavern and rooming house at 142 Oliver. "The Erie Hotel and Cafe" is advertised in 1915 with Andrew Dorn as the proprietor, and their clientele as "gentlemen only." Prohibition forces drinking establishments to serve on the down-low, and a 1932 dry raid targets Dorn and others.
With the end of Prohibition in 1933, Dorn resumes serving openly. A business card for what is now called "Dorn’s Buffet and Rooming House" promises "light lunches" and features an illustration of a smiling man proffering a sudsy beer glass twice the size of his head. Andrew Dorn passes in 1935, and by 1942 the site is advertised as "North Star Tavern."
Today, the address is privately owned apartments, seemingly now two stories all the way back. County property data gives 1930 as the build date.
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142 Oliver foundation, Mechanic Street not named, map detail (1886).jpg
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1886
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/cb26ccda9aac081bf9f3229333e2027b.jpg
bf52c63c128076e36a001214cb4d11d2
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142 Oliver
Description
An account of the resource
This Oliver Street address appears to have its foundation laid in 1886, in the midst of a grist mill, boiler and engine works, a train depot, and a flour mill.
By 1893, maps show a saloon with two stories in the front, and several single-story buildings behind it.
Around 1914, Andrew Dorn and his Bavarian-born wife Katharina come to North Tonawanda from New York City, and begin operating a tavern and rooming house at 142 Oliver. "The Erie Hotel and Cafe" is advertised in 1915 with Andrew Dorn as the proprietor, and their clientele as "gentlemen only." Prohibition forces drinking establishments to serve on the down-low, and a 1932 dry raid targets Dorn and others.
With the end of Prohibition in 1933, Dorn resumes serving openly. A business card for what is now called "Dorn’s Buffet and Rooming House" promises "light lunches" and features an illustration of a smiling man proffering a sudsy beer glass twice the size of his head. Andrew Dorn passes in 1935, and by 1942 the site is advertised as "North Star Tavern."
Today, the address is privately owned apartments, seemingly now two stories all the way back. County property data gives 1930 as the build date.
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142 Oliver, map detail (1893).jpg
Date
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1893
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/f83bfa338036e641bb36872890858574.jpg
6c98084073092125a73bf52bc6171397
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Title
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Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Co., Tonawanda Power Co., National Grid
Description
An account of the resource
<p><img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/37.jpg" alt="National Grid transformer station in 2023. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr." /> <span class="cover-caption">The Robinson Street "transformer building" is built by the Niagara Falls Power Company in 1895 as part of their unprecedented 23-mile transmission sending current from Nigara Falls to Buffalo. The building is later operated by the Tonawanda Power Company, who distribute the hyrdo-electricity locally. Today the historic building is owned by National Grid. </span></p>
<p><span class="cover-caption">Photo by Dennis Reed Jr., 2023.</span></p>
<h2>Motive power before the grid</h2>
<p>In the 1800s, in North Tonawanda and elsewhere, mills are powered primarily by waterwheels, while factories rely on stationary steam engines fueled by coal or wood to drive machinery and reduce human and animal labor. Beginning in the 1870s, electric dynamos appear, typically driven by steam engines, producing electricity mainly for lighting. There is no interconnected electrical grid. Electricity is generated locally, on site, by individual factories, private companies, or municipalities for their own use or a limited number of nearby customers.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Light Company first located on Tonawanda Island</h2>
<p>In 1889, the Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Light Company operates a dynamo on the north end of Tonawanda Island. The dynamo is fed by wood shavings from the Doebler Planing Mill. The company supplies electricity to a small number of North Tonawanda subscribers. Arc lights on a few streets are run. Their office is at the northeast corner of Main and Goundry in an old frame building. <br /><br /><a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/3942">1891 Buffalo Express Pictorial</a>: "<span>The Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Co. are now building a $40,000 plant near the north end, to furnish power for an electric street railroad. These facilities, with a telephone service and telegraph office, leave but little to be desired. The docked frontage on the property is now nearly two miles in length. The Tonawanda City Water Works, located on the west side of the island, are fully described elsewhere."</span><br /><br /><strong>The Niagara Falls Power Company builds transmission line and transformer house at Robinson Street</strong><br /><br />Meanwhile, electrical experts at the Niagara Falls Power Company and others have been convening for a few years about how to best harness Niagara Falls's tremendous kinetic energy for the electrical age, and what to do with all that energy, which would be far more than could be used locally. <br /><br />The answer: send it to the much larger city of Buffalo, 23 miles south. <br /><br />In late 1895, the Niagara Falls Power Company begins building an unprecedented long-distance power line to Buffalo (mostly along the boundary of the old Mile Reserve). "<span>This transmission line will run over a private right of way from the Niagara Falls Power Company's station at Niagara Falls to </span><span>Tonawanda</span><span>, and thence down one bank of the Erie Canal to Buffalo. The entire line will be fenced in" (<a href="https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=205&h0=tonawanda">Electrical Review</a>, August 5, 1896). </span>It is operational by November 1896. (Amazing <a href="https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1990_265">images of line construction</a> from Hagley Archives).<br /><br />The long distance line uses alternating current (AC) transmitted at high voltages, which could travel long distances with minimal loss. A ‘transformer house’ like the one established on Robinson street would step down (transform) some of the high voltage lines to more manageable and safer levels for local distribution. Other lines passing through this North Tonawanda substation continued at high voltage to Buffalo and Lockport, to be stepped down at other transformer houses before being used locally. <br /><br /><strong>Tonawanda Lighting and Power Company incorporated</strong><br /><br />Landmarks of Niagara County: "The Tonawanda Lighting and Power Company was incorporated February 23, 1897, with a capital of $150,000, and is the successor of the Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Light Company, which was organized in 1890 The company supplies both Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, and operates in all about 290 arc and 2,400 incandescent lamps. Frank M. Gordon is local manager." They will step down power for local distribution in a yard north of the Niagara Falls Power Company's Robinson Street transformer house. </p>
<p>1900: "<span>At Tonawanda, 10 miles from Buffalo and 14 miles from Niagara Falls, the transmission line from the falls to Buffalo is tapped and power from it is transformed, converted and regenerated into the various kinds and voltages of current desired tor traction, arc and incandescent lighting and distribution to motors. There is no electrical generating plant driven by steam power in Tonawanda or North Tonawanda either for street railway or central station loads. The work at Tonawanda is carried on by the Tonawanda Power Company, which is closely allied financially with the other Niagara power interests, such as the Niagara Palls Power Company and the Cataract Power and Conduit Company. The Tonawanda Power Company consists of the consolidation of the Tonawanda Light and Power Company, which formerly operated a steam-driven central station of the usual type in Tonawanda, and the Tonawanda Cataract Power Company, which previous to the consolidation was formed for advancing the Niagara power interests in Tonawanda. The consolidated company has erected a transforming station immediatey beside the right of way of the transmission line at a convenient point in North Tonawanda about a mile east of the business center and just a short distance south of the branch of the Erie running to Lockport, which branch is operated by electric power from this transforming station."</span><br /><br /><strong>Former switching tower<br /><br /></strong>Where the new pocket park is now, on the Twin City Highway side, was once a two-story “switching tower” which was wired to the transformer house. Added around 1902, this adjunct tower was actually owned by the Niagara Falls Power company. It helped engineers manage and troubleshoot defects in the multiplying lines. Most of the high voltage lines carrying electricity from the massive turbines at Niagara Falls ran into this tower.<br /><br />In 1920, a horrific explosion kills 13 men early Halloween morning (read our blog post, <strong><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/tonawanda-power-company-disaster/">The Tonawanda Power Company Disaster</a></strong>). An NT fire chief <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Safety_Maintenance_Production/Njw6AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Superintendent+Albert+S.+Allen+tonawanda&pg=PA221&printsec=frontcover">alleges the work was rushed</a> in <em>Safety News and Comment</em>. The January 1921 <em>Safety Bulletin</em> <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Safety_Bulletin/XwkUAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=RA24-PA2&printsec=frontcover">provides more context and details</a> (a storm and wind outside) and a photo of the ruined second floor of the switching tower. <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/State_of_New_York_Supreme_Court_Appellat/-NBRpQpR-lwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=RA3-PA17&printsec=frontcover">Rose Derby's suit</a>. Superintendent Frank S. Wahl's (and others!) testimony in <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_York_Court_of_Appeals_Records_and_Br/wU3z2XtqKz8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=PA178&printsec=frontcover">Yates's survivor's suit provides</a> more tower details, tower role, and what he saw on the scene (where the dead were found). Fault is ultimately found to be with the equipment provider, who left no instruction to remove the wood blocks used in shipping.<br /><br />In 1925 the company become "associated with" Buffalo General Electric, Niagara Falls Power Co. and others. <br /><br />In 1929, they open a new headquarters on Sweeney and Webster, today Buffalo Suzuki Strings.<br /><br />The Robinson street transformer house and environs is now owned and operated by National Grid.<br /><br />This <a href="https://reference.insulators.info/publications/search/?query=tonawanda&submit=Search%20https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=5168&h0=tonawanda%C2%A0">collection of electric literature</a> has many fine details and photos of the 1896 construction of the line.<br /><br /><a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/ja/collections/archival-item/sova-nmah-ac-0949-ref88">Photo archive at the Smithsonian</a>.</p>
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Niagara Mohawk plant, map detail (1951).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1951
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/8e265227a7150cd6e0c3040559f9b0fa.jpg
c4b86860b2604398e5589a564c7db85e
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Auto-Wheel Coaster, Buffalo Sled Company (Schenck St.)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="https://nthistory.com/custom/cover/14d.jpg" style="border: 0px;" alt="The Buffalo Sled company building at Schenck and Marion, c.1917" /><span class="cover-caption">The Buffalo Sled company building at Schenck and Marion, as depicted in a 1917 catalog. It burns in a disastrous 1972 fire.</span> The Buffalo Sled Co. starts business in 1899, apparently in Buffalo, and organizes around 1905. It is led by John J. Schneider and Henry J. Tiedt. In 1909, the firm purchases the the Orient Novelty Company* of North Tonawanda, and moves into their large, 3-story factory (pictured above).<br /><br />The Buffalo Sled Company originally makes sleds and shovels. They add coasters (wagons) in 1912. Soon they are enjoying national success, advertising aggressively in several publications, and marketing their boys' toys ingenuously with clubs and giveaways. In July of 1920 they file paperwork to change their name to the "Auto-Wheel Coaster Company."<br /><br />At times they also have operations in Buffalo, on Ellicott Creek in the old A. B. Williams plant, and in Preston, Ontario. <br /><br /><span><span>From the Internet's <a href="http://www.harryrinker.com/col-1117.html">Harry Rinker</a>:</span></span>
<blockquote>A fire on April 16, 1920, destroyed the wheel department and storehouses. According to the 1921 City Directory, the company rebuilt and assumed a new name, Auto-Wheel Coaster Company.</blockquote>
Auto Wheel files for bankruptcy in July 1964, but is bought by area men to resume production. This did not seem to be successful, as the plant was is in the process of being converted to a palette factory when it is completely destroyed in a spectacular fire on Memorial Day (May 29), 1972, taking at least seven nearby homes with it.<br /><br />* Orient when relocated here from Dayton, OH in 1903. They manufactured novelties, were led by D.W. Hyman, and had a modest subscription for electric power from Niagara Falls. In 1905 locals complain about the nuisance of smoke from the works.
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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Auto Wheel Coaster Co., map detail (1951).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1951
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/bedd357cafd727ba1858436b2e247066.jpg
29f80dbf46ddd921bd93373958dbcacd
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Co., Tonawanda Power Co., National Grid
Description
An account of the resource
<p><img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/37.jpg" alt="National Grid transformer station in 2023. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr." /> <span class="cover-caption">The Robinson Street "transformer building" is built by the Niagara Falls Power Company in 1895 as part of their unprecedented 23-mile transmission sending current from Nigara Falls to Buffalo. The building is later operated by the Tonawanda Power Company, who distribute the hyrdo-electricity locally. Today the historic building is owned by National Grid. </span></p>
<p><span class="cover-caption">Photo by Dennis Reed Jr., 2023.</span></p>
<h2>Motive power before the grid</h2>
<p>In the 1800s, in North Tonawanda and elsewhere, mills are powered primarily by waterwheels, while factories rely on stationary steam engines fueled by coal or wood to drive machinery and reduce human and animal labor. Beginning in the 1870s, electric dynamos appear, typically driven by steam engines, producing electricity mainly for lighting. There is no interconnected electrical grid. Electricity is generated locally, on site, by individual factories, private companies, or municipalities for their own use or a limited number of nearby customers.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Light Company first located on Tonawanda Island</h2>
<p>In 1889, the Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Light Company operates a dynamo on the north end of Tonawanda Island. The dynamo is fed by wood shavings from the Doebler Planing Mill. The company supplies electricity to a small number of North Tonawanda subscribers. Arc lights on a few streets are run. Their office is at the northeast corner of Main and Goundry in an old frame building. <br /><br /><a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/3942">1891 Buffalo Express Pictorial</a>: "<span>The Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Co. are now building a $40,000 plant near the north end, to furnish power for an electric street railroad. These facilities, with a telephone service and telegraph office, leave but little to be desired. The docked frontage on the property is now nearly two miles in length. The Tonawanda City Water Works, located on the west side of the island, are fully described elsewhere."</span><br /><br /><strong>The Niagara Falls Power Company builds transmission line and transformer house at Robinson Street</strong><br /><br />Meanwhile, electrical experts at the Niagara Falls Power Company and others have been convening for a few years about how to best harness Niagara Falls's tremendous kinetic energy for the electrical age, and what to do with all that energy, which would be far more than could be used locally. <br /><br />The answer: send it to the much larger city of Buffalo, 23 miles south. <br /><br />In late 1895, the Niagara Falls Power Company begins building an unprecedented long-distance power line to Buffalo (mostly along the boundary of the old Mile Reserve). "<span>This transmission line will run over a private right of way from the Niagara Falls Power Company's station at Niagara Falls to </span><span>Tonawanda</span><span>, and thence down one bank of the Erie Canal to Buffalo. The entire line will be fenced in" (<a href="https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=205&h0=tonawanda">Electrical Review</a>, August 5, 1896). </span>It is operational by November 1896. (Amazing <a href="https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1990_265">images of line construction</a> from Hagley Archives).<br /><br />The long distance line uses alternating current (AC) transmitted at high voltages, which could travel long distances with minimal loss. A ‘transformer house’ like the one established on Robinson street would step down (transform) some of the high voltage lines to more manageable and safer levels for local distribution. Other lines passing through this North Tonawanda substation continued at high voltage to Buffalo and Lockport, to be stepped down at other transformer houses before being used locally. <br /><br /><strong>Tonawanda Lighting and Power Company incorporated</strong><br /><br />Landmarks of Niagara County: "The Tonawanda Lighting and Power Company was incorporated February 23, 1897, with a capital of $150,000, and is the successor of the Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Light Company, which was organized in 1890 The company supplies both Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, and operates in all about 290 arc and 2,400 incandescent lamps. Frank M. Gordon is local manager." They will step down power for local distribution in a yard north of the Niagara Falls Power Company's Robinson Street transformer house. </p>
<p>1900: "<span>At Tonawanda, 10 miles from Buffalo and 14 miles from Niagara Falls, the transmission line from the falls to Buffalo is tapped and power from it is transformed, converted and regenerated into the various kinds and voltages of current desired tor traction, arc and incandescent lighting and distribution to motors. There is no electrical generating plant driven by steam power in Tonawanda or North Tonawanda either for street railway or central station loads. The work at Tonawanda is carried on by the Tonawanda Power Company, which is closely allied financially with the other Niagara power interests, such as the Niagara Palls Power Company and the Cataract Power and Conduit Company. The Tonawanda Power Company consists of the consolidation of the Tonawanda Light and Power Company, which formerly operated a steam-driven central station of the usual type in Tonawanda, and the Tonawanda Cataract Power Company, which previous to the consolidation was formed for advancing the Niagara power interests in Tonawanda. The consolidated company has erected a transforming station immediatey beside the right of way of the transmission line at a convenient point in North Tonawanda about a mile east of the business center and just a short distance south of the branch of the Erie running to Lockport, which branch is operated by electric power from this transforming station."</span><br /><br /><strong>Former switching tower<br /><br /></strong>Where the new pocket park is now, on the Twin City Highway side, was once a two-story “switching tower” which was wired to the transformer house. Added around 1902, this adjunct tower was actually owned by the Niagara Falls Power company. It helped engineers manage and troubleshoot defects in the multiplying lines. Most of the high voltage lines carrying electricity from the massive turbines at Niagara Falls ran into this tower.<br /><br />In 1920, a horrific explosion kills 13 men early Halloween morning (read our blog post, <strong><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/tonawanda-power-company-disaster/">The Tonawanda Power Company Disaster</a></strong>). An NT fire chief <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Safety_Maintenance_Production/Njw6AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Superintendent+Albert+S.+Allen+tonawanda&pg=PA221&printsec=frontcover">alleges the work was rushed</a> in <em>Safety News and Comment</em>. The January 1921 <em>Safety Bulletin</em> <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Safety_Bulletin/XwkUAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=RA24-PA2&printsec=frontcover">provides more context and details</a> (a storm and wind outside) and a photo of the ruined second floor of the switching tower. <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/State_of_New_York_Supreme_Court_Appellat/-NBRpQpR-lwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=RA3-PA17&printsec=frontcover">Rose Derby's suit</a>. Superintendent Frank S. Wahl's (and others!) testimony in <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_York_Court_of_Appeals_Records_and_Br/wU3z2XtqKz8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=PA178&printsec=frontcover">Yates's survivor's suit provides</a> more tower details, tower role, and what he saw on the scene (where the dead were found). Fault is ultimately found to be with the equipment provider, who left no instruction to remove the wood blocks used in shipping.<br /><br />In 1925 the company become "associated with" Buffalo General Electric, Niagara Falls Power Co. and others. <br /><br />In 1929, they open a new headquarters on Sweeney and Webster, today Buffalo Suzuki Strings.<br /><br />The Robinson street transformer house and environs is now owned and operated by National Grid.<br /><br />This <a href="https://reference.insulators.info/publications/search/?query=tonawanda&submit=Search%20https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=5168&h0=tonawanda%C2%A0">collection of electric literature</a> has many fine details and photos of the 1896 construction of the line.<br /><br /><a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/ja/collections/archival-item/sova-nmah-ac-0949-ref88">Photo archive at the Smithsonian</a>.</p>
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Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Light company on Tonawanda Island, map detail (1893).jpg
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1893
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The company's wood-shaving-fed steam engine supplies some arc lights and electricity to a few daring homes.
map
-
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c69c4e4f1380ab91f57ca179f5bba8eb
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Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Co., Tonawanda Power Co., National Grid
Description
An account of the resource
<p><img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/37.jpg" alt="National Grid transformer station in 2023. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr." /> <span class="cover-caption">The Robinson Street "transformer building" is built by the Niagara Falls Power Company in 1895 as part of their unprecedented 23-mile transmission sending current from Nigara Falls to Buffalo. The building is later operated by the Tonawanda Power Company, who distribute the hyrdo-electricity locally. Today the historic building is owned by National Grid. </span></p>
<p><span class="cover-caption">Photo by Dennis Reed Jr., 2023.</span></p>
<h2>Motive power before the grid</h2>
<p>In the 1800s, in North Tonawanda and elsewhere, mills are powered primarily by waterwheels, while factories rely on stationary steam engines fueled by coal or wood to drive machinery and reduce human and animal labor. Beginning in the 1870s, electric dynamos appear, typically driven by steam engines, producing electricity mainly for lighting. There is no interconnected electrical grid. Electricity is generated locally, on site, by individual factories, private companies, or municipalities for their own use or a limited number of nearby customers.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Light Company first located on Tonawanda Island</h2>
<p>In 1889, the Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Light Company operates a dynamo on the north end of Tonawanda Island. The dynamo is fed by wood shavings from the Doebler Planing Mill. The company supplies electricity to a small number of North Tonawanda subscribers. Arc lights on a few streets are run. Their office is at the northeast corner of Main and Goundry in an old frame building. <br /><br /><a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/3942">1891 Buffalo Express Pictorial</a>: "<span>The Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Co. are now building a $40,000 plant near the north end, to furnish power for an electric street railroad. These facilities, with a telephone service and telegraph office, leave but little to be desired. The docked frontage on the property is now nearly two miles in length. The Tonawanda City Water Works, located on the west side of the island, are fully described elsewhere."</span><br /><br /><strong>The Niagara Falls Power Company builds transmission line and transformer house at Robinson Street</strong><br /><br />Meanwhile, electrical experts at the Niagara Falls Power Company and others have been convening for a few years about how to best harness Niagara Falls's tremendous kinetic energy for the electrical age, and what to do with all that energy, which would be far more than could be used locally. <br /><br />The answer: send it to the much larger city of Buffalo, 23 miles south. <br /><br />In late 1895, the Niagara Falls Power Company begins building an unprecedented long-distance power line to Buffalo (mostly along the boundary of the old Mile Reserve). "<span>This transmission line will run over a private right of way from the Niagara Falls Power Company's station at Niagara Falls to </span><span>Tonawanda</span><span>, and thence down one bank of the Erie Canal to Buffalo. The entire line will be fenced in" (<a href="https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=205&h0=tonawanda">Electrical Review</a>, August 5, 1896). </span>It is operational by November 1896. (Amazing <a href="https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1990_265">images of line construction</a> from Hagley Archives).<br /><br />The long distance line uses alternating current (AC) transmitted at high voltages, which could travel long distances with minimal loss. A ‘transformer house’ like the one established on Robinson street would step down (transform) some of the high voltage lines to more manageable and safer levels for local distribution. Other lines passing through this North Tonawanda substation continued at high voltage to Buffalo and Lockport, to be stepped down at other transformer houses before being used locally. <br /><br /><strong>Tonawanda Lighting and Power Company incorporated</strong><br /><br />Landmarks of Niagara County: "The Tonawanda Lighting and Power Company was incorporated February 23, 1897, with a capital of $150,000, and is the successor of the Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Light Company, which was organized in 1890 The company supplies both Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, and operates in all about 290 arc and 2,400 incandescent lamps. Frank M. Gordon is local manager." They will step down power for local distribution in a yard north of the Niagara Falls Power Company's Robinson Street transformer house. </p>
<p>1900: "<span>At Tonawanda, 10 miles from Buffalo and 14 miles from Niagara Falls, the transmission line from the falls to Buffalo is tapped and power from it is transformed, converted and regenerated into the various kinds and voltages of current desired tor traction, arc and incandescent lighting and distribution to motors. There is no electrical generating plant driven by steam power in Tonawanda or North Tonawanda either for street railway or central station loads. The work at Tonawanda is carried on by the Tonawanda Power Company, which is closely allied financially with the other Niagara power interests, such as the Niagara Palls Power Company and the Cataract Power and Conduit Company. The Tonawanda Power Company consists of the consolidation of the Tonawanda Light and Power Company, which formerly operated a steam-driven central station of the usual type in Tonawanda, and the Tonawanda Cataract Power Company, which previous to the consolidation was formed for advancing the Niagara power interests in Tonawanda. The consolidated company has erected a transforming station immediatey beside the right of way of the transmission line at a convenient point in North Tonawanda about a mile east of the business center and just a short distance south of the branch of the Erie running to Lockport, which branch is operated by electric power from this transforming station."</span><br /><br /><strong>Former switching tower<br /><br /></strong>Where the new pocket park is now, on the Twin City Highway side, was once a two-story “switching tower” which was wired to the transformer house. Added around 1902, this adjunct tower was actually owned by the Niagara Falls Power company. It helped engineers manage and troubleshoot defects in the multiplying lines. Most of the high voltage lines carrying electricity from the massive turbines at Niagara Falls ran into this tower.<br /><br />In 1920, a horrific explosion kills 13 men early Halloween morning (read our blog post, <strong><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/tonawanda-power-company-disaster/">The Tonawanda Power Company Disaster</a></strong>). An NT fire chief <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Safety_Maintenance_Production/Njw6AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Superintendent+Albert+S.+Allen+tonawanda&pg=PA221&printsec=frontcover">alleges the work was rushed</a> in <em>Safety News and Comment</em>. The January 1921 <em>Safety Bulletin</em> <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Safety_Bulletin/XwkUAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=RA24-PA2&printsec=frontcover">provides more context and details</a> (a storm and wind outside) and a photo of the ruined second floor of the switching tower. <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/State_of_New_York_Supreme_Court_Appellat/-NBRpQpR-lwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=RA3-PA17&printsec=frontcover">Rose Derby's suit</a>. Superintendent Frank S. Wahl's (and others!) testimony in <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_York_Court_of_Appeals_Records_and_Br/wU3z2XtqKz8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=PA178&printsec=frontcover">Yates's survivor's suit provides</a> more tower details, tower role, and what he saw on the scene (where the dead were found). Fault is ultimately found to be with the equipment provider, who left no instruction to remove the wood blocks used in shipping.<br /><br />In 1925 the company become "associated with" Buffalo General Electric, Niagara Falls Power Co. and others. <br /><br />In 1929, they open a new headquarters on Sweeney and Webster, today Buffalo Suzuki Strings.<br /><br />The Robinson street transformer house and environs is now owned and operated by National Grid.<br /><br />This <a href="https://reference.insulators.info/publications/search/?query=tonawanda&submit=Search%20https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=5168&h0=tonawanda%C2%A0">collection of electric literature</a> has many fine details and photos of the 1896 construction of the line.<br /><br /><a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/ja/collections/archival-item/sova-nmah-ac-0949-ref88">Photo archive at the Smithsonian</a>.</p>
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Niagara Falls Power Company, map detail (1908).jpg
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1908
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/68bb097b0f561725815b1bcccd34c1eb.jpg
1e853606518ff7bed840db0ecfa1f246
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Niagara County, map (LOC, 1852).jpg
Date
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1852
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/238652e7a4796fe15e8d2f05ee9cf960.jpg
91e1b479419de2c6a8a68039fde78a44
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Avenues / Ironton (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/83e.jpg" alt="Ironton and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr" /><span class="cover-caption">Ironton Street and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr</span> <b><em>See also: <a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/lost-village-of-ironton/">The lost village of Ironton and the birth of the Avenues</a> and <a href="https://nthistory.com/collections/show/141">Avenues Folk: Mary Kijowski-Konstanty of Fifteenth Ave</a>.</em></b><br /><br /><strong>Origins of Ironton</strong><br /><br />The "spark" for Ironton arrives in 1873, when Niagara Furnace (later <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/16">Tonawanda Iron and Steel)</a> locates on the banks of the Niagara River near Wheatfield Street. The unofficial village of "Ironton" is named after the promising venture. After initial excitement (and investment in the surrounding land) however, the furnace shuts down after only a year in operation. <br /><br /><strong>Early doings</strong><br /><br />In 1875 map, h<span>omes are seen in the lower Avenues. Oliver Street business? Churches. Colonel Payne's estate is still intact across Payne and up to Dahlgren Place, the former northern limit of the early Avenues. Ironton Street from 1880s according to ArcGIS.<br /><br /></span>"From 1880-1890, its population increased form 1,492 to 4,793," (Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.110).<br /><br />In 1882, the establishment of a John Cichoki's <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1665">tavern on River Road</a> near Wheatfield street <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1543">is a foothold</a> for early Polish settlers. Grocers and butchers are nearby. In 1884 a "minor school in a small frame building" is established less than a quarter mile east down Wheatfield at Dahlgren Place (<a href="https://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1477">Buffalo Courier Express, 1905)</a>. In 1889 or 1890, the much larger, <span>Richardsonian Romanesque style</span> <span><a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/64">Ironton Public School #2</a> opens at the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street. <br /></span><br /><strong>The furnace burns again; the River Road industrial corridor</strong><br /><br />The old Niagara Furnace site is expanded and relaunched in 1889 by Tonawanda Iron and Steel. The adjacent marshes and former farms once again become valuable real estate, with "manufacturing interests" courted for the valuable land along the river and railroad tracks. More Poles, Hungarians and others flock to the Avenues, bringing their languages, traditions and chickens with them. An 1891 guidebook describes the real estate situation:
<blockquote>It was purchased from Pratt & Jewett by Geo. P. Smith and A. J. Hathaway, Oct. 15, 1889, replatted, and Jan. 1st, 1890, put on the market. Within a year 500 building lots had been sold and 100 houses erected.<br /><br />With June of the present year [1891] the Ironton Land Co. was incorporated with capital of §100,000 and everything bids fair for a prosperous career, as this is the river center of North Tonawanda corporation, and being traversed by all the rail- roads it cannot fail to secure prominent manufacturing interests. <br /><br />The Ironton addition is less than a mile from the North Tonawanda City Hall. With the Iron & Steel Works, the surrounding lumber interests and the bolt and nut works of Plumb, Burdict ct Barnard, which has recently been located on the adjoining property, this section of the city will make a convenient and desirable place for mechanics and business firms. It has the water supply, electric lights, and will soon be connected by the electric street car line. <br /><br />A double two story brick block for stores has just been completed on Oliver street, making a nice addition to the mercantile conveniences there, a $15,000 brick school house was erected a couple of years since, a church dedicated in August and this section has all the modern conveniences of the older part of the city.</blockquote>
<strong>Land<br /></strong><br />In November 1889, <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/smithgeorgep1897bio.html">George P. Smith</a> and <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/hathawayaj1897bio.html">A. J. Hathaway</a> buy land opposite the iron works.<strong><br /><br /><br />Incorporation into the City of North Tonawanda</strong><br /><br />The village of "Ironton" (along with the villages of North Tonawanda, Gratwick and Martinsville) is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897. The last remnant of the old village name is in its "Ironton Street," running along the west edge of the original avenues. It never had its own post office, or government, but it is an interesting part of the patchwork of the original city that has mostly now vanished from public recall.<br /><br /><strong>An increasingly Polish community on the Avenues</strong><br /><br />For the numerous Polish on the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/3436">original seven avenues</a>, their church is the center of their community. OLC is established on Center Ave, exactly where the grotto is today. It is later rebuilt just south. <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/98">Pettit Creek</a> flows through the area (it will be covered).<br /><br /><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200105.pdf">The paving of Oliver Street being planned August 26, 1893.<br /></a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"> A progress report </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200169.pdf">about a month later</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">. October 5 </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200235.pdf">there is labor trouble between Poles and Italians</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">.</a><br /><br />The upper avenues remain essentially woods and marshes until the 1940s, when settlement accelerates with the nationwide Baby Boom. <br /><br /><em>Notes:</em><br /><br /> * <span><em>Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, of the State of New-York</em> (1884,</span> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EEEdAQAAIAAJ">Google Books)</a> Also has lots of details about new Goundry Street school and a brief mention of Gratwick school and enrollment figures.1890 "The village of Tonawanda is up and awake as far as educational matters are concerned. It has a progressive board of education composed of five members, all liberal men in their views. A new brick school building is nearly completed at Ironton, a suburb of the village, that would be a pride to any town."<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"><br /></a> <br />John Carr on Facebook in January 2017: "Go back to the 1800's and my great grandfather's farm, as well as several others, was there, extending from the river inland past Payne. The house was originally along the river. Eventually the lumber yards and steel mills pushed the property, and the house back from the river to Oliver (#849 or #869). In the 1890's, after his death, the property was sold off and developed into individual housing lots. At that time the area was annexed to North Tonawanda, before that the area was part of Wheatfield. Carr Street still exists by the town pool. Many of my great grand parents children and their families had homes in the area. We see the area today pretty much as it was developed then, however modernized a bit and not the capitol of industry it was then."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b5be67cf0e05477e8f4ad3161ab51422">ArcGIS</a> and old map notes:<br />
<ul>
<li>1860 map show Cap. O. Shepard in a few places. From Ohio. Buried there. H(enry) Rosebrock from Hanover, Germany (1880 Census); H. Luttman German. F. Roney</li>
<li>Homes on Ironton Street range between 1870 (96 Ironton), 1880 (144 Ironton) and into the early 1900s. Some Year 0s (e.g., 188).</li>
<li>The River Rd - Wheatfield "businesses" at southeast corner are 1900-1930, couple of year 0s, though 1886 map shows SOMETHING there earlier.</li>
<li>Weston & Son lumber all around in 1886 maps, Stocum & DeGraff south across Summer</li>
<li>Simson Street: Properties start at 1860 (23 Simson), couple 1880s and 0s. "<span>Rua, Joseph M" listed as owned on many. 1875 map it's called "Judd Ave, and names of homeowners are given (several Simsons); Called "Miller" in 1886 map. Early enclave for nearby mill, predating even Iron Works? </span></li>
</ul>
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A diagram of a geographical area's major arteries of transportation, buildings, land owners and terrain.
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Avenues, Payne Estate, future Mid-City Plaza, aerial photo (1938).jpg
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1938
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<a href="https://niagara-county.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html">https://niagara-county.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html</a>
avenues
gratwick
ironton
map
photo
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/bd1c956343d5a1b2eb3ae2a298fd303d.jpg
083b33994bd2f06b9971d14bd7566b71
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Avenues Folk: Mary Kijowski-Konstanty, 47 15th Ave.
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="A collage of photographs shows a young girl on the porch of a typical Avenues style home at its center, with an accordion player and men drinking alcohol in others" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/141.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">Center: A young Mary Kijowski on the porch of 47 15th Avenue, c.1933. Photos from her personal collection.</span> In North Tonawanda, the Polish ruled the Avenues. <br /><br />The industrious immigrants pour into the city in the late 1800s and early 1900s, snatching up the plentiful work offered by Tonawanda Iron and Steel, the still-booming lumber industry, Buffalo Bolt and others. By 1933 they have established a vibrant community of over <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2943">5,000 people</a>, with its own churches, taverns, community centers, and stores selling the goods needed to support the traditions of their European homeland. <br /><br />The photos and ephemera in this collection were the personal property of a first-generation Pole living on the Avenues, the late Mary Konstanty (n<span>é</span>e Kijowski, c.1926-2000). Her Polish-born parents are Szymon (who works at nearby Buffalo Bolt) and Paulina. Mary is the youngest of eight siblings, all born in America between 1911 and 1926. In a <a href="https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRN1-94PZ?i=8&cc=1488411&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMVMV-YVS">1920 Census</a> the family is at 21 14th Avenue, squeezed in with another family. By 1926 they have settled at 47 15th Ave.<br /><br />The collection is a vivid snapshot of social life on the Avenues: the men drinking conspicuously and posing with beers on a bench in their tiny backyard; the family farming and ice skating in the unsettled swaths of the upper east Avenues that would be covered by homes after WWII. The sounds of accordions and Polish would have been ringing in the air. <br /><br />Mary is always smiling in the photos; always seemingly keenly aware of some devilish fun to be had, whether she is posing on a tractor, ice skating, or peeking around a tree with her future husband, John Konstanty II. Only the last, 1980 photo of her shows her unsmiling--perhaps annoyed by the picture-taker as she tries to read her newspaper on her porch in peace. <br /><br />Her many grandchildren may or may not know it, but Mary Kijowski appears to have been a bit of a <em>wild child</em>.<br /><br />The Tonawanda News has memorialized one case in point: In October 1942, the paper reports that 16 year-old Mary was out after 4 a.m. in a car driven by her friend Helen Polek of 15 14th Avenue. As they turn a corner on Sweeney Street, Mary tumbles out of the open passenger door, suffering "severe" brush burns and a fractured arm. Helen takes her younger friend to De Graff Memorial Hospital, where Mary is admitted for treatment. They may not have had the Internet to record youthful indiscretions in her day, but they had microfilm.<br /><br />Like many women of her time, Mary Kijowski steps up to help keep factories running while the nation is at war. A March 11, 1943 postcard from the U. S. War Manpower Commission invites her to Buffalo for a job interview. She is assigned to the same factory her father works at, Buffalo Bolt. A wonderful photo in this set shows her with other women inside the North Tonawanda factory; another shows her posing proudly in full "Rosie the Riveter" regalia: a do-rag on her head, and a men's plaid shirt tucked into pants that are far too long for her.<br /><br />She marries John Konstanty II in 1952 at Our Lady of Czestochowa Catholic church. They have four children by 1959. John works at Bethlehem Steel and <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201959%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201959%2520%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201247.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D1ad5d832%26DocId%3D2106552%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D35%26hits%3De%2Bd2%2B376%2B389%2B3ac%2B3e8%2B3e9%2B418%2B454%2B496%2B4b1%2B531%2B589%2Ba66%2Bb06%2Bb69%2Bb75%2Bbe7%2Bbfb%2Bc95%2Bcad%2Bcd4%2Bcf4%2Bdf3%2Bdf8%2Be51%2Be84%2Beaa%2Bee3%2Bf4e%2Bfb7%2B1023%2B10ab%2B10b0%2B10b7%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201959%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201959%2520%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201247.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D1ad5d832%26DocId%3D2106552%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D35%26hits%3De%2Bd2%2B376%2B389%2B3ac%2B3e8%2B3e9%2B418%2B454%2B496%2B4b1%2B531%2B589%2Ba66%2Bb06%2Bb69%2Bb75%2Bbe7%2Bbfb%2Bc95%2Bcad%2Bcd4%2Bcf4%2Bdf3%2Bdf8%2Be51%2Be84%2Beaa%2Bee3%2Bf4e%2Bfb7%2B1023%2B10ab%2B10b0%2B10b7%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">runs for alderman</a> that year. <br /><br />A son, Jeffrey, is born in 1962.
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47 Fifteenth Ave., aerial photo (1938).jpg
Date
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1938
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https://niagara-county.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html
Description
An account of the resource
Many of the upper east avenues were still unoccupied in 1938.
avenues
gratwick
ironton
map
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f5c7e7c57e437024b997ca3073be916e
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Gratwick School
Description
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The first schoolhouse in the village of Gratwick is a one-room frame building put up by the education-minded Germans in 1885 (Crosbie). Built in 1892, Public School Number 4 opens at Payne and Stenzil in 1894. It is enlarged in 1924, and at least once thereafter.<br /><br />In area known as <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Report_of_the_Superintendent_of_Public_I/h0A_AAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=wheatfield%20niagara%20school&pg=PA144&printsec=frontcover">Kohl's Woods</a>?
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Map of North Tonawanda, Gratwick School area highlighted (c1948).jpg
Date
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1948
Description
An account of the resource
Shows Bushes Bridge, Nor-Ton Courts, "Sweeney Park", numbered avenues from 20th-24th, and a planned Tesla and Edison Street. Not yet here: Mid-City Plaza, Wurlitzer Park, North Tonawanda High School, lots of southeast (Spruce) area development. Roncroff alone.
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/d42091b9be846e40db058ffe58c0a590.jpg
c573b3d1d9afe6168f20b46d8de72f97
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Avenues / Ironton (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/83e.jpg" alt="Ironton and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr" /><span class="cover-caption">Ironton Street and First Ave in 2024. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr</span> <b><em>See also: <a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/lost-village-of-ironton/">The lost village of Ironton and the birth of the Avenues</a> and <a href="https://nthistory.com/collections/show/141">Avenues Folk: Mary Kijowski-Konstanty of Fifteenth Ave</a>.</em></b><br /><br /><strong>Origins of Ironton</strong><br /><br />The "spark" for Ironton arrives in 1873, when Niagara Furnace (later <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/16">Tonawanda Iron and Steel)</a> locates on the banks of the Niagara River near Wheatfield Street. The unofficial village of "Ironton" is named after the promising venture. After initial excitement (and investment in the surrounding land) however, the furnace shuts down after only a year in operation. <br /><br /><strong>Early doings</strong><br /><br />In 1875 map, h<span>omes are seen in the lower Avenues. Oliver Street business? Churches. Colonel Payne's estate is still intact across Payne and up to Dahlgren Place, the former northern limit of the early Avenues. Ironton Street from 1880s according to ArcGIS.<br /><br /></span>"From 1880-1890, its population increased form 1,492 to 4,793," (Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.110).<br /><br />In 1882, the establishment of a John Cichoki's <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1665">tavern on River Road</a> near Wheatfield street <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1543">is a foothold</a> for early Polish settlers. Grocers and butchers are nearby. In 1884 a "minor school in a small frame building" is established less than a quarter mile east down Wheatfield at Dahlgren Place (<a href="https://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1477">Buffalo Courier Express, 1905)</a>. In 1889 or 1890, the much larger, <span>Richardsonian Romanesque style</span> <span><a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/64">Ironton Public School #2</a> opens at the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street. <br /></span><br /><strong>The furnace burns again; the River Road industrial corridor</strong><br /><br />The old Niagara Furnace site is expanded and relaunched in 1889 by Tonawanda Iron and Steel. The adjacent marshes and former farms once again become valuable real estate, with "manufacturing interests" courted for the valuable land along the river and railroad tracks. More Poles, Hungarians and others flock to the Avenues, bringing their languages, traditions and chickens with them. An 1891 guidebook describes the real estate situation:
<blockquote>It was purchased from Pratt & Jewett by Geo. P. Smith and A. J. Hathaway, Oct. 15, 1889, replatted, and Jan. 1st, 1890, put on the market. Within a year 500 building lots had been sold and 100 houses erected.<br /><br />With June of the present year [1891] the Ironton Land Co. was incorporated with capital of §100,000 and everything bids fair for a prosperous career, as this is the river center of North Tonawanda corporation, and being traversed by all the rail- roads it cannot fail to secure prominent manufacturing interests. <br /><br />The Ironton addition is less than a mile from the North Tonawanda City Hall. With the Iron & Steel Works, the surrounding lumber interests and the bolt and nut works of Plumb, Burdict ct Barnard, which has recently been located on the adjoining property, this section of the city will make a convenient and desirable place for mechanics and business firms. It has the water supply, electric lights, and will soon be connected by the electric street car line. <br /><br />A double two story brick block for stores has just been completed on Oliver street, making a nice addition to the mercantile conveniences there, a $15,000 brick school house was erected a couple of years since, a church dedicated in August and this section has all the modern conveniences of the older part of the city.</blockquote>
<strong>Land<br /></strong><br />In November 1889, <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/smithgeorgep1897bio.html">George P. Smith</a> and <a href="https://niagara.nygenweb.net/biography/hathawayaj1897bio.html">A. J. Hathaway</a> buy land opposite the iron works.<strong><br /><br /><br />Incorporation into the City of North Tonawanda</strong><br /><br />The village of "Ironton" (along with the villages of North Tonawanda, Gratwick and Martinsville) is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897. The last remnant of the old village name is in its "Ironton Street," running along the west edge of the original avenues. It never had its own post office, or government, but it is an interesting part of the patchwork of the original city that has mostly now vanished from public recall.<br /><br /><strong>An increasingly Polish community on the Avenues</strong><br /><br />For the numerous Polish on the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/3436">original seven avenues</a>, their church is the center of their community. OLC is established on Center Ave, exactly where the grotto is today. It is later rebuilt just south. <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/98">Pettit Creek</a> flows through the area (it will be covered).<br /><br /><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200105.pdf">The paving of Oliver Street being planned August 26, 1893.<br /></a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"> A progress report </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200169.pdf">about a month later</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">. October 5 </a><a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale/North%20Tonawanda%20NY%20Evening%20News%201893%20Jul-Jul%201894%20Grayscale%20-%200235.pdf">there is labor trouble between Poles and Italians</a><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s">.</a><br /><br />The upper avenues remain essentially woods and marshes until the 1940s, when settlement accelerates with the nationwide Baby Boom. <br /><br /><em>Notes:</em><br /><br /> * <span><em>Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, of the State of New-York</em> (1884,</span> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EEEdAQAAIAAJ">Google Books)</a> Also has lots of details about new Goundry Street school and a brief mention of Gratwick school and enrollment figures.1890 "The village of Tonawanda is up and awake as far as educational matters are concerned. It has a progressive board of education composed of five members, all liberal men in their views. A new brick school building is nearly completed at Ironton, a suburb of the village, that would be a pride to any town."<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zCwdAQAAIAAJ&dq=ironton+tonawanda&source=gbs_navlinks_s"><br /></a> <br />John Carr on Facebook in January 2017: "Go back to the 1800's and my great grandfather's farm, as well as several others, was there, extending from the river inland past Payne. The house was originally along the river. Eventually the lumber yards and steel mills pushed the property, and the house back from the river to Oliver (#849 or #869). In the 1890's, after his death, the property was sold off and developed into individual housing lots. At that time the area was annexed to North Tonawanda, before that the area was part of Wheatfield. Carr Street still exists by the town pool. Many of my great grand parents children and their families had homes in the area. We see the area today pretty much as it was developed then, however modernized a bit and not the capitol of industry it was then."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b5be67cf0e05477e8f4ad3161ab51422">ArcGIS</a> and old map notes:<br />
<ul>
<li>1860 map show Cap. O. Shepard in a few places. From Ohio. Buried there. H(enry) Rosebrock from Hanover, Germany (1880 Census); H. Luttman German. F. Roney</li>
<li>Homes on Ironton Street range between 1870 (96 Ironton), 1880 (144 Ironton) and into the early 1900s. Some Year 0s (e.g., 188).</li>
<li>The River Rd - Wheatfield "businesses" at southeast corner are 1900-1930, couple of year 0s, though 1886 map shows SOMETHING there earlier.</li>
<li>Weston & Son lumber all around in 1886 maps, Stocum & DeGraff south across Summer</li>
<li>Simson Street: Properties start at 1860 (23 Simson), couple 1880s and 0s. "<span>Rua, Joseph M" listed as owned on many. 1875 map it's called "Judd Ave, and names of homeowners are given (several Simsons); Called "Miller" in 1886 map. Early enclave for nearby mill, predating even Iron Works? </span></li>
</ul>
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Ironton, the Avenues on 1901 map.jpg
Date
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1901
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/26ad46e1921ccb295c9bc3e6042ec318.jpg
5ac6e23f4b85c16ab5acde746f79b527
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Herman P. Schroeder tavern (870 Oliver Street)
Description
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The son of a German immigrant, Herman P. Schroeder came to North Tonawanda in the mid-1890s in the employ of Buffalo Bolt. He first lives in Gratwick, and later moves to 870 Oliver Street (near the entrance to the Buffalo Bolt plant). He opens a tavern there about 1902, operating it until Prohibition. In the 1920s he opens an ice cream and candy store across from the Oliver / Avondale Theater at the corner of Robinson and Oliver.
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870 Oliver, map detail (1908).jpg
Date
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1908
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/7975272b5eb134e76729297882549359.jpg
ee15d29adaa6badaab4b2a8caea71088
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King Construction Company
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King Construction Company, map detail (c1955).jpg
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1955
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/1445a9b0a7e725858c0802c0af14fd7f.jpeg
5104ef964dc93c85b83c8d9c50165a69
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Title
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Gratwick (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Map of Gratwick area and dockage illustration" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/93b.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">1877 Survey</span>In 1870 W. H. Gratwick of Buffalo purchases 50 acres along the Niagara River from Benjamin Felton and John Simson. By 1879 the <span>White, Gratwick & Mitchell Lumber Company </span>has a planing mill and substantial lumberyards on the site. They employ 450 men, mostly of German origin, who settle northeast of the facilities. The village’s main street, Felton, is named after Benjamin F. Felton. By 1884 there is a "neat frame" school house with one teacher and 30 pupils, built by Felton (school board president at the time). Gratwick is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897.<br /><br />From the guidebook "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/608">North Tonawanda and Tonawanda</a>" (1891):
<blockquote>Among the pioneers in the wholesale lumber trade of this place was W.H. Gratwick, who, in 1870, purchased fifty acres from Hon. John Simson and B.F. Felton, adjoining the Niagara River, about two miles below the mouth of Tonawanda Creek, and started a lumberyard. A half dozen years later P.W. Ledoux built the sash, door, and blind factory, which a few years later was purchased by Parks & Son, who operated the same until its recent purchase by Hollister Brothers. Mr. Gratwick erected a large planing mill in 1879, and from that time forward the place has steadily grown until it now has about 1,000 inhabitants. The lumber and mill interests of Gratwick, Smith & Fryer, Touawanda Lumber Co., and Hollister Brothers will be mentioned on other pages. <br /><br />Augustus Miller. — After the lumber interests, the next manufactory of importance in Gratwick is the wagon shop at the corner of Oliver and Felton streets. This was built in 1887 by August Miller, and besides doing all kinds of blacksmith and iron repair work, puts up a quantity of wagons, trucks, and other new work. Mr. Miller employs from five to ten men and has added an important industry to Gratwick, in a line of diversified manufacturing for which there is much room for development. <br /><br />Churches, Schools, Etc. — A class of the Methodist Episcopal church was organized in Gratwick in 1887, and the membership, a short time afterwards, commenced the erection of a church, which with lot, is worth about $3,000. This Avas dedicated in 1889 and has been in charge of Rev. J.S. Duxbury up to the present writing. <br /><br />St. Peter's German Evangelical church was organized April 5, 1888, by Rev. Kottler and the house of worship erected the same year. Rev. Conrad Bachman, who was educated at the missionschool ot Basle, Switzerland, came to this charge in October, 1888, and teaches the parochial school. Some sixty families are connected with this church. <br /><br />Gratwick has a public school with about 100 pupils, a brass band, two hose companies, and other societies; numerous hotels, stores, coal offices, and abundance of saloons. It was made a part of North Tonawanda corporation the present year, since which it has been placed in connection with the water mains, has electric lights, and other corporation advantages. <br /><br />Riverside. — From Gratwick station to the corporation limits on the west is nearly a mile, and as the river presents a graceful curve and nice beach in this vicinity, it has been proposed to call the station which will probably be located one and a half miles below Gratwick, "Riverside." Last year the Riverside Land Co. was incorporated and purchased forty acres on the north side of the Erie railroad, mostly within the new corporate limits. The officers are H.E. Warner, Pres.; J.A. Kuck, of Buflalo, V.P.; Charles W. Archibald, of North Tonawanda, Sec, and L. Landauer, of Albion, Treas. <br /><br />Bluff Point. — E.A. Milliman, a farmer and contractor, of Wheatfield town, has been seven times appointed a deputy collector, which office he now holds. Mr. Milliman owns a handsome farm of 120 acres at Bluff Point, bounded on the west and south by the Niagara River. The river at this point has a clean gravel shore with high bluff, making a delightful place for a summer location. <em>Editor's note: <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/607">1878 illustration and modern photo</a></em><br /><br />G.F. Goerss, also a deputy collector, owns a fifty-acre farm near the mile line, which is handsomely located and will presently be within the radius of development. Last year he erected a dwelling in Gratwick. Mr. Goerss was born in Wheatfield and is an authority on real estate values. He has been supervisor, J.P., Justice of Sessions, and in 1887-8 a member of Assembly.</blockquote>
<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/browse?tags=gratwick">More items tagged "Gratwick" ></a>
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Gratwick slip, boathoses, map (1951).jpg
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1951
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/597b380a8f123a11918f679e0d684b88.png
9935f685ee4b0f71d45530212b2269c8
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Murder on the Docks (October 7, 1895)
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Articles relating to the murder of Captain Lorenzo Philips and his son Charles at the Scribner docks in Tonawanda, and the subsequent trials.
"Pleads Guilty," Buffalo Evening News, 4/7/1896. George Hyde has been convicted. Unnerved, Captain Jesse T. Graves reverses and pleads guilty to first degree manslaughter and rioting. Quirk and Collins considered the same. Maximum sentence would be 20 years, just over 12 with good behavior. Perew was determined to stand trial, insisting (through his attorneys) he only came by to see what all the fuss was about, and never had a stake in canal affairs one way or another. He did however help tie up the drifting May and Graff and call for a physician. Justice Woodward, DA Kenefik. William Goddard, the canal broker, will plead guilty only to save money, and time, as he is an old man and in poor health. County of Erie would be saved many thousands of dollars with guilty pleas, the NEWS notes.
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P. W. Scribner Lumber Company, map detail (1893).jpg
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1893
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/dd25ee2608af0ae154cf7580e29b12f5.jpeg
a90dd201947278a1d10fcf28b9497aa0
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Buffalo Wings and Brewhouse, Bestaste Mini Market (653 Oliver)
Description
An account of the resource
From at least 1934, this address in the heart of North Tonawanda's Polish community serves as a vital neighborhood deli. It has since been remodeled and repurposed as a "brewhouse" by Matt Bille.<br /><br />in the Some appearances of 653 Oliver Street in local newspapers:<br />
<ul>
<li>1916-04-29 A. Rudzinski (SOCONY Kerosene oil dealer)</li>
<li>1916-11-22 - Bracia Rudzinscy</li>
<li>1924 - Current building according to PROSGAR</li>
<li>1932 - Ed Rudzinski Groceries and Meats (ad)</li>
<li>1935 - Ed Rudzinski & Bros.</li>
<li>1942 - Retail Beer License to Edward Rudzinski</li>
<li>1959 - Retail Beer License, "Frank exec. Of the Estate of Edward"</li>
<li>1960-1965 Rudzinski's Grocery and Meat Market (Francis A.)</li>
<li>1965 - Someone ironing, altering clothes at address</li>
<li>1973-04-12 - DEED From Niagara S&L Assn to Frank and Mabel Zielski for 653 Oliver ($15K)</li>
<li>1974-05-23 - Beer License for off-premise consumption</li>
<li>1975-11-17 - "Holiday Mini Markets" ad</li>
<li>1986-09-23 Bestaste Mini Market Grand Opening advertized</li>
</ul>
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Oliver and 5th, map detail (1893).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1893
Description
An account of the resource
The brick building labeled "to be erected" was apparently never built, as later maps show the lot still vacant.
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/f3c2e7ee42cefb719f1c6f412d24029c.jpg
4e9d39b87eb746c1b65ee6d55023a8a5
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Title
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Buffalo Wings and Brewhouse, Bestaste Mini Market (653 Oliver)
Description
An account of the resource
From at least 1934, this address in the heart of North Tonawanda's Polish community serves as a vital neighborhood deli. It has since been remodeled and repurposed as a "brewhouse" by Matt Bille.<br /><br />in the Some appearances of 653 Oliver Street in local newspapers:<br />
<ul>
<li>1916-04-29 A. Rudzinski (SOCONY Kerosene oil dealer)</li>
<li>1916-11-22 - Bracia Rudzinscy</li>
<li>1924 - Current building according to PROSGAR</li>
<li>1932 - Ed Rudzinski Groceries and Meats (ad)</li>
<li>1935 - Ed Rudzinski & Bros.</li>
<li>1942 - Retail Beer License to Edward Rudzinski</li>
<li>1959 - Retail Beer License, "Frank exec. Of the Estate of Edward"</li>
<li>1960-1965 Rudzinski's Grocery and Meat Market (Francis A.)</li>
<li>1965 - Someone ironing, altering clothes at address</li>
<li>1973-04-12 - DEED From Niagara S&L Assn to Frank and Mabel Zielski for 653 Oliver ($15K)</li>
<li>1974-05-23 - Beer License for off-premise consumption</li>
<li>1975-11-17 - "Holiday Mini Markets" ad</li>
<li>1986-09-23 Bestaste Mini Market Grand Opening advertized</li>
</ul>
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East side of Oliver Street not built up much past 3rd Avenue, 1908 map detail.jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1908
avenues
ironton
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/d1ea156a1b36dd22f5d696d33ccba614.jpg
bb1db8b6018a1c15f58424bf71b15c56
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Title
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Trains and Trolleys
Description
An account of the resource
<strong>Trains</strong> <br /><br />Soon after the Erie Canal is completed, railroads begin to compete for business.<br /><br />From <a href="https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/930152959">researchworks.oclc.org</a>:
<blockquote>In 1834 the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad Company was incorporated to take over the Buffalo and Black Rock Company. It extended the lines to Niagara Falls and into Tonawanda. In 1853 the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad Company was leased by New York Central Railroad and was merged in 1855.</blockquote>
From <a href="https://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/niagara-falls-history/niagara-falls-municipal-history/railroads-of-niagara-falls/the-buffalo-niagara-falls-railroad/">niagarafallsinfo.com</a>:
<blockquote>The Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad was incorporated on May 3rd, 1834. The Legislature of the State of New York passed a law to empower the railroad to construct a single or double track railroad between the City of Buffalo and the <a href="https://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/niagara-falls-history/niagara-falls-municipal-history/the-city-of-the-falls-plan/the-idea-for-the-city-of-the-falls/">Village at Niagara Falls</a>. <br /><br />The railroad had a mandate to operate for a 50 year term and was empowered to absorb all rights, privileges and franchises belonging to the Buffalo and Black Rock Railroad Company, which had been built and was being operated by horse power.<br /><br />The Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad began operating in 1845. The 28 mile trip from Buffalo to Niagara Falls was a three hour journey being pulled by a wood stoked steam locomotive....<br /><br />In 1852, the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad relocated their tracks to the west side of the Erie Canal. <br /><br />On December 22nd 1853, the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad was leased to the New York Central Railroad. <br /><br />On April 23rd 1869, the New York Central Railroad began operations within the Niagara escarpment.</blockquote>
From <a href="https://buffalohistory.org/Explore/Exhibits/virtual_exhibits/buffalo_anniversary/175th/page_e1.htm">buffalohistory.org</a>:
<blockquote>The Buffalo and Niagara Falls Rail Road was the first in Erie County to use steam locomotives. Service from Black Rock to Tonawanda began in August, 1836; from Buffalo to Tonawanda in September; and by November, 1836, the train ran on a regular schedule between Buffalo & Niagara Falls.</blockquote>
<strong>Railroads on the maps</strong><br /><br />The <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/3974">1837 Tonawanda/Whitehaven map</a> shows the B&NF railroad already established on Webster. It also shows a "Road to Lockport" and a "Proposed railroad to Lockport" heading out "Detroit Street" (later, Goundry Street).<br /><br />In <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/1258">this 1838 map</a>, it appears the former "road" hosts a new "Tonawanda & Lockport Railroad." Some more info from <a href="https://www.newyorkcentraltrainstation.org/history-new-york-central-train-station">newyorkcentraltrainstattion.org.</a><br /><br />By <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/3560">1852</a>, a third line, "The Canandaigua and Niagara Falls," is added. From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmira_and_Lake_Ontario_Railroad">Wikipedia</a>:
<blockquote>On July 1, 1853, the Canandaigua and Niagara Falls Railroad opened between Canandaigua and North Tonawanda. It was also 6 ft (1,829 mm) broad gauge, and was leased by the Canandaigua & Elmira RR, giving it access to the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge.</blockquote>
<br />In <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/1664">this 1854 map</a>, The Canandaigua route has changed to run south of the Erie Canal and then be carried over the canal into North Tonawanda at the foot of Oliver street. The cantilever bridge will later be built here.<br /><br />By the time of <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/240">this 1875 map</a>, a third railroad crosses the canal into North Tonawanda: The Erie, at the foot of Vandervoort street.<br /><br />As late as 1908, there are still tracks on the east side of Webster street. Looks like the railroad agrees to remove them in December 1921, not sure when it happens.<br /><br /><strong>Trolleys</strong> <br /><br />Before everybody in North Tonawanda could afford their very own muffler-less Honda Civic to run up and down Oliver Street, trolleys were an important means of personal transportation. Several lines ran throughout the city, moving people to and from their jobs, churches, or just out for a look around. Though they may seem romantic to us now, people griped about the trolleys the same way we complain about snow plows today. Apparently their slow speed was sometimes targeted: An item in this set describes a "well-known peddler" in the Gratwick area who is injured by a trolley car. The author drolly observes, "'Twould have been a real miracle if a Gratwick car could have got up enough speed to have killed him" (Tonawanda News, 1908-2-13). <br /><br />The trolley era did not last long. By the 1920s, the electric streetcar had been passed by the gasoline-powered bus as the most prevalent means of public transportation. Another article in this set from the Tonawanda News, "Carpenter now operates 14 busses in the Tonawandas," outlines the rise of the Carpenter Rapid Transit buses.
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Trolley routes in North Tonawanda (Trolley Days in the Tonawandas, Robert H Lloyd, 1969).jpg
Date
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1969
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ba4c573c951f33bf5445e6e4718bd352.jpg
8eb8e219cf144b8b5b872492c8b92d32
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Title
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Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Co., Tonawanda Power Co., National Grid
Description
An account of the resource
<p><img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/37.jpg" alt="National Grid transformer station in 2023. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr." /> <span class="cover-caption">The Robinson Street "transformer building" is built by the Niagara Falls Power Company in 1895 as part of their unprecedented 23-mile transmission sending current from Nigara Falls to Buffalo. The building is later operated by the Tonawanda Power Company, who distribute the hyrdo-electricity locally. Today the historic building is owned by National Grid. </span></p>
<p><span class="cover-caption">Photo by Dennis Reed Jr., 2023.</span></p>
<h2>Motive power before the grid</h2>
<p>In the 1800s, in North Tonawanda and elsewhere, mills are powered primarily by waterwheels, while factories rely on stationary steam engines fueled by coal or wood to drive machinery and reduce human and animal labor. Beginning in the 1870s, electric dynamos appear, typically driven by steam engines, producing electricity mainly for lighting. There is no interconnected electrical grid. Electricity is generated locally, on site, by individual factories, private companies, or municipalities for their own use or a limited number of nearby customers.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Light Company first located on Tonawanda Island</h2>
<p>In 1889, the Tonawanda & Wheatfield Electric Light Company operates a dynamo on the north end of Tonawanda Island. The dynamo is fed by wood shavings from the Doebler Planing Mill. The company supplies electricity to a small number of North Tonawanda subscribers. Arc lights on a few streets are run. Their office is at the northeast corner of Main and Goundry in an old frame building. <br /><br /><a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/3942">1891 Buffalo Express Pictorial</a>: "<span>The Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Co. are now building a $40,000 plant near the north end, to furnish power for an electric street railroad. These facilities, with a telephone service and telegraph office, leave but little to be desired. The docked frontage on the property is now nearly two miles in length. The Tonawanda City Water Works, located on the west side of the island, are fully described elsewhere."</span><br /><br /><strong>The Niagara Falls Power Company builds transmission line and transformer house at Robinson Street</strong><br /><br />Meanwhile, electrical experts at the Niagara Falls Power Company and others have been convening for a few years about how to best harness Niagara Falls's tremendous kinetic energy for the electrical age, and what to do with all that energy, which would be far more than could be used locally. <br /><br />The answer: send it to the much larger city of Buffalo, 23 miles south. <br /><br />In late 1895, the Niagara Falls Power Company begins building an unprecedented long-distance power line to Buffalo (mostly along the boundary of the old Mile Reserve). "<span>This transmission line will run over a private right of way from the Niagara Falls Power Company's station at Niagara Falls to </span><span>Tonawanda</span><span>, and thence down one bank of the Erie Canal to Buffalo. The entire line will be fenced in" (<a href="https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=205&h0=tonawanda">Electrical Review</a>, August 5, 1896). </span>It is operational by November 1896. (Amazing <a href="https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_1990_265">images of line construction</a> from Hagley Archives).<br /><br />The long distance line uses alternating current (AC) transmitted at high voltages, which could travel long distances with minimal loss. A ‘transformer house’ like the one established on Robinson street would step down (transform) some of the high voltage lines to more manageable and safer levels for local distribution. Other lines passing through this North Tonawanda substation continued at high voltage to Buffalo and Lockport, to be stepped down at other transformer houses before being used locally. <br /><br /><strong>Tonawanda Lighting and Power Company incorporated</strong><br /><br />Landmarks of Niagara County: "The Tonawanda Lighting and Power Company was incorporated February 23, 1897, with a capital of $150,000, and is the successor of the Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Light Company, which was organized in 1890 The company supplies both Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, and operates in all about 290 arc and 2,400 incandescent lamps. Frank M. Gordon is local manager." They will step down power for local distribution in a yard north of the Niagara Falls Power Company's Robinson Street transformer house. </p>
<p>1900: "<span>At Tonawanda, 10 miles from Buffalo and 14 miles from Niagara Falls, the transmission line from the falls to Buffalo is tapped and power from it is transformed, converted and regenerated into the various kinds and voltages of current desired tor traction, arc and incandescent lighting and distribution to motors. There is no electrical generating plant driven by steam power in Tonawanda or North Tonawanda either for street railway or central station loads. The work at Tonawanda is carried on by the Tonawanda Power Company, which is closely allied financially with the other Niagara power interests, such as the Niagara Palls Power Company and the Cataract Power and Conduit Company. The Tonawanda Power Company consists of the consolidation of the Tonawanda Light and Power Company, which formerly operated a steam-driven central station of the usual type in Tonawanda, and the Tonawanda Cataract Power Company, which previous to the consolidation was formed for advancing the Niagara power interests in Tonawanda. The consolidated company has erected a transforming station immediatey beside the right of way of the transmission line at a convenient point in North Tonawanda about a mile east of the business center and just a short distance south of the branch of the Erie running to Lockport, which branch is operated by electric power from this transforming station."</span><br /><br /><strong>Former switching tower<br /><br /></strong>Where the new pocket park is now, on the Twin City Highway side, was once a two-story “switching tower” which was wired to the transformer house. Added around 1902, this adjunct tower was actually owned by the Niagara Falls Power company. It helped engineers manage and troubleshoot defects in the multiplying lines. Most of the high voltage lines carrying electricity from the massive turbines at Niagara Falls ran into this tower.<br /><br />In 1920, a horrific explosion kills 13 men early Halloween morning (read our blog post, <strong><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/tonawanda-power-company-disaster/">The Tonawanda Power Company Disaster</a></strong>). An NT fire chief <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Safety_Maintenance_Production/Njw6AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Superintendent+Albert+S.+Allen+tonawanda&pg=PA221&printsec=frontcover">alleges the work was rushed</a> in <em>Safety News and Comment</em>. The January 1921 <em>Safety Bulletin</em> <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Safety_Bulletin/XwkUAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=RA24-PA2&printsec=frontcover">provides more context and details</a> (a storm and wind outside) and a photo of the ruined second floor of the switching tower. <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/State_of_New_York_Supreme_Court_Appellat/-NBRpQpR-lwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=RA3-PA17&printsec=frontcover">Rose Derby's suit</a>. Superintendent Frank S. Wahl's (and others!) testimony in <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_York_Court_of_Appeals_Records_and_Br/wU3z2XtqKz8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=tonawanda+power+substation+tower&pg=PA178&printsec=frontcover">Yates's survivor's suit provides</a> more tower details, tower role, and what he saw on the scene (where the dead were found). Fault is ultimately found to be with the equipment provider, who left no instruction to remove the wood blocks used in shipping.<br /><br />In 1925 the company become "associated with" Buffalo General Electric, Niagara Falls Power Co. and others. <br /><br />In 1929, they open a new headquarters on Sweeney and Webster, today Buffalo Suzuki Strings.<br /><br />The Robinson street transformer house and environs is now owned and operated by National Grid.<br /><br />This <a href="https://reference.insulators.info/publications/search/?query=tonawanda&submit=Search%20https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=5168&h0=tonawanda%C2%A0">collection of electric literature</a> has many fine details and photos of the 1896 construction of the line.<br /><br /><a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/ja/collections/archival-item/sova-nmah-ac-0949-ref88">Photo archive at the Smithsonian</a>.</p>
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Niagara Falls Power Co. General Map of Transmission Lines, map (c1900).jpg
Date
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1900
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/9b6115e156e77b5f557fd8457890b3cd.jpg
2c2244a971044f2985f8873fb40f7fc4
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Allan Herschell Companies
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/files/original/0a8137a27b9978ab2f72819b2bd699cf.jpg" alt="" /> <span class="cover-caption">An 1894 Armitage-Herschell advertisement shows a not-at-all-dangerous-to-children-looking steam boiler and pulleys providing motive power to the company's signature device.</span>
<div>On gilded signs posted at its southern and northern entrances, North Tonawanda introduces itself to visitors as "The Home of the Carrousel." The still-ubiquitous fairground staple was not <em>invented</em> in North Tonawanda (some version of it had been around <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dizzy-history-carousels-begins-knights-180964100">since at least the 12th Century</a>), but thousands were produced here and the highest levels of craftsmanship were attained here under the guidance of Scottish-born Allan Herschell.<br /><br /></div>
In 1872 (<em>Landmarks</em> says 1873), the Armitage-Herschell Co. begins as a small brass and iron foundry on Manhattan Street, comprised of Englishman <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/889">James Armitage</a>, and Scottish brothers <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/880">George</a> and <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/877">Allan Herschell</a>. The firm survives devastating fires in 1874 and 1875, and expands to a location off Oliver Street (whence comes the name, "Mechanic Street"), adding engines and boilers to their specialties. Youngest partner Allan sees a carousel while traveling, and recognizes ways it can be improved. By 1887, his "Improved Steam Riding Gallery" captivates the world, and people from India and France demand the modern amusement. The merry-go-round-makers at first import the accompanying band organs from the old European master-builders of Germany and France, but high tariffs decide them to instead import German organ maker <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/936">Eugene de Kleist</a> from England (de Kleist begins making organs at his <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory</a> in 1893). They organize in 1890.<br /><br />James Armitage and George Herschell die in early 1900. The Armitage-Herschell Company is succeeded by Herschell, Spillman & Company, and the Allan Herschell Company. Allan Herschell dies in 1927. The latter company continues making amusements, including miniature trains, boats and airplanes (some of which can be played upon at the <a href="http://www.carrouselmuseum.org">Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum</a> in North Tonawanda) as late as the 1960s.<br /><br />There is a large Herschell family plot in Sweeney Cemetery.
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/607"><em>Landmarks of Niagara County</em> (1897)</a></li>
<li><span class="_Tgc">“<a href="http://carrouselmuseum.org/site/about/allan-herschell">Allen Herschell History</a>.” <em>Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum,</em> 2014.</span></li>
</ul>
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Tonawanda Boiler and Engine Works, Armitage-Herschell, map detail (1886).jpg
Date
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1886
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/970133684d367f1dc5793d83a616baf0.jpg
0eb82d07766924698626e8fba460ea4d
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Firefighting in the Tonawandas
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="https://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/80.jpg" alt="Gratwick Hose No.6, Felton Street, c.1929" /><span class="cover-caption">Gratwick Hose No.6, Felton Street, c.1929</span>
<blockquote>The greatest enemy the lumbermen had was fire. Annually it destroyed millions of dollars of lumber and cost many lives. A step forward came on May 7, 1876, when twenty of the most prominent residents of the Village of North Tonawanda gathered together in the school house at the corner of Main and Tremont Streets and formed themselves into a Company for the protection of property against the ravages of fire. The newly formed Company petitioned the Village Board and in special session on May 15, 1876, the board approved and appointed them firemen of the Village and their company was called the North Tonawanda Bucket Company, later to be called the Columbia Hook and Ladder Company No. 1. <br /><br />North Tonawanda depended heavily on Volunteer Firemen and quickly grew to seven companies located at important places around the city.</blockquote>
- Sarah E. Walter's thesis (nthistorymuseum.org). Allan Herschell "helped to organize the first fire company of North Tonawanda" <span>(Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York, p.361).</span><br /><br />
<table border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>Started</strong></td>
<td><strong>Name</strong></td>
<td><strong>Notes</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>May 7, 1876</td>
<td>North Tonawanda Bucket Company / Columbia Hook and Ladder Company No.1</td>
<td>Thompson in 1893 directory</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>March 1, 1886</td>
<td>Active Hose Company No.2</td>
<td>"Ironton Boys", Robinson south of Marion in 1893</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1886-1909</td>
<td>Hydrant Hose Company No.3</td>
<td>Sweeney and Main at bridge</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>April 1887</td>
<td>Live Active Hose Co. No.4</td>
<td> Thompson St (1893), now Goundry and Vandervoort</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>January 26, 1891</td>
<td>Rescue Fire Company No.5</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1886?</td>
<td><a href="https://yellow.place/en/gratwick-hose-fire-company-6-north-tonawanda-usa">Gratwick Hose Company No.6</a></td>
<td>Felton until 1962.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1894</td>
<td>Sweeney Hose No.7</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Of <b>Hydrant Hose Co. No. 3</b>, it was said somewhere:
<blockquote>The fighting crew of the old Hydrant Hose Company liked to fight fires so much, they would first fight the men of any other fire company who raced to a North Tonawanda fire to see who got the pleasure of conquering the flames. Often the flames ended up as the victor as the firefighters spent their energies in a brawl rather than on the element of nature.</blockquote>
According to Harry Dorn in an article in this set,
<blockquote>The Tonawanda Fire Dept. was organized in the early 1860s when the Village of Tonawanda had a population of 2,000...One of the frst companies was the Shepard Hose Company which after several years was known as the DeGraff Hose, Hydrant Hose Company and thewn on Aug 25, 1898 became National Hose No.1 [Ed. Hydrant Hose appears in newspaper record until at least early 1900s].</blockquote>
<br /><br /><b>Columbia Hook & Ladder</b> in <em>The Tonawanda News, May 9, 1896:</em>
<blockquote>Monday, June 15, has been selected as the date of the Firemen's Annual Parade. It is expected that it will prove of more than ordinary interest as unusual efforts will be put forth this year to make it an enjoyable spectacular affair. <br /><br />In this connection it is interesting to note that Thursday of this week was the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the first fire company In North Tonawanda. Previous to this date North Tonawanda had paid Tonawanda $300 a year for the fire protection that the Tonawanda companies afforded. <br /><br />The parent company of North Tonawanda was the <strong>Columbia Hook and Ladder Company</strong>; it is still in existence, but is now one of eight splendid companies of which North Tonawanda can boast. As before stated it was organized May 7, 1876, and its first president was Frank Fellows. It was organized under a famous old hickory tree which stood on the ground now occupied by the parsonage of the First Methodist Church. Nicholas Beckrich was the first foreman of this company and other members of this crack organization were John E. Oelkers, Frank Batt, H. U. Berger, M. J. Wattengel, W. P. Hayes, Jno. Spillman, Aug. Duckwitz, Fred Schultz, Isaac Gardei, Geo. Miller, John Haas, Julius Miller and others. A number of these early firemen are numbered among the most prominent residents of North Tonawanda but it is with considerable pleasure that they recall the days of their early triumphs.</blockquote>
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Gratwick Hose, Felton location (Sanborn Insurance map, 1951).jpg
Date
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1951
map
-
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d510edc86a3888f95bf205b2049d8135
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Village Inn (869 Oliver)
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Village Inn, map detail (1951).jpg
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1951
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/af7ce8306a3371aa8340b090687ac71e.jpg
f868fd29a95a19e239600a26332dea1f
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Town of Wheatfield, map (1937).jpg
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1937
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/c3530991c6afb577c3db28b6ba05cf47.jpeg
7b2005b294e178f5db6f4d3b602167ea
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Title
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Tonawanda Island
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="1853 illustration of Tonawanda Island, showing the Beechwater residence, and a ferry The Saratoga plying the waters of the Niagara River." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/55e.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">1860 illustration showing the southern tip of Tonawanda Island. The lavish Beechwater residence and a smaller building are seen to the left of a mysterious mound (Harper's Monthly Magazine, May 1860) </span><span>This small island in the Niagara River is today home to the N.T. (Water) Pumping Station, Taylor Devices, a booming feral cat population and (we expect) a very few skillful mice. But a mysterious structure at the south end of the island drew some of the earliest widespread attention to our area.<br /><br /><strong>Early explorers encounter burial mounds left by Native Americans. Or giants.</strong><br /><br />Early European explorers notice a roughly 15 foot-high mound of earth near the southeastern end of the island. One explorer dates the peculiarity to the Native American Squawkie Hill phase (100-400 A.D.), which "included a religious aspect involving the burial of high-status individuals" (John Percy).<br /><br />Indeed, human remains are discovered within, though there is little consensus on who (or what) they were. In 1853, <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/557"><em>Gleason's Pictorial</em> reports</a> that resident Mrs. White (more on the Whites below) personally unearthed "the skull and bones of a human body, supposed to be an Indian chief...not...less than eight feet in stature." (The article adds vaguely that "Many other curiosities are found on the island.") An 1860 article in <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2980"><em>Harper's</em> tells</a> of "several heaps of bones, each comprising three or four skeletons" found just under a circle of stones with indications of fire. Modern mysteriophile Mason Winfield poi</span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">nts to sensational accounts in frontier newspapers claiming at least two "very bizarre skulls" were excavated from the enclosure, with a "portentous, protruding lower jaw and canine forehead," and buried in a way inconsistent with the traditions of the locals. An 1865 presentation before the Buffalo Historical Society claims the mounds are of Neutral Nation origin:</span></span>
<blockquote>Once in every ten years the survivors of each family gathered the remains of their deceased ancestors from the platforms on which they had been deposited, and buried them in heaps, with many superstitious ceremonies. This was called the " Feast of the Dead." Many of the mounds thus raised may still be seen in this vicinity. A conspicuous one on Tonawanda Island, is affirmed by the old Senecas to have had such an origin.</blockquote>
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">The skeletons are not confined to the great mound, either. Yet more human remains are found while digging the foundations for the Beechwater mansion, the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326"><em>Tonawanda News</em> reports</a> in 1906.<br /><br />Across the Little River, on the mainland, <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1565">evidence of</a> a Native American armory is discovered, with numerous broken flints and arrows.<br /><br />Earliest birth on the island? (From <em>The Niagara Frontier</em>, p. 29)</span></span>
<blockquote>The Senecas have a different name for Tonawanda Is land. They call it Ni-ga -we-na/i--a-ah, signifying The Small Island. It contains less than one hundred acres. Its upper end having a fine elevation above the surface of the river, was an occasional camping ground of the Senecas, before their final settlement in this region. Philip Kenjockety (hereafter more particularly noticed), claims to have been born there, while his father s family, then residing on the Genesee, were on one of their annual hunting expeditions.</blockquote>
<br /><strong>Carney's Island (1791)</strong><br /><br />The island's first European inhabitant arrives as early as 1791, one <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1070">Edward Carney</a>, who hopes to "squat" his way into possession of the island. The property's value skyrockets however when <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2352">Mordecai Noah's plan</a> to turn nearby Grand Island into a refuge for the world's displaced Jews gets underway around 1825, and the land is purchased at auction from the state by Samuel Leggate of New York City (<a href="https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html"><em>Lockport Union-Sun & Journal</em></a>). <br /><br /><strong>Stephen White's Island and the Beechwater mansion (1833)</strong><br /><br />The next speculators to turn their eyes to our area are the moneyed men of the East Boston Timber Company in 1833. They harvest the white oak of Grand Island to build ships in New England. President Stephen White purchases Tonawanda Island as a headquarters and residence, and it becomes known as "White's Island."
<blockquote>To cement his claim, White built a magnificent mansion at the southern end of the island. “Beechwater,” as White called it, was designed by Boston architect Samuel Perkins in 1835 for $18,000. The interior contained cherry, black walnut and marble embellishments (<a href="https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html"><em>Lockport Union-Sun & Journal)</em></a></blockquote>
The Beechwater mansion <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1565">boasts</a> "chimney pieces from Italy," surrounding pleasure grounds with "choice fruits, ornamental shrubbery and graveled walks," and was called the finest residence in Western New York at the time. Famous American lawyer and politician Daniel Webster (after whom Webster Street is named) <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326">visits Beechwater</a> on several occasions. Webster's son Fletcher is married to White's daughter Caroline there in 1836. <br /><br />Further plans of the East Boston Timber Company are thwarted by a poor economy. By 1840 the white oak of Grand Island has been cut down and floated away to New England. Stephen White dies, and his widow stays on. <br /><br /><strong>Summer resort and pleasure grounds</strong><br /><br />Beechwater is offered as a summer resort beginning around this time. Local organizations come to Tonawanda Island for picnics by the hundreds, brass band blaring away as the tugs pull their boats to the platforms. Writer N.P. Willis <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/4002">extols its beauty</a> in an item in this collection. Some propose turing the island into a <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/4038">sportsmen's paradise</a>: other a military training ground. <br /><br />William Wilkeson purchases the property from the White family in 1869, planting orchards and vineyards. There are some rumors the old mansion is haunted.<br /><br /><strong>Lumber and industrial era</strong><br /><br />In 1881, William Wilkeson sells the property to Smith, Fassett & Company, one of the many lumber concerns flocking to the Tonawandas. The natural harbor of the Little River make the island and opposite shore perfect for stacking, processing and shipping immense quantities of lumber, and North Tonawanda has become a major lumber market.<br /><br /><span>The ferry that operated will no longer be adequate. Apr 21 1883 "An act to incorporate the Tonawanda Island Bridge Company, for the purpose of constructing and operating a bridge from Tonawanda island to North Tonawanda [passed]" - </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IYJZAAAAYAAJ">Gen Statutes of State of New York</a>. <br /><br />Beechwater, Stephen White's mansion, coexists for a while with the lumber around it: "<span>The mansion is now [1887] the home of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore S. Fassett, who have renovated it and thoroughly restored its decaying beauties."<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/3942">1891 Buffalo Express Pictorial:</a> </strong><br /><br />"The Tonawanda Island Lumber District, which is shown in our largest illustration, is rapidly becoming famous as the *ne plus ultra* of all lumber plants. Being an island docked and navigable all around, it allows a compactness in the arrangement of the yards, which on any mainland would be impossible. Visiting buyers appreciate this feature of the district. They are able to get quickly into the midst of 100,000,000 feet of lumber without the usual long tramp to accomplish the same result, in a five-minute walk from North Tonawanda railroad station, they find lumber in front of them, lumber behind them, lumber on each side of them. In every direction millions of white pine are in sight, bright and clean, the gangways all planked, and an air of perfect neatness and cleanliness everywhere.<br /><br />"This property, when nothing but forest, fruit farms, and swamps, was purchased of our deceased townsman, William Wilkeson, by James R. Smith and Theodore S. Fassett with its development into a lumber district solely in view. This meant a very large operation for industrial development, requiring a heavy outlay of money to put the island into any shape for business also of $1,000,000, Mr. Lewis A. Hall becoming a director in the company, with a large holding of the stock. Railroad switch tracks ran into every yard, and while these tracks are owned by the N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R., all other roads have equal privileges on the Island by the provisions of the Bridge Charter.<br /><br />"The Tonawanda and Wheatfield Electric Co. are now building a $40,000 plant near the north end, to furnish power for an electric street railroad. These facilities, with a telephone service and telegraph office, leave but little to be desired. The docked frontage on the property is now nearly two miles in length. The Tonawanda City Water Works, located on the west side of the island, are fully described elsewhere.<br /><br />"The discouragements met by Messrs. Smith & Fassett in reaching the present grand development of the property are said to have been many and great, but the work is done, and the hurry and bustle of wheeling lumber from every direction, into planing mills or direct into cars, gives no outward evidence that but one year ago orchard and forest and swamp would have seen the sight where now three mammoth planing mills are throwing off their smoke high in air, and millions of lumber loom up in regular piles over 100 acres of level well-drained ground."<br /><br /></span><strong>National Guard billets there</strong> during a labor uprising. Although said to still be largely structurally sound, the mansion is <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2326">torn down in 1906</a>, as the "demand for lumber yardage makes its razing imperative." It was long been rumored to be haunted. A section of its fireplace is preserved and cared for by the Historical Society of the Tonawandas.<br /><br />Later significant occupants of Tonawanda Island include the International Paper Company and the R. T. Jones Lumber company.<br /><br />Emile Durkee Bridge.
Source
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.lockportjournal.com/news/lifestyles/niagara-discoveries-tonawanda-island-stephen-white-and-his-magnificent-mansion/article_657aa96e-c9eb-54ca-8237-dc7dcc2e0afb.html">NIAGARA DISCOVERIES: <em>Tonawanda Island, Stephen White and His Magnificent Mansion,</em> Ann Marie Linnabery</a></li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/details/pioneerhistoryof00turne/page/n6">Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York, 1849</a></li>
<li>Percy, John. <a href="https://www.wnyheritage.org/product/buffalo-niagara_connections_a_new_regional_history_of_the_niagar/index.html"><em>Buffalo-Niagara Connections: A New Regional History of the Niagara Link</em>.</a> Western New York Heritage Inc. 2001</li>
</ul>
Relation
A related resource
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/92">International Paper Company</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/48">Lumber Scenes</a></li>
</ul>
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Title
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Tonawanda Island, map (1892).jpeg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1892
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/d10349ca2a5830a66bf88fba21d6a93f.png
2a62735b8298b94b2823b9f1e422dff4
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Title
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Riverside Chemical Company (1906-present)
Description
An account of the resource
From <a href="http://www.rivchem.com/about.html">their website</a>:
<blockquote>
<p>Riverside Chemical was founded in 1906 by A. C. Rasch. The business started running out of the basement of a grocery store at the corner of Oliver Street and Porter Avenue in North Tonawanda, NY. In those beginning years, the company focused on household supplies such as ammonia, bluing, vanilla extract and other extracts. Mr. Rasch founded the company on the simple principle of providing a good product, for a good price, with special attention to customer service and community involvement.</p>
<p>Later Mr. Rasch began manufacturing products to serve the needs of horse drawn wagons and industrial machines. The company produced axle grease and other grease for machinery, as well as leather oils, harness preservatives and hoof dressing.</p>
<p>When the automobile age began, Mr. Rasch developed a non-chatter oil for Model T cars which launched the company into a new era.</p>
<p><b>Dr. Carl H. Rasch (1904-1980)</b></p>
<p>In 1929 the company moved their facility to the current location on River Road in North Tonawanda, NY.</p>
<p>During the 1940's and 1950's the company was managed by A. C. Rasch's sons, George A. Rasch and Dr. Carl H. Rasch.</p>
<p>In 1959 Dr. Carl H. Rasch was appointed as President of the company. Dr Rasch had worked at Riverside since the early 1930's, and had also earned Ph.D. Degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Buffalo and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Rasch was responsible for another large growth period in the company as he expanded the business product lines to include high purity chemicals and food grade additives as well as dramatically increasing their industrial product lines. Dr. Rasch remained President until he passed away in 1980.</p>
<p>The 1980s began the third generation of the family run business as Dr. Carl H. Rasch's sons Peter C. Rasch became President and Jon A. Rasch as Vice President. Both had worked for Riverside for many years before taking charge in 1980.</p>
<p>Peter Rasch has continued to grow the business, while also minding the principals that had been set by his grandfather so many years ago. Riverside's success has been enhanced by its high ethical business practices; commitment to community, customers, employees and the environment.</p>
</blockquote>
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Oiriginal site of Riverside Chemical Co., A. Rasch, map detail (1908).png
Date
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1908
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/533a3d3d29ad52b767260276f584a06b.jpg
8b5522ca4b98eab1f6d7a4d08c859778
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Alexander's Lounge (46 Sweeney)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Alexander's, ink and watercolor (Dennis Reed Jr)" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/122.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">While only one-story today, before a 1979 fire there was a basement and two upper floors of rooms. Alexander's, ink and watercolor (Dennis Reed Jr). </span> <strong><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/alexanders-lounge-a-revealing-history/">See our blog post, "Alexander's Lounge: A Revealing History."</a></strong><br /><br /><strong>Early Years: The White Star Hotel</strong><br /><br />(1875 map shows a smaller building on the site.)<br /><br />The first direct mention: In 1889, Captain James Ennis's 25 year-old nephew (also names James Ennis) <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspapers%252021%2FBuffalo%2520NY%2520Courier%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2520-%25202622.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D166470c7%26DocId%3D171854%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520V%26HitCount%3D7%26hits%3D10af%2B1185%2B1186%2B145b%2B145c%2B15db%2B15ef%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspapers%252021%2FBuffalo%2520NY%2520Courier%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2520-%25202622.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D166470c7%26DocId%3D171854%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520V%26HitCount%3D7%26hits%3D10af%2B1185%2B1186%2B145b%2B145c%2B15db%2B15ef%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">kills himself</a> after wounding his 16 year-old bride in the right arm with a pistol in their small house behind the State Bank near Dodge & Co.'s lumber yard, on Manhattan Street. "White Star Hotel" called a "sailor's house." Newphew Ennis dies sometime later.<br /><br />1893/4 advert for Ennis's newly remodelled hotel premises "speial attention" to "small opera troops." An item around the same time calls it "Star Hotel," and says he is "Overseer of the Poor." "<a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200791.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D646aceb2%26DocId%3D1934246%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D18%26hits%3D1fa%2B1fe%2B262%2B2d8%2B357%2B38a%2B3e9%2B58b%2B58c%2B5df%2B5f1%2B61f%2Bc2a%2Bd23%2Bd42%2Bef8%2Befd%2Bf07%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200791.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D646aceb2%26DocId%3D1934246%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D18%26hits%3D1fa%2B1fe%2B262%2B2d8%2B357%2B38a%2B3e9%2B58b%2B58c%2B5df%2B5f1%2B61f%2Bc2a%2Bd23%2Bd42%2Bef8%2Befd%2Bf07%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">An update to the establishment</a>:. James Ennis, that born hustler, who conducts the "White Star Hotel" on Sweeney Street is up to the times in all he undertakes. He has had his place of business thoroughly refurnished and equipped with modern conveniences recently until now he has a hostlery of which he can well feel proud. Mr. Ennis is one of our most enterprising citizens and his personality as an accommodating and painstaking landlord is. well-known, locally and among many traveling men."<br /><br />Also 1893/1894 <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200987.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9f4f04e8%26DocId%3D1934442%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D26%26hits%3Da3%2B133%2B29e%2B2a7%2B318%2B332%2B33a%2B35b%2B633%2B999%2Bb0d%2Bbb8%2Bc1a%2Bca7%2Bcf6%2Be69%2Be76%2Bed0%2Bed1%2Bedf%2B112f%2B1207%2B1233%2B13be%2B13c3%2B13cd%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200987.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9f4f04e8%26DocId%3D1934442%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D26%26hits%3Da3%2B133%2B29e%2B2a7%2B318%2B332%2B33a%2B35b%2B633%2B999%2Bb0d%2Bbb8%2Bc1a%2Bca7%2Bcf6%2Be69%2Be76%2Bed0%2Bed1%2Bedf%2B112f%2B1207%2B1233%2B13be%2B13c3%2B13cd%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">there is an ad</a> selling the "boarding house and saloon," The White Star Hotel.<br /><br />A curious 1897 item in the Tonawanda News, claims in <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/files/original/9fa8119fbd4b18cb8dcc48d94502fb48.pdf">1882</a> Captain James Ennis establishes the White Star Hotel, having also owned the hundred year-old Log Cabin on bicycle-friendly cinder of the River Road, at the foot of the trolley track. An 1889 item in "The Review" of Farmer's Village, N.Y.: "Mrs. James Ennis, of the White Star hotel, Tonawanda, writes us that Frank Hennon (as we decipher the name), a sailor, claiming to belong to this county, recently died at her house, from an injury resulting from a falling wall. Should this meet the eyes of friends of the deceased, further information can be obtained by addressing the above."<br /><br />October 13, 1897, Ennis's Log Cabin <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspapers%252021%2FBuffalo%2520NY%2520Courier%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2520-%25202622.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D166470c7%26DocId%3D171854%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520V%26HitCount%3D7%26hits%3D10af%2B1185%2B1186%2B145b%2B145c%2B15db%2B15ef%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspapers%252021%2FBuffalo%2520NY%2520Courier%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2520-%25202622.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D166470c7%26DocId%3D171854%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520V%26HitCount%3D7%26hits%3D10af%2B1185%2B1186%2B145b%2B145c%2B15db%2B15ef%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">robbed</a> of a "nickel-in-the-slot contrivance," on "the other side of the Buffalo & Niagara Electric Railroad Company's big car barn." Difficult-to-read article metions a ghost and hypnosis.<br /><br />Photos in the early 20th Century show a 3-story building on the site. <br /><br />By 1905 the hotel has changed hands to William Phelps, at least according to <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201905%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201905%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201669.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffe4c8cc32%26DocId%3D1945115%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D13%26hits%3D8%2B7d8%2B824%2B825%2B82d%2B897%2B91f%2B921%2Bb46%2Bb98%2Bc26%2Bc2b%2Bc32%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201905%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201905%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201669.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffe4c8cc32%26DocId%3D1945115%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D13%26hits%3D8%2B7d8%2B824%2B825%2B82d%2B897%2B91f%2B921%2Bb46%2Bb98%2Bc26%2Bc2b%2Bc32%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">an item</a> that identifies him as a wife beater. <br /><br /><strong>Philip Perew's White Star Hotel (c.1907-1921)</strong><br /><br />Canadian-born eccentric <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2154">Philip Perew</a> is running the White Star by September 1907. It is likely that some of the "liberties" now associated with the site were already being taken at this early date--Perew owns a dozen or so Goose Island houses of ill repute in his lifetime. Liquor and women was pretty much his business model (and <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/106">questionable inventions</a>, but that's another story.)<br /><br />How eccentric is he? He keeps a "menagerie" of exotic animals with him at the hotel. The collection of poor souls is narrowly evacuted before a disastrous fire on October 11, 1909 "amost entirely" destroys the building. Making the evacuation slightly easier is the fact that, as the <em>Tonawanda News</em> reports, "the wildcat and the Russian wolf had been removed to another place some weeks ago." Rebuilt from scratch?<br /><br />Although Perew appears to hand over ownership (or only management?) of the hotel in February 1921, he operates about a dozen Goose Island houses of ill repute, and a Perew Hotel on the three mile road (two mile?). In 1937 (immediately after his Goose Island establishments are shuttered by police) Perew accuses Chief Criminal Deputy Amedeo L. Coppola of shaking him down for $200 a month in bribes, and takes him to court in a trial that is a local sensation. He will live at 46 Sweeney until his death in 1946.<br /><br /><strong>Niagara Hotel and Vincio Tojan, back to White Star (1921)</strong><br /><br />In a 1921, 46 Sweeney is called the "Niagara Hotel," and its "Vincio Tojan" says he is the new proprietor when he is arrested in a March 20th, 1921 raid by dry agents" disguised as intoxicated farmers." In May 1921 Theodore Stann and the White Star Hotel are mentioned in another article.<br /><br />1930 Perew is mentioned as owner of the White Star Hotel, <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202985.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff8c31e7c5%26DocId%3D2001347%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D28%26hits%3D5%2Ba%2B8e%2B8f%2Ba9%2B14d%2B159%2B170%2B1c1%2B35c%2B6cb%2B72a%2B7ba%2B7da%2B805%2B839%2B9c6%2B9f5%2Ba98%2Bb61%2Bdb2%2Bf29%2Bf77%2B109f%2B118e%2B13b2%2B13b7%2B13be%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202985.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff8c31e7c5%26DocId%3D2001347%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D28%26hits%3D5%2Ba%2B8e%2B8f%2Ba9%2B14d%2B159%2B170%2B1c1%2B35c%2B6cb%2B72a%2B7ba%2B7da%2B805%2B839%2B9c6%2B9f5%2Ba98%2Bb61%2Bdb2%2Bf29%2Bf77%2B109f%2B118e%2B13b2%2B13b7%2B13be%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">desribed as a</a> "two-story frame structure."<br /><br /><strong>White Star Hotel to Silver Sails Restaurant: Saunders years<br /><br /></strong>1934 White Star Hotel <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202885.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffffce30a94%26DocId%3D2021715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D33%26hits%3D5%2B1b%2B3d%2B5a%2B9f%2Bd0%2B177%2B192%2B1cb%2B1cc%2B1e5%2B2c0%2B2cf%2B3c3%2B3c9%2B5c3%2B6e0%2B94a%2Ba9d%2Bd71%2Bd73%2Bd7a%2Bd82%2Bd90%2Beb2%2Bec8%2B109f%2B1168%2B11ba%2B11d7%2B12b3%2B12b8%2B12bf%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202885.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffffce30a94%26DocId%3D2021715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D33%26hits%3D5%2B1b%2B3d%2B5a%2B9f%2Bd0%2B177%2B192%2B1cb%2B1cc%2B1e5%2B2c0%2B2cf%2B3c3%2B3c9%2B5c3%2B6e0%2B94a%2Ba9d%2Bd71%2Bd73%2Bd7a%2Bd82%2Bd90%2Beb2%2Bec8%2B109f%2B1168%2B11ba%2B11d7%2B12b3%2B12b8%2B12bf%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">mention</a>.<br /><br />In <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200987.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9f4f04e8%26DocId%3D1934442%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D26%26hits%3Da3%2B133%2B29e%2B2a7%2B318%2B332%2B33a%2B35b%2B633%2B999%2Bb0d%2Bbb8%2Bc1a%2Bca7%2Bcf6%2Be69%2Be76%2Bed0%2Bed1%2Bedf%2B112f%2B1207%2B1233%2B13be%2B13c3%2B13cd%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200987.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9f4f04e8%26DocId%3D1934442%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D26%26hits%3Da3%2B133%2B29e%2B2a7%2B318%2B332%2B33a%2B35b%2B633%2B999%2Bb0d%2Bbb8%2Bc1a%2Bca7%2Bcf6%2Be69%2Be76%2Bed0%2Bed1%2Bedf%2B112f%2B1207%2B1233%2B13be%2B13c3%2B13cd%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">June 1935</a> and October 1937, Charles Bradley of the White Star Hotel <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202885.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffffce30a94%26DocId%3D2021715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D33%26hits%3D5%2B1b%2B3d%2B5a%2B9f%2Bd0%2B177%2B192%2B1cb%2B1cc%2B1e5%2B2c0%2B2cf%2B3c3%2B3c9%2B5c3%2B6e0%2B94a%2Ba9d%2Bd71%2Bd73%2Bd7a%2Bd82%2Bd90%2Beb2%2Bec8%2B109f%2B1168%2B11ba%2B11d7%2B12b3%2B12b8%2B12bf%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202885.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffffce30a94%26DocId%3D2021715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D33%26hits%3D5%2B1b%2B3d%2B5a%2B9f%2Bd0%2B177%2B192%2B1cb%2B1cc%2B1e5%2B2c0%2B2cf%2B3c3%2B3c9%2B5c3%2B6e0%2B94a%2Ba9d%2Bd71%2Bd73%2Bd7a%2Bd82%2Bd90%2Beb2%2Bec8%2B109f%2B1168%2B11ba%2B11d7%2B12b3%2B12b8%2B12bf%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">appears</a> as "proprietor" in the News.<br /><br />In December 1938 the White Star Hotel is "open under new management" of Dorothy Saunders <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202985.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff8c31e7c5%26DocId%3D2001347%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D28%26hits%3D5%2Ba%2B8e%2B8f%2Ba9%2B14d%2B159%2B170%2B1c1%2B35c%2B6cb%2B72a%2B7ba%2B7da%2B805%2B839%2B9c6%2B9f5%2Ba98%2Bb61%2Bdb2%2Bf29%2Bf77%2B109f%2B118e%2B13b2%2B13b7%2B13be%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202985.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff8c31e7c5%26DocId%3D2001347%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D28%26hits%3D5%2Ba%2B8e%2B8f%2Ba9%2B14d%2B159%2B170%2B1c1%2B35c%2B6cb%2B72a%2B7ba%2B7da%2B805%2B839%2B9c6%2B9f5%2Ba98%2Bb61%2Bdb2%2Bf29%2Bf77%2B109f%2B118e%2B13b2%2B13b7%2B13be%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">according to this want ad</a>.<br /><br />1939 is advertising the White Star Hotel with "You'll Have a High Old Time at Dorothy Saunders White Star Hotel. Good food. Good drinks. Good fun." <br /><br />In 1940 a <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%25208%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%25201940%2520Sep-Nov%2520Grayscale%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%25201940%2520Sep-Nov%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200676.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9684e31e%26DocId%3D194574%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520T%26HitCount%3D16%26hits%3D6fe%2B738%2B922%2B923%2B926%2Baae%2Bb00%2Bd7d%2Be4a%2Bf8b%2B1057%2B11a0%2B12c5%2B12d3%2B1503%2B15b7%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%25208%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%25201940%2520Sep-Nov%2520Grayscale%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%25201940%2520Sep-Nov%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200676.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9684e31e%26DocId%3D194574%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520T%26HitCount%3D16%26hits%3D6fe%2B738%2B922%2B923%2B926%2Baae%2Bb00%2Bd7d%2Be4a%2Bf8b%2B1057%2B11a0%2B12c5%2B12d3%2B1503%2B15b7%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">Niagara Gazette item</a> calls it a "three-story structure."<br /><br />By 1950 the building is condemned as "unfit for human habitation," and the remaining lodgers are evicted. May 1951 is <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201604.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffffbb5d89%26DocId%3D2065199%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D19%26hits%3D49%2B4a%2B90%2B91%2B1a8%2B2c7%2B395%2B3cc%2B409%2B422%2B42a%2B458%2B627%2B744%2Bfee%2B1119%2B115a%2B115f%2B1166%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201604.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffffbb5d89%26DocId%3D2065199%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D19%26hits%3D49%2B4a%2B90%2B91%2B1a8%2B2c7%2B395%2B3cc%2B409%2B422%2B42a%2B458%2B627%2B744%2Bfee%2B1119%2B115a%2B115f%2B1166%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">the actual eviction</a>. Joesphine Saunders is the owner. <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202844.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffff52fae12%26DocId%3D2066439%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D18%26hits%3D44%2B45%2B73%2Bb0%2Bf3%2B154%2B4a7%2B636%2B6c8%2B6c9%2B6cc%2Bbbe%2Bc21%2Bd44%2Bef5%2B1086%2B108b%2B1092%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202844.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffff52fae12%26DocId%3D2066439%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D18%26hits%3D44%2B45%2B73%2Bb0%2Bf3%2B154%2B4a7%2B636%2B6c8%2B6c9%2B6cc%2Bbbe%2Bc21%2Bd44%2Bef5%2B1086%2B108b%2B1092%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">Much is made</a> of the poor children of the two families in the "basement apartments" who are liberated from the squalor and (in one case) shuttled to Lockport.<br /><br />Josephine "Pammy" Saunders purchases the building from Perew.* A large investment in a shiny new restaurant in the basement is made, and the "Silver Sail Restaurant" is up and running. It is advertised in 1952 with Dorothy "Thompson" as proprietor. I am assured by a descendant that no monkey business was happening at 46 Sweeney in this era. (<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2648">This photograph</a> of John Saunders tending bar in front of a "No Dancing" sign seems to support this claim.)<br /><br />1958 disorderly conduct.<br /><br /><a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201960%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201960%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202424.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D52ff3765%26DocId%3D2113715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D53%26hits%3D6%2B120%2B12f%2B160%2B16f%2B1a7%2B239%2B250%2B2ae%2B332%2B3e9%2B494%2B495%2B58c%2B5a4%2B617%2B622%2B6c7%2B708%2B71f%2B786%2B795%2B7c9%2B803%2B8b9%2B913%2B92e%2B9d3%2Bb29%2Bb7d%2Bbca%2Bef3%2Bf68%2Bf71%2Bf75%2Bf8e%2Bff5%2B103a%2B1045%2B108f%2B1161%2B116d%2B1179%2B11a8%2B12a6%2B12c6%2B12d4%2B12fb%2B131e%2B132d%2B135d%2B1362%2B1369%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201960%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201960%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202424.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D52ff3765%26DocId%3D2113715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D53%26hits%3D6%2B120%2B12f%2B160%2B16f%2B1a7%2B239%2B250%2B2ae%2B332%2B3e9%2B494%2B495%2B58c%2B5a4%2B617%2B622%2B6c7%2B708%2B71f%2B786%2B795%2B7c9%2B803%2B8b9%2B913%2B92e%2B9d3%2Bb29%2Bb7d%2Bbca%2Bef3%2Bf68%2Bf71%2Bf75%2Bf8e%2Bff5%2B103a%2B1045%2B108f%2B1161%2B116d%2B1179%2B11a8%2B12a6%2B12c6%2B12d4%2B12fb%2B131e%2B132d%2B135d%2B1362%2B1369%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">1960-11-14 brawl</a> with Niagara Falls out-of-towners and 20+ locals, some of a motorcycle gang. <br /><br />Josephine Saunders is granted a liquor license for the Silver Sail as late as 10/19/1965. She dies 4/29/1966.<br /><br /><strong>Alexander's Lounge: Enter the Vergos (c. 1967)</strong><br /><br />Wild times return to the old haunt with the arrival of the Vergos brothers in our story: the club's namesake "Alex," and Peter. The first time their name appears in print in the Tonawanda News is May 1967 in an ad for a "Waitress for Alexander's Lounge, between 21 - 35 years old," and a cook. <br />An August 1969 melee causes brother-owners Alex G. and Peter G. Vergos to be charged by State Liquor Authority with "improper conduct" and "disorder"; In 1972 charges against Alex of sexual abuse of a "go-go dancer" are dropped. In 1979 another disastrous fire strikes the (3-story) building. Perhaps this fire is what results in the shorter building we know today?<br /><br />Alexander G. Vergos dies January 21, 1994.<br /><br />-<br /><br /><em>*This information is from a Saunder family member. Uncertain year - Dorothy Saunders was operating it by 1939. </em>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
46 Sweeney Street, map detail (1880).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1880
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/6b9a7e1d26ed36a6b800bb4182800dae.jpg
22231f7ad7d42878efdff9887d379085
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Alexander's Lounge (46 Sweeney)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Alexander's, ink and watercolor (Dennis Reed Jr)" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/122.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">While only one-story today, before a 1979 fire there was a basement and two upper floors of rooms. Alexander's, ink and watercolor (Dennis Reed Jr). </span> <strong><a href="https://www.nthistory.com/articles/alexanders-lounge-a-revealing-history/">See our blog post, "Alexander's Lounge: A Revealing History."</a></strong><br /><br /><strong>Early Years: The White Star Hotel</strong><br /><br />(1875 map shows a smaller building on the site.)<br /><br />The first direct mention: In 1889, Captain James Ennis's 25 year-old nephew (also names James Ennis) <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspapers%252021%2FBuffalo%2520NY%2520Courier%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2520-%25202622.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D166470c7%26DocId%3D171854%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520V%26HitCount%3D7%26hits%3D10af%2B1185%2B1186%2B145b%2B145c%2B15db%2B15ef%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspapers%252021%2FBuffalo%2520NY%2520Courier%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2520-%25202622.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D166470c7%26DocId%3D171854%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520V%26HitCount%3D7%26hits%3D10af%2B1185%2B1186%2B145b%2B145c%2B15db%2B15ef%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">kills himself</a> after wounding his 16 year-old bride in the right arm with a pistol in their small house behind the State Bank near Dodge & Co.'s lumber yard, on Manhattan Street. "White Star Hotel" called a "sailor's house." Newphew Ennis dies sometime later.<br /><br />1893/4 advert for Ennis's newly remodelled hotel premises "speial attention" to "small opera troops." An item around the same time calls it "Star Hotel," and says he is "Overseer of the Poor." "<a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200791.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D646aceb2%26DocId%3D1934246%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D18%26hits%3D1fa%2B1fe%2B262%2B2d8%2B357%2B38a%2B3e9%2B58b%2B58c%2B5df%2B5f1%2B61f%2Bc2a%2Bd23%2Bd42%2Bef8%2Befd%2Bf07%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200791.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D646aceb2%26DocId%3D1934246%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D18%26hits%3D1fa%2B1fe%2B262%2B2d8%2B357%2B38a%2B3e9%2B58b%2B58c%2B5df%2B5f1%2B61f%2Bc2a%2Bd23%2Bd42%2Bef8%2Befd%2Bf07%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">An update to the establishment</a>:. James Ennis, that born hustler, who conducts the "White Star Hotel" on Sweeney Street is up to the times in all he undertakes. He has had his place of business thoroughly refurnished and equipped with modern conveniences recently until now he has a hostlery of which he can well feel proud. Mr. Ennis is one of our most enterprising citizens and his personality as an accommodating and painstaking landlord is. well-known, locally and among many traveling men."<br /><br />Also 1893/1894 <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200987.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9f4f04e8%26DocId%3D1934442%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D26%26hits%3Da3%2B133%2B29e%2B2a7%2B318%2B332%2B33a%2B35b%2B633%2B999%2Bb0d%2Bbb8%2Bc1a%2Bca7%2Bcf6%2Be69%2Be76%2Bed0%2Bed1%2Bedf%2B112f%2B1207%2B1233%2B13be%2B13c3%2B13cd%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200987.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9f4f04e8%26DocId%3D1934442%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D26%26hits%3Da3%2B133%2B29e%2B2a7%2B318%2B332%2B33a%2B35b%2B633%2B999%2Bb0d%2Bbb8%2Bc1a%2Bca7%2Bcf6%2Be69%2Be76%2Bed0%2Bed1%2Bedf%2B112f%2B1207%2B1233%2B13be%2B13c3%2B13cd%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">there is an ad</a> selling the "boarding house and saloon," The White Star Hotel.<br /><br />A curious 1897 item in the Tonawanda News, claims in <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/files/original/9fa8119fbd4b18cb8dcc48d94502fb48.pdf">1882</a> Captain James Ennis establishes the White Star Hotel, having also owned the hundred year-old Log Cabin on bicycle-friendly cinder of the River Road, at the foot of the trolley track. An 1889 item in "The Review" of Farmer's Village, N.Y.: "Mrs. James Ennis, of the White Star hotel, Tonawanda, writes us that Frank Hennon (as we decipher the name), a sailor, claiming to belong to this county, recently died at her house, from an injury resulting from a falling wall. Should this meet the eyes of friends of the deceased, further information can be obtained by addressing the above."<br /><br />October 13, 1897, Ennis's Log Cabin <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspapers%252021%2FBuffalo%2520NY%2520Courier%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2520-%25202622.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D166470c7%26DocId%3D171854%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520V%26HitCount%3D7%26hits%3D10af%2B1185%2B1186%2B145b%2B145c%2B15db%2B15ef%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspapers%252021%2FBuffalo%2520NY%2520Courier%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2FBuffalo%2520Ny%2520Courier%25201889%2520-%25202622.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D166470c7%26DocId%3D171854%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520V%26HitCount%3D7%26hits%3D10af%2B1185%2B1186%2B145b%2B145c%2B15db%2B15ef%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">robbed</a> of a "nickel-in-the-slot contrivance," on "the other side of the Buffalo & Niagara Electric Railroad Company's big car barn." Difficult-to-read article metions a ghost and hypnosis.<br /><br />Photos in the early 20th Century show a 3-story building on the site. <br /><br />By 1905 the hotel has changed hands to William Phelps, at least according to <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201905%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201905%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201669.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffe4c8cc32%26DocId%3D1945115%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D13%26hits%3D8%2B7d8%2B824%2B825%2B82d%2B897%2B91f%2B921%2Bb46%2Bb98%2Bc26%2Bc2b%2Bc32%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201905%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201905%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201669.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffe4c8cc32%26DocId%3D1945115%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D13%26hits%3D8%2B7d8%2B824%2B825%2B82d%2B897%2B91f%2B921%2Bb46%2Bb98%2Bc26%2Bc2b%2Bc32%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">an item</a> that identifies him as a wife beater. <br /><br /><strong>Philip Perew's White Star Hotel (c.1907-1921)</strong><br /><br />Canadian-born eccentric <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2154">Philip Perew</a> is running the White Star by September 1907. It is likely that some of the "liberties" now associated with the site were already being taken at this early date--Perew owns a dozen or so Goose Island houses of ill repute in his lifetime. Liquor and women was pretty much his business model (and <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/106">questionable inventions</a>, but that's another story.)<br /><br />How eccentric is he? He keeps a "menagerie" of exotic animals with him at the hotel. The collection of poor souls is narrowly evacuted before a disastrous fire on October 11, 1909 "amost entirely" destroys the building. Making the evacuation slightly easier is the fact that, as the <em>Tonawanda News</em> reports, "the wildcat and the Russian wolf had been removed to another place some weeks ago." Rebuilt from scratch?<br /><br />Although Perew appears to hand over ownership (or only management?) of the hotel in February 1921, he operates about a dozen Goose Island houses of ill repute, and a Perew Hotel on the three mile road (two mile?). In 1937 (immediately after his Goose Island establishments are shuttered by police) Perew accuses Chief Criminal Deputy Amedeo L. Coppola of shaking him down for $200 a month in bribes, and takes him to court in a trial that is a local sensation. He will live at 46 Sweeney until his death in 1946.<br /><br /><strong>Niagara Hotel and Vincio Tojan, back to White Star (1921)</strong><br /><br />In a 1921, 46 Sweeney is called the "Niagara Hotel," and its "Vincio Tojan" says he is the new proprietor when he is arrested in a March 20th, 1921 raid by dry agents" disguised as intoxicated farmers." In May 1921 Theodore Stann and the White Star Hotel are mentioned in another article.<br /><br />1930 Perew is mentioned as owner of the White Star Hotel, <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202985.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff8c31e7c5%26DocId%3D2001347%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D28%26hits%3D5%2Ba%2B8e%2B8f%2Ba9%2B14d%2B159%2B170%2B1c1%2B35c%2B6cb%2B72a%2B7ba%2B7da%2B805%2B839%2B9c6%2B9f5%2Ba98%2Bb61%2Bdb2%2Bf29%2Bf77%2B109f%2B118e%2B13b2%2B13b7%2B13be%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202985.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff8c31e7c5%26DocId%3D2001347%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D28%26hits%3D5%2Ba%2B8e%2B8f%2Ba9%2B14d%2B159%2B170%2B1c1%2B35c%2B6cb%2B72a%2B7ba%2B7da%2B805%2B839%2B9c6%2B9f5%2Ba98%2Bb61%2Bdb2%2Bf29%2Bf77%2B109f%2B118e%2B13b2%2B13b7%2B13be%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">desribed as a</a> "two-story frame structure."<br /><br /><strong>White Star Hotel to Silver Sails Restaurant: Saunders years<br /><br /></strong>1934 White Star Hotel <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202885.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffffce30a94%26DocId%3D2021715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D33%26hits%3D5%2B1b%2B3d%2B5a%2B9f%2Bd0%2B177%2B192%2B1cb%2B1cc%2B1e5%2B2c0%2B2cf%2B3c3%2B3c9%2B5c3%2B6e0%2B94a%2Ba9d%2Bd71%2Bd73%2Bd7a%2Bd82%2Bd90%2Beb2%2Bec8%2B109f%2B1168%2B11ba%2B11d7%2B12b3%2B12b8%2B12bf%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202885.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffffce30a94%26DocId%3D2021715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D33%26hits%3D5%2B1b%2B3d%2B5a%2B9f%2Bd0%2B177%2B192%2B1cb%2B1cc%2B1e5%2B2c0%2B2cf%2B3c3%2B3c9%2B5c3%2B6e0%2B94a%2Ba9d%2Bd71%2Bd73%2Bd7a%2Bd82%2Bd90%2Beb2%2Bec8%2B109f%2B1168%2B11ba%2B11d7%2B12b3%2B12b8%2B12bf%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">mention</a>.<br /><br />In <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200987.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9f4f04e8%26DocId%3D1934442%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D26%26hits%3Da3%2B133%2B29e%2B2a7%2B318%2B332%2B33a%2B35b%2B633%2B999%2Bb0d%2Bbb8%2Bc1a%2Bca7%2Bcf6%2Be69%2Be76%2Bed0%2Bed1%2Bedf%2B112f%2B1207%2B1233%2B13be%2B13c3%2B13cd%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201893%2520Jul-Jul%25201894%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200987.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9f4f04e8%26DocId%3D1934442%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D26%26hits%3Da3%2B133%2B29e%2B2a7%2B318%2B332%2B33a%2B35b%2B633%2B999%2Bb0d%2Bbb8%2Bc1a%2Bca7%2Bcf6%2Be69%2Be76%2Bed0%2Bed1%2Bedf%2B112f%2B1207%2B1233%2B13be%2B13c3%2B13cd%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">June 1935</a> and October 1937, Charles Bradley of the White Star Hotel <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202885.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffffce30a94%26DocId%3D2021715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D33%26hits%3D5%2B1b%2B3d%2B5a%2B9f%2Bd0%2B177%2B192%2B1cb%2B1cc%2B1e5%2B2c0%2B2cf%2B3c3%2B3c9%2B5c3%2B6e0%2B94a%2Ba9d%2Bd71%2Bd73%2Bd7a%2Bd82%2Bd90%2Beb2%2Bec8%2B109f%2B1168%2B11ba%2B11d7%2B12b3%2B12b8%2B12bf%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201937%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202885.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffffce30a94%26DocId%3D2021715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D33%26hits%3D5%2B1b%2B3d%2B5a%2B9f%2Bd0%2B177%2B192%2B1cb%2B1cc%2B1e5%2B2c0%2B2cf%2B3c3%2B3c9%2B5c3%2B6e0%2B94a%2Ba9d%2Bd71%2Bd73%2Bd7a%2Bd82%2Bd90%2Beb2%2Bec8%2B109f%2B1168%2B11ba%2B11d7%2B12b3%2B12b8%2B12bf%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">appears</a> as "proprietor" in the News.<br /><br />In December 1938 the White Star Hotel is "open under new management" of Dorothy Saunders <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202985.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff8c31e7c5%26DocId%3D2001347%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D28%26hits%3D5%2Ba%2B8e%2B8f%2Ba9%2B14d%2B159%2B170%2B1c1%2B35c%2B6cb%2B72a%2B7ba%2B7da%2B805%2B839%2B9c6%2B9f5%2Ba98%2Bb61%2Bdb2%2Bf29%2Bf77%2B109f%2B118e%2B13b2%2B13b7%2B13be%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201930%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202985.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff8c31e7c5%26DocId%3D2001347%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D28%26hits%3D5%2Ba%2B8e%2B8f%2Ba9%2B14d%2B159%2B170%2B1c1%2B35c%2B6cb%2B72a%2B7ba%2B7da%2B805%2B839%2B9c6%2B9f5%2Ba98%2Bb61%2Bdb2%2Bf29%2Bf77%2B109f%2B118e%2B13b2%2B13b7%2B13be%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">according to this want ad</a>.<br /><br />1939 is advertising the White Star Hotel with "You'll Have a High Old Time at Dorothy Saunders White Star Hotel. Good food. Good drinks. Good fun." <br /><br />In 1940 a <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%25208%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%25201940%2520Sep-Nov%2520Grayscale%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%25201940%2520Sep-Nov%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200676.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9684e31e%26DocId%3D194574%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520T%26HitCount%3D16%26hits%3D6fe%2B738%2B922%2B923%2B926%2Baae%2Bb00%2Bd7d%2Be4a%2Bf8b%2B1057%2B11a0%2B12c5%2B12d3%2B1503%2B15b7%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%25208%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%25201940%2520Sep-Nov%2520Grayscale%2FNiagara%2520Falls%2520NY%2520Gazette%25201940%2520Sep-Nov%2520Grayscale%2520-%25200676.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffff9684e31e%26DocId%3D194574%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520T%26HitCount%3D16%26hits%3D6fe%2B738%2B922%2B923%2B926%2Baae%2Bb00%2Bd7d%2Be4a%2Bf8b%2B1057%2B11a0%2B12c5%2B12d3%2B1503%2B15b7%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">Niagara Gazette item</a> calls it a "three-story structure."<br /><br />By 1950 the building is condemned as "unfit for human habitation," and the remaining lodgers are evicted. May 1951 is <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201604.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffffbb5d89%26DocId%3D2065199%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D19%26hits%3D49%2B4a%2B90%2B91%2B1a8%2B2c7%2B395%2B3cc%2B409%2B422%2B42a%2B458%2B627%2B744%2Bfee%2B1119%2B115a%2B115f%2B1166%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25201604.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dffffffffffbb5d89%26DocId%3D2065199%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D19%26hits%3D49%2B4a%2B90%2B91%2B1a8%2B2c7%2B395%2B3cc%2B409%2B422%2B42a%2B458%2B627%2B744%2Bfee%2B1119%2B115a%2B115f%2B1166%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">the actual eviction</a>. Joesphine Saunders is the owner. <a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202844.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffff52fae12%26DocId%3D2066439%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D18%26hits%3D44%2B45%2B73%2Bb0%2Bf3%2B154%2B4a7%2B636%2B6c8%2B6c9%2B6cc%2Bbbe%2Bc21%2Bd44%2Bef5%2B1086%2B108b%2B1092%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201951%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202844.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3Dfffffffff52fae12%26DocId%3D2066439%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D18%26hits%3D44%2B45%2B73%2Bb0%2Bf3%2B154%2B4a7%2B636%2B6c8%2B6c9%2B6cc%2Bbbe%2Bc21%2Bd44%2Bef5%2B1086%2B108b%2B1092%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">Much is made</a> of the poor children of the two families in the "basement apartments" who are liberated from the squalor and (in one case) shuttled to Lockport.<br /><br />Josephine "Pammy" Saunders purchases the building from Perew.* A large investment in a shiny new restaurant in the basement is made, and the "Silver Sail Restaurant" is up and running. It is advertised in 1952 with Dorothy "Thompson" as proprietor. I am assured by a descendant that no monkey business was happening at 46 Sweeney in this era. (<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2648">This photograph</a> of John Saunders tending bar in front of a "No Dancing" sign seems to support this claim.)<br /><br />1958 disorderly conduct.<br /><br /><a href="https://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?altUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201960%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201960%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202424.pdf%23xml%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D52ff3765%26DocId%3D2113715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D53%26hits%3D6%2B120%2B12f%2B160%2B16f%2B1a7%2B239%2B250%2B2ae%2B332%2B3e9%2B494%2B495%2B58c%2B5a4%2B617%2B622%2B6c7%2B708%2B71f%2B786%2B795%2B7c9%2B803%2B8b9%2B913%2B92e%2B9d3%2Bb29%2Bb7d%2Bbca%2Bef3%2Bf68%2Bf71%2Bf75%2Bf8e%2Bff5%2B103a%2B1045%2B108f%2B1161%2B116d%2B1179%2B11a8%2B12a6%2B12c6%2B12d4%2B12fb%2B131e%2B132d%2B135d%2B1362%2B1369%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&uri=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201960%2520%2520Grayscale%2FNorth%2520Tonawanda%2520NY%2520Evening%2520News%25201960%2520%2520Grayscale%2520-%25202424.pdf&xml=https%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D52ff3765%26DocId%3D2113715%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cDISK%2520U%26HitCount%3D53%26hits%3D6%2B120%2B12f%2B160%2B16f%2B1a7%2B239%2B250%2B2ae%2B332%2B3e9%2B494%2B495%2B58c%2B5a4%2B617%2B622%2B6c7%2B708%2B71f%2B786%2B795%2B7c9%2B803%2B8b9%2B913%2B92e%2B9d3%2Bb29%2Bb7d%2Bbca%2Bef3%2Bf68%2Bf71%2Bf75%2Bf8e%2Bff5%2B103a%2B1045%2B108f%2B1161%2B116d%2B1179%2B11a8%2B12a6%2B12c6%2B12d4%2B12fb%2B131e%2B132d%2B135d%2B1362%2B1369%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false">1960-11-14 brawl</a> with Niagara Falls out-of-towners and 20+ locals, some of a motorcycle gang. <br /><br />Josephine Saunders is granted a liquor license for the Silver Sail as late as 10/19/1965. She dies 4/29/1966.<br /><br /><strong>Alexander's Lounge: Enter the Vergos (c. 1967)</strong><br /><br />Wild times return to the old haunt with the arrival of the Vergos brothers in our story: the club's namesake "Alex," and Peter. The first time their name appears in print in the Tonawanda News is May 1967 in an ad for a "Waitress for Alexander's Lounge, between 21 - 35 years old," and a cook. <br />An August 1969 melee causes brother-owners Alex G. and Peter G. Vergos to be charged by State Liquor Authority with "improper conduct" and "disorder"; In 1972 charges against Alex of sexual abuse of a "go-go dancer" are dropped. In 1979 another disastrous fire strikes the (3-story) building. Perhaps this fire is what results in the shorter building we know today?<br /><br />Alexander G. Vergos dies January 21, 1994.<br /><br />-<br /><br /><em>*This information is from a Saunder family member. Uncertain year - Dorothy Saunders was operating it by 1939. </em>
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46 Sweeney, map detail (1893).jpg
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1893
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/d9bbb5d15d2f4483159ac03ccf183c70.jpg
671909a25c9145301f9258b2cc4cc526
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Gratwick (Neighborhood)
Description
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<img class="cover" alt="Map of Gratwick area and dockage illustration" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/93b.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">1877 Survey</span>In 1870 W. H. Gratwick of Buffalo purchases 50 acres along the Niagara River from Benjamin Felton and John Simson. By 1879 the <span>White, Gratwick & Mitchell Lumber Company </span>has a planing mill and substantial lumberyards on the site. They employ 450 men, mostly of German origin, who settle northeast of the facilities. The village’s main street, Felton, is named after Benjamin F. Felton. By 1884 there is a "neat frame" school house with one teacher and 30 pupils, built by Felton (school board president at the time). Gratwick is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897.<br /><br />From the guidebook "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/608">North Tonawanda and Tonawanda</a>" (1891):
<blockquote>Among the pioneers in the wholesale lumber trade of this place was W.H. Gratwick, who, in 1870, purchased fifty acres from Hon. John Simson and B.F. Felton, adjoining the Niagara River, about two miles below the mouth of Tonawanda Creek, and started a lumberyard. A half dozen years later P.W. Ledoux built the sash, door, and blind factory, which a few years later was purchased by Parks & Son, who operated the same until its recent purchase by Hollister Brothers. Mr. Gratwick erected a large planing mill in 1879, and from that time forward the place has steadily grown until it now has about 1,000 inhabitants. The lumber and mill interests of Gratwick, Smith & Fryer, Touawanda Lumber Co., and Hollister Brothers will be mentioned on other pages. <br /><br />Augustus Miller. — After the lumber interests, the next manufactory of importance in Gratwick is the wagon shop at the corner of Oliver and Felton streets. This was built in 1887 by August Miller, and besides doing all kinds of blacksmith and iron repair work, puts up a quantity of wagons, trucks, and other new work. Mr. Miller employs from five to ten men and has added an important industry to Gratwick, in a line of diversified manufacturing for which there is much room for development. <br /><br />Churches, Schools, Etc. — A class of the Methodist Episcopal church was organized in Gratwick in 1887, and the membership, a short time afterwards, commenced the erection of a church, which with lot, is worth about $3,000. This Avas dedicated in 1889 and has been in charge of Rev. J.S. Duxbury up to the present writing. <br /><br />St. Peter's German Evangelical church was organized April 5, 1888, by Rev. Kottler and the house of worship erected the same year. Rev. Conrad Bachman, who was educated at the missionschool ot Basle, Switzerland, came to this charge in October, 1888, and teaches the parochial school. Some sixty families are connected with this church. <br /><br />Gratwick has a public school with about 100 pupils, a brass band, two hose companies, and other societies; numerous hotels, stores, coal offices, and abundance of saloons. It was made a part of North Tonawanda corporation the present year, since which it has been placed in connection with the water mains, has electric lights, and other corporation advantages. <br /><br />Riverside. — From Gratwick station to the corporation limits on the west is nearly a mile, and as the river presents a graceful curve and nice beach in this vicinity, it has been proposed to call the station which will probably be located one and a half miles below Gratwick, "Riverside." Last year the Riverside Land Co. was incorporated and purchased forty acres on the north side of the Erie railroad, mostly within the new corporate limits. The officers are H.E. Warner, Pres.; J.A. Kuck, of Buflalo, V.P.; Charles W. Archibald, of North Tonawanda, Sec, and L. Landauer, of Albion, Treas. <br /><br />Bluff Point. — E.A. Milliman, a farmer and contractor, of Wheatfield town, has been seven times appointed a deputy collector, which office he now holds. Mr. Milliman owns a handsome farm of 120 acres at Bluff Point, bounded on the west and south by the Niagara River. The river at this point has a clean gravel shore with high bluff, making a delightful place for a summer location. <em>Editor's note: <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/607">1878 illustration and modern photo</a></em><br /><br />G.F. Goerss, also a deputy collector, owns a fifty-acre farm near the mile line, which is handsomely located and will presently be within the radius of development. Last year he erected a dwelling in Gratwick. Mr. Goerss was born in Wheatfield and is an authority on real estate values. He has been supervisor, J.P., Justice of Sessions, and in 1887-8 a member of Assembly.</blockquote>
<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/browse?tags=gratwick">More items tagged "Gratwick" ></a>
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Slips off Niagara River, northmost Gratwick, map detail (1908).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1908
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/54743f4bee00f9982b5b91178125a7d0.jpg
b10556320b36c851f6e385ca012797f5
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Creo-Dipt, Weatherbest Stained Shingles
Description
An account of the resource
AI:
By the 1920s, North Tonawanda is a minor empire of stained shingles, dominated by two closely linked firms: Creo-Dipt and Weatherbest.
Creo-Dipt begins in 1908 as the Standard Stained Shingle Company in Rochester, developing “creo-dipped” shingles whose creosote treatment is meant to lock color into the wood; the company later relocates its headquarters to North Tonawanda and adopts the Creo-Dipt name. ([mycompanies.fandom.com][1])
From a modest start it builds a national business in chemically treated shingles and stains, heavily advertised in trade journals and glossy catalogs and shipped from multiple plants, including major works in North Tonawanda and Seattle. ([mycompanies.fandom.com][1]) Weatherbest grows out of a stained-shingle concern organized in 1913 (initially called the Transfer Stained Shingle Company), later headquartered on Main Street in North Tonawanda; by the mid-1920s it is marketing red-cedar “Weatherbest” shingles and plan books that promise to turn “old houses into charming homes,” positioning stained shingles as both modern siding and a cheap way to remodel tired frame houses. ([mycompanies.fandom.com][2])
Through the 1920s both companies bombard architects, builders and homeowners with catalogs and national advertising; Creo-Dipt leads the field, with Weatherbest usually ranked a close second in sales. ([mycompanies.fandom.com][1])
In 1937 the two lines are formally pulled together: Creo-Dipt absorbs Weatherbest’s shingle and stain business, Weatherbest continues as a division, and the combined concern carries on selling Western red-cedar stained shingles and related finishes across the United States for several more decades. ([mycompanies.fandom.com][1])
[1]: https://mycompanies.fandom.com/wiki/Creo-Dipt_Company "Creo-Dipt Company | MyCompanies Wiki | Fandom"
[2]: https://mycompanies.fandom.com/wiki/Weatherbest_Stained_Shingle_Company "Weatherbest Stained Shingle Company | MyCompanies Wiki | Fandom"
In November 1929 Weatherbest Island Street facility nearly wiped out by a disastrous blaze that does an estimated $250,000 in damage and destroys 100 carloads of shingles.
Creo-Dipt used creosote to hold the color within the shingle.
Learning Aid
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Creo-Dipt, Weatherbest, map detail (1951).jpg
Date
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1951
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/6ffdd0b990049aa0707348b68bdc9f1f.jpg
0134641471c68fd6f986a5f9dc080e67
Illustration
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Map of the Village of Tonawanda, illustration detail (1857).jpg
Date
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1857
creek
map
river
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/53206702a0172b6b6e9dec4a5534e7c7.jpg
6814b87b261cb90cb7e8554af75c2af5
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Title
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Martinsville
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/56.jpg" alt="Postcard view looking north up Old Falld Blvd" /><span class="cover-caption">Old Falls Boulevard, looking north from Lockport Ave. to Niagara Falls Blvd. Postcard detail, c.1900.</span> The northeast part of North Tonawanda known as "Martinsville" is named after the father of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther. It is settled by German Lutheran farmers, beginning around 1843. They settled in narrow farms along the west bank of Tonawanda Creek. As the area developed, a "downtown" emerged along William Street, present-day Old Falls Blvd, near Lockport Rd. (pictured above). The village boasted its own post office, stores and places of entertainment. <br /><br />Most of Martinsville was incorporated into the then-booming City of North Tonawanda in 1897. The sections of Martinsville east of present-day Old Falls and Niagara Falls boulevards are considered part of Wheatfield.<br /><br />The real estate transaction that brought many of the settlers to the area, its early growth, and the contentious religious devotion of its people are described in <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/606"><em>History of Niagara County 1821-1878</em></a>:
<blockquote>In 1843 Carl Sack, Erdman Wurl and Fred Grosskopf purchased of William Vandervoote 400 acres, at $15 per acre, on the Tonawanda creek, in the southeast corner of the town, four miles east of Tonawanda village, in what is now known as the village of Martinsville. Lutheran religious antecedents caused the adoption of this name by the disciples of Martin Luther. The original purchase was divided into small lots of three acres and up- ward, as others were able to purchase, to provide for the location of thirty families the first season. They erected ten log houses in the autumn, each of which was occupied by three or four families during the winter and until joint efforts relieved the immigrants by building others. The families remained in Buffalo until the first houses were built, obtaining the best accommodations they could find. Forbidding as the prospect in the beginning must have been, it has been changed to the appearance of prosperity. The church organization is the controlling element in the government of the community, now consisting of one hundred families, connected with the two now existing, the result of divided feeling, but not an abandonment of the Lutheran faith.</blockquote>
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Bushs bridge and former Niagara Falls Blvd route on map (c1947).jpg
Date
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1947
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ff093fafb6842a45ccce4687b4ec679b.jpg
cfb3aaf29ff10521bfc43e1573a992d3
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Goundry Street School
Description
An account of the resource
The Goundry Street School was a stone building constructed in 1866. From <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/606"><em>History of Niagara County 1821-1878</em></a> (1878):
<blockquote>The North Tonawanda Union School has four departments and four teachers. The last winter term averaged 190 scholars and the summer term 125, J. W. Brown is principal, with Libbie M. Pugsley, Hannah Densmore, and Nellie Becker as assistants. The whole number of scholars of school age is 674. The school-house was erected in 1866. The board of education consists of Benjamin F. Felton, president; H. O. Nightingale, clerk; Dr. C. Backer, Giles Schell and John Chadwick. The school building is a substantial stone edifice, located at one of the most pleasant points in the village. The yards in front and play grounds are kept in good condition.</blockquote>
In late 1882 a new addition is built in front of and connected to the original schoolhouse. Another addition is made in 1892. In 1955, after 89 years of educating students, the "bell atop Goundry School...sounds the call to classes for the last time." After some time as a school administration building, the historic old structure is scheduled to be razed on October 27, 1975.
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Goundry Street School and Public Library, map detail (1951).jpg
Date
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1951
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e852fd2e1209fe64f4d54926c703dc15.jpg
05dc112d671e3ae8b0ad0b73a74e6e6d
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Riverside Chemical Company (1906-present)
Description
An account of the resource
From <a href="http://www.rivchem.com/about.html">their website</a>:
<blockquote>
<p>Riverside Chemical was founded in 1906 by A. C. Rasch. The business started running out of the basement of a grocery store at the corner of Oliver Street and Porter Avenue in North Tonawanda, NY. In those beginning years, the company focused on household supplies such as ammonia, bluing, vanilla extract and other extracts. Mr. Rasch founded the company on the simple principle of providing a good product, for a good price, with special attention to customer service and community involvement.</p>
<p>Later Mr. Rasch began manufacturing products to serve the needs of horse drawn wagons and industrial machines. The company produced axle grease and other grease for machinery, as well as leather oils, harness preservatives and hoof dressing.</p>
<p>When the automobile age began, Mr. Rasch developed a non-chatter oil for Model T cars which launched the company into a new era.</p>
<p><b>Dr. Carl H. Rasch (1904-1980)</b></p>
<p>In 1929 the company moved their facility to the current location on River Road in North Tonawanda, NY.</p>
<p>During the 1940's and 1950's the company was managed by A. C. Rasch's sons, George A. Rasch and Dr. Carl H. Rasch.</p>
<p>In 1959 Dr. Carl H. Rasch was appointed as President of the company. Dr Rasch had worked at Riverside since the early 1930's, and had also earned Ph.D. Degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Buffalo and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Rasch was responsible for another large growth period in the company as he expanded the business product lines to include high purity chemicals and food grade additives as well as dramatically increasing their industrial product lines. Dr. Rasch remained President until he passed away in 1980.</p>
<p>The 1980s began the third generation of the family run business as Dr. Carl H. Rasch's sons Peter C. Rasch became President and Jon A. Rasch as Vice President. Both had worked for Riverside for many years before taking charge in 1980.</p>
<p>Peter Rasch has continued to grow the business, while also minding the principals that had been set by his grandfather so many years ago. Riverside's success has been enhanced by its high ethical business practices; commitment to community, customers, employees and the environment.</p>
</blockquote>
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Riverside Chemical Company, map detail (c1951).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1951
map
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https://nthistory.com/files/original/189dfc850d3b44ea00e01184658ea61b.jpg
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Title
A name given to the resource
Gratwick (Neighborhood)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Map of Gratwick area and dockage illustration" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/93b.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">1877 Survey</span>In 1870 W. H. Gratwick of Buffalo purchases 50 acres along the Niagara River from Benjamin Felton and John Simson. By 1879 the <span>White, Gratwick & Mitchell Lumber Company </span>has a planing mill and substantial lumberyards on the site. They employ 450 men, mostly of German origin, who settle northeast of the facilities. The village’s main street, Felton, is named after Benjamin F. Felton. By 1884 there is a "neat frame" school house with one teacher and 30 pupils, built by Felton (school board president at the time). Gratwick is incorporated into the City of North Tonawanda in 1897.<br /><br />From the guidebook "<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/608">North Tonawanda and Tonawanda</a>" (1891):
<blockquote>Among the pioneers in the wholesale lumber trade of this place was W.H. Gratwick, who, in 1870, purchased fifty acres from Hon. John Simson and B.F. Felton, adjoining the Niagara River, about two miles below the mouth of Tonawanda Creek, and started a lumberyard. A half dozen years later P.W. Ledoux built the sash, door, and blind factory, which a few years later was purchased by Parks & Son, who operated the same until its recent purchase by Hollister Brothers. Mr. Gratwick erected a large planing mill in 1879, and from that time forward the place has steadily grown until it now has about 1,000 inhabitants. The lumber and mill interests of Gratwick, Smith & Fryer, Touawanda Lumber Co., and Hollister Brothers will be mentioned on other pages. <br /><br />Augustus Miller. — After the lumber interests, the next manufactory of importance in Gratwick is the wagon shop at the corner of Oliver and Felton streets. This was built in 1887 by August Miller, and besides doing all kinds of blacksmith and iron repair work, puts up a quantity of wagons, trucks, and other new work. Mr. Miller employs from five to ten men and has added an important industry to Gratwick, in a line of diversified manufacturing for which there is much room for development. <br /><br />Churches, Schools, Etc. — A class of the Methodist Episcopal church was organized in Gratwick in 1887, and the membership, a short time afterwards, commenced the erection of a church, which with lot, is worth about $3,000. This Avas dedicated in 1889 and has been in charge of Rev. J.S. Duxbury up to the present writing. <br /><br />St. Peter's German Evangelical church was organized April 5, 1888, by Rev. Kottler and the house of worship erected the same year. Rev. Conrad Bachman, who was educated at the missionschool ot Basle, Switzerland, came to this charge in October, 1888, and teaches the parochial school. Some sixty families are connected with this church. <br /><br />Gratwick has a public school with about 100 pupils, a brass band, two hose companies, and other societies; numerous hotels, stores, coal offices, and abundance of saloons. It was made a part of North Tonawanda corporation the present year, since which it has been placed in connection with the water mains, has electric lights, and other corporation advantages. <br /><br />Riverside. — From Gratwick station to the corporation limits on the west is nearly a mile, and as the river presents a graceful curve and nice beach in this vicinity, it has been proposed to call the station which will probably be located one and a half miles below Gratwick, "Riverside." Last year the Riverside Land Co. was incorporated and purchased forty acres on the north side of the Erie railroad, mostly within the new corporate limits. The officers are H.E. Warner, Pres.; J.A. Kuck, of Buflalo, V.P.; Charles W. Archibald, of North Tonawanda, Sec, and L. Landauer, of Albion, Treas. <br /><br />Bluff Point. — E.A. Milliman, a farmer and contractor, of Wheatfield town, has been seven times appointed a deputy collector, which office he now holds. Mr. Milliman owns a handsome farm of 120 acres at Bluff Point, bounded on the west and south by the Niagara River. The river at this point has a clean gravel shore with high bluff, making a delightful place for a summer location. <em>Editor's note: <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/607">1878 illustration and modern photo</a></em><br /><br />G.F. Goerss, also a deputy collector, owns a fifty-acre farm near the mile line, which is handsomely located and will presently be within the radius of development. Last year he erected a dwelling in Gratwick. Mr. Goerss was born in Wheatfield and is an authority on real estate values. He has been supervisor, J.P., Justice of Sessions, and in 1887-8 a member of Assembly.</blockquote>
<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/browse?tags=gratwick">More items tagged "Gratwick" ></a>
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Gratwick Slip boathouse gang, photo (Cumming Family, c1905).jpg
Description
An account of the resource
A slip on the Niagara River was lined with boathouses south of the (projected) foot of East Ave. Today it is the North Tonawanda Water Wastewater Treatment Plant. PHOTOS: c1905. Map: 1951.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1905
boathouse
gratwick
map
person
-
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Title
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Boathouse Park, Weatherbest Slip
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="Boathouse Park" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/124.jpg" /> <span class="cover-caption">PHOTO: Dennis Reed Jr.</span> Around the junction of Tonawanda Creek and the "Little River" three small slips cut into the land. The slips were dug in the 1870s to accommodate Great Lakes and other vessels necessary to North Tonawanda's world-class lumber industry (<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2668">Buffalo <i>News</i></a>, 2006). Great piles of lumber towered around them.<br /><br />That lumber industry, as residents know, eventually moves elsewhere. By the 1950s* dozens of private boathouses occupy the area. The city owns the property; the boaters own the structures, pay taxes on them, and lease the land annually.<br /><br />In 1965 the city of North Tonawanda sells the land to the boathouse owners at their request, only to have the sale almost immediately deemed illegal by Mayor Durkee, and nullified. Still, the annual lease continues.<br /><br />In the 1970s the boathouse residents' status becomes contentious when the county health department threatens to fine the city steeply for the <em>effluvium</em> the boathouse residents are releasing into the Little River. The city threatens to evict tenants, to stop renewing leases, and—at the nadir of the clash—to turn off water service to the area. After all, the city argues, the lease does not permit use of the boathouses as living quarters. The park residents' right to enjoy the waterfront property at the exclusion of all other city residents is also called into question.<br /><br />One mayor wants to evict the tenants and turn the area into a carousel park. In the 1980s developer Wilbur Holler wants to turn the area into townhouses. None of these plans is successful. In 2008 a row of boathouses is demolished, as they are built over a city sewer. But in 2021 the community appears to be all but intractable.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: 0.8em;">*It is unclear how long the structures have been there; </span><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/2688" style="font-size: 0.8em;">a similar slip at Gratwick</a><span style="font-size: 0.8em;"> (since demolished for the wastewater plant) appears to have had boathouses since at least 1905.</span>
Article
Text appearing in a newspaper.
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Future site of Boathouse Park, Weatherbest Slip, map detail (1951).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1951
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/bc9812e89b6a429a1917267a3f181442.jpg
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Rojek's Dairy, Stan Rojek and Park Manor Lanes
Description
An account of the resource
Andrew and Pauline Rojek immigrated to the US in 1905 from present-day Poland. They were were carpenters and dairy farmers, eventually establishing Rojek's Dairy at 125-129 12th Avenue. (Andrew would also continue his contractor career). Son Stan Rojek was born in 1919, and he realized the dream of many a North Tonawanda boy by being signed to play shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1939. His locker, as luck would have it, was right next to color barrier-busting Jackie Robinson's locker, and it is said Stan was one of the first players in the Dodgers' clubhouse to accept the future legend. Shortly after his baseball career ended (around 1952), Stan returned to North Tonawanda to help with the family dairy. But he was not done with sports: In 1961 Stan and his brothers (Ted and Tony) purchased Manor Lanes bowling alley at 895 Payne Avenue (today the Salvation Army). Stan called in some "major league" favors for the alley's grand opening that August, snagging New York Yankee HOF manager Joe McCarthy to roll out the first ball. The brothers ran the bowling alley while continuing to operate the dairy. Today, "Rojek Field" on Walck Road pays honor to the major leaguer, just a few blocks from the 12th Avenue home that started it all.<br /><br />Some more insight into Stan's baseball career from <a href="https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/stan-rojek/">an article by Edward Veit</a>:
<blockquote>Late in the afternoon of September 22, 1942, propelled by a Lew Riggs single, pinch-runner Stan Rojek rounded third base and scored a ninth-inning run that sent the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants into extra innings. A five-feet-ten, 170 pound shortstop, appearing in his first major-league game, Rojek found himself in the midst of one of the all-time great pennant races. Three seasons would pass before Rojek got another taste of major-league baseball. <br /><br />Stanley Andrew Rojek was born on April 21, 1919, in North Tonawanda, New York, located on the Niagara River between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. His parents were Andrzej (later anglicized to Andrew) and Apolonia Rojek. Andrew, a house carpenter, a building contractor and lastly a dairy farmer, was born in Wylawa, Galicia (now part of Poland) and had immigrated in 1905. Stan was the second of three boys and had an older sister, Julia. <br /><br />After graduating from North Tonawanda High School—where he also played basketball—Rojek played semipro baseball in Western New York. He attracted the attention of Brooklyn scout Dick Fischer and subsequently signed with the Dodgers in 1939. Stan was assigned to the Class D PONY League in Olean, New York, just eighty-four miles south of his home. Rojek hit .320 in Olean, then worked his way through the Brooklyn farm system. He was with the Class C Dayton (Ohio) Wings in 1940 and the Class B Durham (North Carolina) Bulls in 1941. Promoted to Montreal, the Dodgers top farm team, in 1942, he hit .283 and was named to the International League All-Star team. He was a late September call-up to Brooklyn, but got into just the one contest. <br /><br />The next baseball game Stan Rojek played was a pick-up game in 1943 at the US Army’s Keesler Field in Mississippi. Rojek, like many major and minor leaguers, had been called to serve in World War II. Stan was prime material for the war effort, twenty-four-years-old, single, and in great physical condition. <br /><br />By July 1945 Rojek was in the Pacific, at Isley Field on Saipan, and playing for the 73rd Bomb Wing Bombers, whose roster included major leaguers Sid Hudson, Tex Hughson, and Mike McCormick. Rojek led the players on the 20th Air Force tour of the Pacific Islands with a .363 batting average and had three home runs. <br /><br />“The wars years may have retarded the chances of some young players, but I am one of the fortunate,” he told The Sporting News. “I am leaving the Army a better player because I had the experience of playing with and against seasoned major league stars. I played more than 200 games in the Army, and I didn’t do badly.”1 <br /><br />Discharged in December 1945, Rojek looked forward to returning to Brooklyn and earning the starting assignment at shortstop. Unfortunately for him, he was a member of one of the few teams where he could not compete for that role. The Dodgers had future Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese firmly entrenched at short. Rojek served as his backup, getting into just 45 games, hitting .277 (13-for-47). <br /><br />The right-handed-hitting Rojek made his first major league hit an important one. On May 8, 1946, pinch hitting for pitcher Les Webber, Rojek singled off Reds southpaw Clyde Shoun to drive in the first run of an eventual ninth inning, four-run rally. He stayed in the game to play second base in the bottom of the ninth and had another single in the tenth. Brooklyn and St. Louis famously posted identical records in the ’46 campaign, and Rojek appeared in the first major league playoff game. Stan pinch hit for Kirby Higbe in the top of the fifth inning and drew a free pass. It was his last contribution of the season. <br /><br />Rojek played in only thirty-two games in 1947, but he started more games than the previous year, filling in for the injured Reese at short and for Eddie Stanky at second. He also played nine games at third. From August 24 through September 1, Rojek was the starting shortstop for all ten games. The Dodgers were 7-3 in that span and Stan batted .314 with six RBIs and made no errors in the field. Overall, he committed only two errors in 116 chances (.983) and hit .263 (21-for-80). He showed very little power, though, managing only one extra base hit. <br /><br />Stan did not appear in the 1947 World Series but did receive a full share, $4,081, of Brooklyn’s allotment. In November, with the winter meetings and the minor league draft looming, Branch Rickey was looking for roster flexibility. One of his first moves was to shed Rojek and first baseman Ed Stevens. The pair were sold to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a reported $50,000. <br /><br />Initially Rojek’s Pirates teammates called him “Reject” because he had been dumped by the Dodgers. He also was called “The Happy Rabbit” because of his projecting front teeth, his attitude, and his quickness in scurrying around shortstop. <br /><br />The way was cleared for Rojek to secure the everyday shortstop role, when three weeks after his transfer to Pittsburgh, the Pirates shortstop Billy Cox was traded to Brooklyn. With regular work, Rojek flourished. He played shortstop in all of the Pirates’ 156 games as Pittsburgh rose from last place in 1947 to fourth place in 1948. He had twenty-nine errors in 766 chances for a .962 fielding average, slightly better than the league average. He led all shortstops with 475 assists and his ninety-one double plays were second only to Reese’s ninety-three. <br /><br />New Pittsburgh manager Billy Meyer called Rojek “a pennant-winning shortstop.”2 The leadoff hitter for 153 games, Rojek, who hit .290 with twenty-seven doubles, five triples, four homers and fifty-one RBIs, led the league in plate appearances (713) and at-bats (641). He finished third in the National League in hits (186) and stolen bases (24). Impressively, he finished tenth in the vote for the National League Most Valuable Player. It was by far his best season as a major leaguer. <br /><br />Rojek probably got much satisfaction in 1948 from the Pirates defeating the Dodgers thirteen times in twenty-two games. On July 25 he had eight hits in nine at-bats as Pittsburgh and Brooklyn split a doubleheader; overall, he hit .323 against his old mates and slugged .444, each well above his season average. Yet in 1949 his offensive statistics declined sharply. On April 27, against the Cardinals, Rojek, who had two hits and scored two runs in the game, was twice hit by a pitch. The second one, in the ninth inning, was a beaning by pitcher Ken Johnson that sent Rojek to the hospital. <br /><br />Rojek said after the beaning he was never the same. He said his teammates “noted that I was just a fraction of a second hesitant in my swing. It wasn’t that I was afraid. It was just my reaction wasn’t there anymore. And you need every fraction of a second you can get in trying to hit a round ball with a round bat, especially if that ball is thrown some ninety-plus miles per hour.”3 His batting average fell to .244 for the year, and in 1950 he batted .257 in seventy-six games while being platooned with twenty-three-year-old Danny O’Connell. <br /><br />Branch Rickey, who had moved from the Dodgers to the Pirates and had cut Rojek’s salary, had promised to give the fun-loving infielder a raise if he married. Stan wed Audrey Moeller, but Rickey failed to pay up, and in May 1951 traded him to the Cardinals for outfielder Erv “Four Sack” Dusak and first baseman Rocky Nelson. <br /><br />Rojek batted .274 in fifty-one games for the Cardinals, backing up Solly Hemus. In January 1952 the Cardinals sent him on waivers to the St. Louis Browns. With the Browns he played in only nine games, the last one on May 13—his last game in the major leagues—before being sent to Toledo of the American Association. After the season, the Browns sent Rojek to the Dodgers in a deal that brought Billy Hunter to St. Louis. It was not quite full circle for Rojek—he never played for the Dodgers, and spent 1953 through 1955 as a part-time infielder for Dodgers farm clubs in Mobile, Montreal, and St. Paul. <br /><br />After the 1955 season, the thirty-six-year-old Rojek retired from baseball and joined his brothers Anthony and Theodore in the family’s dairy business in North Tonawanda. In 1961 the three brothers opened Rojek’s Park Manor Bowling Lanes. Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy, a resident of the area, rolled the first ball. Family members said the bowling alley idea more than likely came from Stan Musial, who visited Rojek often. “They were two Polish guys talking and laughing,” commented Rojek’s nephew, Jim Rojek. The brothers operated the bowling alley for twenty-five years. <br /><br />In June 1977 North Tonawanda renamed Payne Field, a city ballpark, Stan Rojek Field. Rojek is also enshrined in the Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Fame. Stan and his wife were divorced during the 1980s, according to nephew Jim, and she moved to Florida. <br /><br />Rojek suffered a stroke in 1995. He died on July 9, 1997, in North Tonawanda. He was survived by a son, Bart, a daughter, Betty Valek of Southington, Connecticut, and five grandchildren. Rojek is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Tonawanda.</blockquote>
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Rojek's Dairy, 125-129 12th Avenue, map detail (1951).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1951
map
-
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Map
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Map of the Village of Tonawanda in the Counties of Erie and Niagara, N.Y. (1857).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1857
Description
An account of the resource
Handwritten additions depict the depth and extent of a March 18, 1858 flood.
hd
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ec1774f60188b73fba199e57ea8fd91d.jpg
64fe0ab4f87cfe0b4bd5172910a0f696
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Backer House (118-124 Webster Street), Backer Alley
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="An 1886 map shows Backer's House and associated outbuildings" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/121.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">The Backer House on an 1886 map.</span> The long-gone, three-story "Backer House" at the crook of Main and Webster Streets has been called the city's first hotel, purportedly built in 1850 with timber from the Williamsville sawmill owned by John Batt. An 1860 map identifies a "Jackey, Union Hotel" on the site, and no Backer House. The hotel and associated buildings were on a great wooden platform under which ran the state ditch, and stood opposite the former New York Central train depot, where passengers could conveniently become clientele. (A gas station is on the depot site today.) <br /><br /><strong>Owned by the Backer family</strong><br /><br />I haven't learned anything about the first Backer who presumably founded the hotel. But in 1867 (according to a 1929 article), Henry B. Backer becomes the proprietor of the hotel, and will continue until 1891. (Perhaps as a family affair, the hotel enjoyed multiple "proprietors," as we see a different Backer so named below). <br /><br /><strong>A desperate family denied</strong><br /><br />On October 13, 1886, the Backer House is the site of a sensational news story. A traveling Rochester family is returning home when the wife, Julia Trimmer, begins experiencing severe labor pains. The train makes an emergency stop at the New York Central depot opposite the hotel. The husband and wife clamber down the platform and rush across the street to the hotel, desperate for help. They don't find it. <br /><br />The proprietor, Dr. Conrad Backer, refuses to permit Mrs. Trimmer space even on the floor, and the couple is instead "forcibly ejected with profane and abusive language." The distraught family struggles to the nearby Sears House, and although accepted immediately by staff and attended to with great humanity, by then "the child had been born and had died from its brief exposure." The wife brings a $20,000 lawsuit for "personal damages" against the proprietor of the Backer House. She will be awarded a small fraction of that, $600. When Backer refuses to pay even that small fraction, he is jailed. <br /><br /><strong>More Backers</strong><br /><br />In 1891 (according to a 1929 article, which describes a return visit to the area), proprietor Henry B. Backer and his wife leave North Tonawanda for lumber interests in New York City. Before that, he was village clerk, and "took a leading part in the laying out of Thompson, Schenck, Robinson and other streets," donated the land for Live Hose, and founded defunct Alert Hose Company. <br /><br />On October 28, 1892, Dr. Conrad C. Backer dies at 73 and two days, leaving a wife and two children. <br /><br /><strong>Esther at the helm, her secret closet pillaged</strong><br /><br />By 1893, the hotel is being operated by a woman, Esther Backer, her husband having died the year before. The operation arrangement is novel enough for the News to write an article, included in this collection. <br /><br />On November 30, 1896, Mrs. Backer's hotel is again in the news, when she is the victim of robbery and arson. "In a peculiarly formed closet...,Mrs. Backer secretly kept her jewelry and silver plate, which had been in the family for many years." Someone stole these, along with linen, lace curtains and clothing. They then set a fire, seemingly in an effort to cover up the crime. The next day a 25 year-old "tramp" by the name of Walter Kimler is apprehended in West Falls, N. Y., and sent to the penitentiary for 30 days in connection with the burglary. A partner escapes. <br /><br /><strong>1897-1920: The City Hotel, The International Hotel</strong><br /><br />In the summer of 1897 it is renamed the "City Hotel," and by February 6, 1900, it is "The International Hotel." On October 31, 1900, Theodore Roosevelt makes a campaign speech nearby to some 7,000 locals; a historical marker erected in 2021 marks the event. <br /><br /><strong>1920: Simon Marone and the Washington Hotel, deadly fire</strong><br /><br />In 1920 the hotel is sold to Simon Marone, owner of a fruit and candy store on the first floor of the building. <br /><br />July 7, 1924 an item advertises "Hotel and boarding house, 21 rooms, complete sitting room, dance hall place and barber shop, bargain, for quick sale, owner leaving city, inquire 122 Webster Street." <br /><br />By 1924, it is being called the Washington Hotel. In late December, another fire guts the hotel, and claims three lives. <br /><br />In January 1925, proprietor Simon Marone intends to rebuild the interior. The address is given around this time as 122 Webster, and 118-124 Webster. <br /><br /><strong>1930s: The "indecent acts" of Ferris Saffires</strong><br /><br />January 20, 1934, proprietor Ferris Saffire is fined $25 for "permitting disorderly acts in his place of business," after a 24 year-old male and 20 year-old female were arrested and charged with indecency at the hotel. <br /><br />In February, seven of eight people who have been arrested with charges of public intoxication in a "room in the rear of" the hotel are given jail sentences. The eighth, a young woman, beats the charge.<br /><br /><strong>1935: Abraham G. Lewis and the "Lewis Hotel"</strong><br /><br />Somewhere around 1935, Syrian-born Abraham G. Lewis takes over the hotel, and names it in his image, as is often the custom. After the death of his first wife, in 1935 North Tonawanda furnishes him a second, and they are members of Ascension church.<br /><br />April 20, 1946 a boarder (Boleslaus Brodnicki, 58) dies of "heart disease" while on strike from Spaulding Fibre. <br /><br />On May 3, 1952, Lewis dies. A Courier Express claims he has operated the hotel for the last 20 years. The hotel seems to go on in his name for a few years, as in 1955 "Lewis Hotel" is mentioned in ads, and A "Lewis Hotel" (120 Webster) is mentioned in a September 1959 item. <br /><br /><strong>1960s and beyond: Del-Web Inn, demolition, tax sale</strong><br /><br />In 1964 a man is arrested at "Del-Web Inn," 122 Webster, for threatening patrons with a razor. A 1975 item mentions a building permit given to Walter J. Edin for 120 Webster "remodel." In 1978-12-19, 122 Webster is listed in a tax sale auction, with Walter Edin identified. In 1985-11-11 parcel is being auctioned, 120-122 Webster, "including part of abandoned state ditch." <br /><br /><strong>Legacy</strong><br /><br />The alley behind the site is still known as "Backer Alley."
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Backer House, map (1886).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1886
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e8cc60577c9693b482ca89db5244b8ed.jpg
295883479f33a393017a63500ae8d82c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Backer House (118-124 Webster Street), Backer Alley
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" alt="An 1886 map shows Backer's House and associated outbuildings" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/121.jpg" /><span class="cover-caption">The Backer House on an 1886 map.</span> The long-gone, three-story "Backer House" at the crook of Main and Webster Streets has been called the city's first hotel, purportedly built in 1850 with timber from the Williamsville sawmill owned by John Batt. An 1860 map identifies a "Jackey, Union Hotel" on the site, and no Backer House. The hotel and associated buildings were on a great wooden platform under which ran the state ditch, and stood opposite the former New York Central train depot, where passengers could conveniently become clientele. (A gas station is on the depot site today.) <br /><br /><strong>Owned by the Backer family</strong><br /><br />I haven't learned anything about the first Backer who presumably founded the hotel. But in 1867 (according to a 1929 article), Henry B. Backer becomes the proprietor of the hotel, and will continue until 1891. (Perhaps as a family affair, the hotel enjoyed multiple "proprietors," as we see a different Backer so named below). <br /><br /><strong>A desperate family denied</strong><br /><br />On October 13, 1886, the Backer House is the site of a sensational news story. A traveling Rochester family is returning home when the wife, Julia Trimmer, begins experiencing severe labor pains. The train makes an emergency stop at the New York Central depot opposite the hotel. The husband and wife clamber down the platform and rush across the street to the hotel, desperate for help. They don't find it. <br /><br />The proprietor, Dr. Conrad Backer, refuses to permit Mrs. Trimmer space even on the floor, and the couple is instead "forcibly ejected with profane and abusive language." The distraught family struggles to the nearby Sears House, and although accepted immediately by staff and attended to with great humanity, by then "the child had been born and had died from its brief exposure." The wife brings a $20,000 lawsuit for "personal damages" against the proprietor of the Backer House. She will be awarded a small fraction of that, $600. When Backer refuses to pay even that small fraction, he is jailed. <br /><br /><strong>More Backers</strong><br /><br />In 1891 (according to a 1929 article, which describes a return visit to the area), proprietor Henry B. Backer and his wife leave North Tonawanda for lumber interests in New York City. Before that, he was village clerk, and "took a leading part in the laying out of Thompson, Schenck, Robinson and other streets," donated the land for Live Hose, and founded defunct Alert Hose Company. <br /><br />On October 28, 1892, Dr. Conrad C. Backer dies at 73 and two days, leaving a wife and two children. <br /><br /><strong>Esther at the helm, her secret closet pillaged</strong><br /><br />By 1893, the hotel is being operated by a woman, Esther Backer, her husband having died the year before. The operation arrangement is novel enough for the News to write an article, included in this collection. <br /><br />On November 30, 1896, Mrs. Backer's hotel is again in the news, when she is the victim of robbery and arson. "In a peculiarly formed closet...,Mrs. Backer secretly kept her jewelry and silver plate, which had been in the family for many years." Someone stole these, along with linen, lace curtains and clothing. They then set a fire, seemingly in an effort to cover up the crime. The next day a 25 year-old "tramp" by the name of Walter Kimler is apprehended in West Falls, N. Y., and sent to the penitentiary for 30 days in connection with the burglary. A partner escapes. <br /><br /><strong>1897-1920: The City Hotel, The International Hotel</strong><br /><br />In the summer of 1897 it is renamed the "City Hotel," and by February 6, 1900, it is "The International Hotel." On October 31, 1900, Theodore Roosevelt makes a campaign speech nearby to some 7,000 locals; a historical marker erected in 2021 marks the event. <br /><br /><strong>1920: Simon Marone and the Washington Hotel, deadly fire</strong><br /><br />In 1920 the hotel is sold to Simon Marone, owner of a fruit and candy store on the first floor of the building. <br /><br />July 7, 1924 an item advertises "Hotel and boarding house, 21 rooms, complete sitting room, dance hall place and barber shop, bargain, for quick sale, owner leaving city, inquire 122 Webster Street." <br /><br />By 1924, it is being called the Washington Hotel. In late December, another fire guts the hotel, and claims three lives. <br /><br />In January 1925, proprietor Simon Marone intends to rebuild the interior. The address is given around this time as 122 Webster, and 118-124 Webster. <br /><br /><strong>1930s: The "indecent acts" of Ferris Saffires</strong><br /><br />January 20, 1934, proprietor Ferris Saffire is fined $25 for "permitting disorderly acts in his place of business," after a 24 year-old male and 20 year-old female were arrested and charged with indecency at the hotel. <br /><br />In February, seven of eight people who have been arrested with charges of public intoxication in a "room in the rear of" the hotel are given jail sentences. The eighth, a young woman, beats the charge.<br /><br /><strong>1935: Abraham G. Lewis and the "Lewis Hotel"</strong><br /><br />Somewhere around 1935, Syrian-born Abraham G. Lewis takes over the hotel, and names it in his image, as is often the custom. After the death of his first wife, in 1935 North Tonawanda furnishes him a second, and they are members of Ascension church.<br /><br />April 20, 1946 a boarder (Boleslaus Brodnicki, 58) dies of "heart disease" while on strike from Spaulding Fibre. <br /><br />On May 3, 1952, Lewis dies. A Courier Express claims he has operated the hotel for the last 20 years. The hotel seems to go on in his name for a few years, as in 1955 "Lewis Hotel" is mentioned in ads, and A "Lewis Hotel" (120 Webster) is mentioned in a September 1959 item. <br /><br /><strong>1960s and beyond: Del-Web Inn, demolition, tax sale</strong><br /><br />In 1964 a man is arrested at "Del-Web Inn," 122 Webster, for threatening patrons with a razor. A 1975 item mentions a building permit given to Walter J. Edin for 120 Webster "remodel." In 1978-12-19, 122 Webster is listed in a tax sale auction, with Walter Edin identified. In 1985-11-11 parcel is being auctioned, 120-122 Webster, "including part of abandoned state ditch." <br /><br /><strong>Legacy</strong><br /><br />The alley behind the site is still known as "Backer Alley."
Learning Aid
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Title
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Backer's House (1886) and Backer Alley (2020).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/befecdb347708c9f7826b97f96c3bd9f.jpg
8314e9484385903545157e8e418be25b
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Title
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Erie Canal
Description
An account of the resource
The Erie Canal in North Tonawanda followed the existing Tonawanda Creek from Pendleton. The first work done locally was the 1823 construction of a wooden dam near present-day Gateway Park to raise the level of the creek four feet. A lock was also built to permit passage between the Niagara River (and Great Lakes) and the canal. Early documents also mention a guard lock just east of the lock.<br /><br />After the Civil War, the depth of the entire canal was increased to accomodate larger boats.<br /><br />Starting around 1909 work was done on our section of the canal as part of Contract 19 to improve the prism, or bottom shape (see <a href="https://nthistory.com/collections/show/152">photos of Contract 19</a>)<br /><br />In 1918 the dam was removed when the length of the Erie was re-engineered to become the Erie Barge Canal. The Tonawanda and Buffalo portions of the canal were abandoned at that time, making North Tonawanda the canal's new western terminus. In 1923 Tonawanda began filling in the old canal. The work was not yet complete in 1929.
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Map of Power Canal to Lockport, illustration (Tonawanda News, 1904-04-15).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1904-04-15
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e19e30cc5f6b26da99b75995225d98ff.jpg
db445307e4cdce8275770deacbfba220
https://nthistory.com/files/original/dddd8267ba34bc2e9801e48d14bedf65.jpg
9a5a4db8ad68ee54579207696834d553
https://nthistory.com/files/original/fdd792c439e563dabeb21b9fb3229379.jpeg
0147c9fc4ac8defc00196b877a3f022d
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Title
A name given to the resource
Erie Canal
Description
An account of the resource
The Erie Canal in North Tonawanda followed the existing Tonawanda Creek from Pendleton. The first work done locally was the 1823 construction of a wooden dam near present-day Gateway Park to raise the level of the creek four feet. A lock was also built to permit passage between the Niagara River (and Great Lakes) and the canal. Early documents also mention a guard lock just east of the lock.<br /><br />After the Civil War, the depth of the entire canal was increased to accomodate larger boats.<br /><br />Starting around 1909 work was done on our section of the canal as part of Contract 19 to improve the prism, or bottom shape (see <a href="https://nthistory.com/collections/show/152">photos of Contract 19</a>)<br /><br />In 1918 the dam was removed when the length of the Erie was re-engineered to become the Erie Barge Canal. The Tonawanda and Buffalo portions of the canal were abandoned at that time, making North Tonawanda the canal's new western terminus. In 1923 Tonawanda began filling in the old canal. The work was not yet complete in 1929.
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Erie Canal lock into the Niagara River, Tonawanda.jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1890
Description
An account of the resource
The lock in this first (c. 1890) photo allowed canal boats to pass from the canal in Tonawanda over into the Niagara River. The non-canal part of the Tonawanda Creek is straight ahead, leading into the Niagara River. Notice the tugboats waiting on the far side of the lock. They could tow canal boats through the river to be loaded up with lumber on Tonawanda Island, or at another dock along the river, and return them to lock back into the canal. In other photos, a weather tower can be seen at right, hung with flags that alerted boaters to the weather conditions outside the safe confines of the canal walls. Today, if you walk alongside Urban Paint on Niagara Street in Tonawanda, in its parking lot you can see a little sign commemorating the lock.
canal
lock
map
river
swingbridge
tonawanda
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/58652fae88af4ee0a9a4cdaf91d81988.jpg
a0317b408e865a3af05a07104516c9e1
Map
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NT, Martinsville in Town of Tonawanda, Bush family, map (LOC, 1854).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1854
Description
An account of the resource
From "Map of Erie County, New York : from actual surveys." Philada. : Robert Pearsall Smith, Publisher ; Buffalo : John Angell, Publisher, 1854.
Source
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https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3803e.la000493/?r=0.363,0.128,0.202,0.161,0
map
martinsville
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/ab7ef5a664e5795fd1a5dbd33ef7268a.jpg
6082eea88fdfddab849a8fd482500093
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Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<em>Wurlitzer: 100 Years of Musical Achievement</em>. Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Chicago, Illinois. 1956.
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/52.jpg" alt="The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters." /> <span class="cover-caption">The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters. Postcard, c.1940.</span> <span style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.7em;">Its iconic tower has presided over Sawyer's Creek and Martinsville for over 100 years. The sprawling industrial campus left behind by the world-famous Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company produced merry-go-round organs, band organs, church organs, theater organs and jukeboxes that have left an indelible mark on the world, and on generations of North Tonawandans. </span><br /><br />Wurlitzer founder Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) was a German immigrant who (after stops in New Jersey and Philadelphia) landed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854 at the age of 23. He worked for a bank, and down the street was a musical retail store. His father, Christian, was a successful music retailer in Germany, and Rudolph's experience told him the Ohio store's instruments were of poor quality, and priced too high. In 1856 he begins importing quality musical instruments from his family in Germany to sell at a profit in American retail stores. The business grows; Wurlitzer begins making instruments themselves for the U. S. military and for retail. The company branches out into "automatic" musical instruments, such as music boxes and player-pianos. Rudolph's three sons, Howard, Rudolph H., and Farny become involved along the way, and take on aspects of the growing family business.<br /><br />The youngest son, Farny, is sent to North Tonawanda to run the former <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> shortly after it is purchased by Wurlitzer in 1908. (de Kleist was building player pianos and band organs for Wurlitzer and others since 1893). Farny brings eccentric English inventor Robert Hope-Jones to the plant in 1910, initiating the worldwide success of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ, which provides sound for the silent films of the day, and entertainment in its own right. This business evaporates when sound comes to movies, and electrical sound amplification permits musical entertainment to be furnished to venues of all types much less expensively. <br /><br />When the Wurlitzer company finds itself overextended in the wake of the Great Depression, Farny fights to keep the North Tonawanda facility open. In 1934 he strikes a deal with Homer Capehart to manufacture his automatic phonograph, which becomes the iconic Wurlitzer jukebox. Under his leadership the company also produces a successful line of electronic organs for home use, and the North Tonawanda plant becomes the flagship of the Wurlitzer factories, with 3,000 employees. After his death in 1972, jukebox and organ production are phased out, leaving 200 employees in 1974. By 1975, all manufacturing at the North Tonawanda plant is stopped, and by August 1976, all company activities are removed to other locations.
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Wurlitzer grounds, map (1913).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1913-10-04
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/d70dca869e1b3b2d4f34ebe67232b904.jpg
3d7cb724288a7b2a77bac8ed8a37b34f
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Title
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Ironton School
Description
An account of the resource
<span><span>Designed by architects Johnstone & Eggert, Ironton Public School #2 opens in 1889 at the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street (present-day Elizabeth Harvey Apartments / Olmsted Center for Sight). From <em><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/608">Tonawanda and North Tonawanda: The Lumber City</a></em> (1891):</span></span>
<blockquote>The rapid growth of North Tonawanda in the Ironton district, together with the crowded condition for the union school, demanded increased facilities, and on November 15, 1888, $10,000 was voted to build an edifice in that locality. The amount was increased to $15,000 and the building erected in 1889 is of modern design, and well adapted to school use.</blockquote>
<span>By 1915 the school is overcrowded, and forced to rent rooms across the street to hold kindergarten. In 1926 Ironton Public School #7 (later known as <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/7">Gil</a></span><span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/7">more School</a>) is built to accomodate demand. <br /><br />The Ironton School building is later used as a vocational school (its students and equipment were moved to the new BOCES on Saunders Settlement Rd c.1970). It is briefly considered for the NiaCAP Headstart before being privately purchased to store cars. After years of neglect it is demolished. </span>
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Ironton Public School No 2, map detail (Sanborn Map Company, 1910).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1910
ironton
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/f089daf9da81fa9e255a13fe81ea4d41.jpg
e4722c4a6c192c7397bf6989805ca5bb
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Title
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Goundry Street School
Description
An account of the resource
The Goundry Street School was a stone building constructed in 1866. From <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/606"><em>History of Niagara County 1821-1878</em></a> (1878):
<blockquote>The North Tonawanda Union School has four departments and four teachers. The last winter term averaged 190 scholars and the summer term 125, J. W. Brown is principal, with Libbie M. Pugsley, Hannah Densmore, and Nellie Becker as assistants. The whole number of scholars of school age is 674. The school-house was erected in 1866. The board of education consists of Benjamin F. Felton, president; H. O. Nightingale, clerk; Dr. C. Backer, Giles Schell and John Chadwick. The school building is a substantial stone edifice, located at one of the most pleasant points in the village. The yards in front and play grounds are kept in good condition.</blockquote>
In late 1882 a new addition is built in front of and connected to the original schoolhouse. Another addition is made in 1892. In 1955, after 89 years of educating students, the "bell atop Goundry School...sounds the call to classes for the last time." After some time as a school administration building, the historic old structure is scheduled to be razed on October 27, 1975.
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Goundry Street public school and library, map detail (Sanborn Map Company, 1910, 1913).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1913
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/c83085efdd5631d5f5c4bc65b6d5ac30.jpg
13d33654f8afd87e6ee787a48bbc5cbf
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Gratwick School
Description
An account of the resource
The first schoolhouse in the village of Gratwick is a one-room frame building put up by the education-minded Germans in 1885 (Crosbie). Built in 1892, Public School Number 4 opens at Payne and Stenzil in 1894. It is enlarged in 1924, and at least once thereafter.<br /><br />In area known as <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Report_of_the_Superintendent_of_Public_I/h0A_AAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=wheatfield%20niagara%20school&pg=PA144&printsec=frontcover">Kohl's Woods</a>?
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Gratwick Public School No 4, map detail (Sanborn Map Company, 1910, 1913).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1913
gratwick
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/a51b1d280b2d18a4821631950586fa0f.png
49dfd57dac650089a7464f8ff1d195cd
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Pine Woods School
Description
An account of the resource
Public School #3, built 1892.
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Pine Woods School on 1908 Map.png
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1908
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/61bb41700d12b8e62d4e7ad7aef0eb46.jpg
05a770dc9fa1a2aaa4bc72c12afcbbe1
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Title
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Ironton School
Description
An account of the resource
<span><span>Designed by architects Johnstone & Eggert, Ironton Public School #2 opens in 1889 at the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street (present-day Elizabeth Harvey Apartments / Olmsted Center for Sight). From <em><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/608">Tonawanda and North Tonawanda: The Lumber City</a></em> (1891):</span></span>
<blockquote>The rapid growth of North Tonawanda in the Ironton district, together with the crowded condition for the union school, demanded increased facilities, and on November 15, 1888, $10,000 was voted to build an edifice in that locality. The amount was increased to $15,000 and the building erected in 1889 is of modern design, and well adapted to school use.</blockquote>
<span>By 1915 the school is overcrowded, and forced to rent rooms across the street to hold kindergarten. In 1926 Ironton Public School #7 (later known as <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/7">Gil</a></span><span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/7">more School</a>) is built to accomodate demand. <br /><br />The Ironton School building is later used as a vocational school (its students and equipment were moved to the new BOCES on Saunders Settlement Rd c.1970). It is briefly considered for the NiaCAP Headstart before being privately purchased to store cars. After years of neglect it is demolished. </span>
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Ironton School on 1908 map.jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1908
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/851f942526e83220abc298072cc64a4b.jpg
a21a296abcc8825ac0a01cf1584cccbd
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Gratwick School
Description
An account of the resource
The first schoolhouse in the village of Gratwick is a one-room frame building put up by the education-minded Germans in 1885 (Crosbie). Built in 1892, Public School Number 4 opens at Payne and Stenzil in 1894. It is enlarged in 1924, and at least once thereafter.<br /><br />In area known as <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Report_of_the_Superintendent_of_Public_I/h0A_AAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=wheatfield%20niagara%20school&pg=PA144&printsec=frontcover">Kohl's Woods</a>?
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Gratwick School (No.4) on 1908 map.jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1908
gratwick
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/02fb72ae697f89761405e5df75020474.jpg
e62392dca90d94acd4c5d8df9bd313c8
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Title
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Goundry Street School
Description
An account of the resource
The Goundry Street School was a stone building constructed in 1866. From <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/606"><em>History of Niagara County 1821-1878</em></a> (1878):
<blockquote>The North Tonawanda Union School has four departments and four teachers. The last winter term averaged 190 scholars and the summer term 125, J. W. Brown is principal, with Libbie M. Pugsley, Hannah Densmore, and Nellie Becker as assistants. The whole number of scholars of school age is 674. The school-house was erected in 1866. The board of education consists of Benjamin F. Felton, president; H. O. Nightingale, clerk; Dr. C. Backer, Giles Schell and John Chadwick. The school building is a substantial stone edifice, located at one of the most pleasant points in the village. The yards in front and play grounds are kept in good condition.</blockquote>
In late 1882 a new addition is built in front of and connected to the original schoolhouse. Another addition is made in 1892. In 1955, after 89 years of educating students, the "bell atop Goundry School...sounds the call to classes for the last time." After some time as a school administration building, the historic old structure is scheduled to be razed on October 27, 1975.
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Goundry Street School on 1880 and 1908 maps.jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1880
interpretive
map
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/2978e2201ed377a6e863caaa82f96b3b.jpg
3e58671469ba9e24cb3f79275d6f1815
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Felton High School and Grammar School
Description
An account of the resource
Built in 1901, the visually striking Felton High School once stretched along Thompson Street between Bryant and Falconer streets. It was named after local leader <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/650">Benjamin F. Felton</a>, who was<span> president of North Tonawanda's Board of Education for 30 years. The first day of classes was Tuesday, 9/6/1904.<br /><br />The building </span>would later be used as a grammar school. Although demolished in 1969, it is not entirely forgotten: we still call the field across Payne Avenue (from which was quarried the gravel that led to the infamous dispute that split the Tonawandas, and which was a N.Y. Central train yard and later in 1919 the site of NT's first public playground) "Felton Field."
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Felton High School on 1908 map.jpg
Date
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1908
map