Writing in 1851, W.H. Smith noted the decline, observing that Niagara “was once a place of considerable business, but since the formation of the Welland Canal, St. Catharine’s being the more critically situated, has absorbed its trade and thrown it completely in the shade…. The Niagara Harbour and Dock Company formerly did a large business and many first class vessels have been built here … however from some cause of other affairs did not prosper with them and the whole concern was sold by the sheriff.”17 Smith did appreciate the tourist potential of the site: “[Niagara] is airily situated and is a pleasant summer residence frequented during the summer season by families having spare time and spare money by health seekers and hypochondriacs.”18 But most of Niagara’s tourist prosperity was to materialize in the future.
Then, as if the stagnating village needed another blow, in 1862, ratepayers of the newly created Lincoln County chose St. Catharines over Niagara as the site of the new county seat, and the court house was downgraded to town hall. In the years that followed, Niagara’s population plunged from more than three thousand to nearly one third of that.
But with its idyllic location at the mouth of the Niagara River, and its distance from the more prosperous but smokier growing cities, Niagara began to grow its tourist sector. Using money it received in compensation for losing the county seat, the town helped finance the building of the elegant Queen’s Royal Hotel, as well as a golf course on the vacant grounds around the now abandoned Fort Mississauga. The majestic Prince of Wales Hotel made its appearance in 1882 on the main street close to the Michigan Central train station. Originally it was known by the less regal name Long’s Hotel, and later The Arcade. Its princely re-appellation did not come until 1901, when the Duke of York, who very shortly would become the Prince of Wales, bestowed upon it its new name. The hotel’s three-storey corner mansard dormer is one of the town’s iconic images today.
In 1878 the Niagara Navigation Company launched steamships like the Chippewa, the Corona, and the Cibola to carry tourists between Toronto and Niagara. A new invasion from the United States began, but this time to see the sites. The Michigan Central Railway, which by this time was running the old Erie and Ontario line, had created a station stop overlooking Niagara Falls, and it, too, was drawing tourists into Niagara. Around this time, the town published a brochure promoting itself as a peaceful summer getaway, with somewhat more relaxed bylaws. By 1894, the St. Catharines and Niagara Central Railway was operating a daily interurban electrical train service into the town. Because its rails ran along the streets, no evidence survives of that long abandoned line.
In the 1880s there arrived yet another invasion of tourists: the Chautauquans. The Chautauqua movement was started in upper New York State, on the shores of Chautauqua Lake, in 1874 (although, as a later chapter will reveal, its real roots lay in Ontario). In an era before cinema and radio, Chautauqua provided a form of cultural entertainment. A community grew on the shores of the lake, with theatres, hotels, and several streets of elegant homes. In 1887, the Chautauquans established a Niagara assembly on the shores of Lake Ontario, just north of the town of Niagara. Here they built the three-storey Chautauqua Hotel, a four-thousand-seat amphitheatre, and a circular road lined with cottages. Although many tourists travelled from Toronto to the Chautauqua dock by steamer, the railway added its own spur line to the grounds. Activities at Chautauqua were many and varied. Far from being a religious camp, Chautauqua treated visitors to poetry, lectures, music, and theatre. But the Niagara assembly never really gained a sound financial footing. In 1909 the hotel burned, and by the 1920s the land was being subdivided for housing.
Following the end of the First World War, the auto age slowly began to arrive, and Niagara’s distinctiveness as a summer resort began to lose ground to the lakes and woods of today’s cottage country. Little remains of Niagara’s Chautauqua. Its distinctive street pattern radiates out from its circular configuration, while street names recall many of the writers and philosophers who attracted the early crowds — Wilberforce, Wycliffe, and Wesley, to name a few. Chautauqua Amphitheatre Circle defines the location of the theatre, the focus for their riveting lectures. Few of the original cottages have survived, most replaced or radically altered. One which has retained its Chautauqua ambience is the Lakeview Bed and Breakfast, built in 1879 and located at 490 Niagara Boulevard. And, partly in deference to its theatrical origins and partly due to its popularity with Shaw Festival actors, the community has now earned the nickname “Camp Shaw.”
Despite its many makeovers and economic ups and downs, the streets of Niagara-on-the-Lake (finally named as such in 1880 in order to distinguish it from the postal address of Niagara Falls) reveal its varied heritage. Many grand homes still survive from the post-1812 years. This is thanks in large part to a concerted effort by restoration architect Peter John Stokes, who authored the book Old Niagara on the Lake, published in 1971. He was spurred on by the heritage passions of such locals as Kathleen Drope and Carl Banke.
A few years earlier, in 1962, a local lawyer named Brian Doherty had launched the Shaw Festival using the spare space in the old town hall as its first theatre. Built to house the county offices, its role was reduced to that of town hall when the county seat went to the hated rival, St. Catharines, instead. Today it is the popular Court House Theatre and the main street’s most prominent structure.
At the corner of King and Queen stands Ontario’s oldest apothecary. Built in 1820, it is now maintained as a 1860s-era drug store museum by the Ontario Pharmacists Association. Kitty-corner to it, the elegant Prince of Wales Hotel, an iconic landmark, has been much extended. A few blocks away, the Pillar and Post Hotel occupies the shell of a one-time canning factory. The Oban Inn, near Front and Simcoe, was originally built as a private home by the town’s first ship-owner. Moffat’s Inn on Front Street was owned by Richard Moffat, and was one of twenty-eight taverns operating in the town during the bustling 1830s. One of Ontario’s oldest Anglican churches, St. Marks, although refurbished after the 1812 war, was originally built in 1791 and stands on Byron Street. The Olde Angel Inn was established in 1789 and rebuilt in 1816 after it was burnt by the Americans during the War of 1812. Located at 224 Regent Street, it is considered Ontario’s oldest operating inn.
Many black settlers who had escaped servitude south of the border, or had arrived as slaves before Britain abolished the slave trade, took up residence in Niagara. A typical example of one of their early dwellings, with its simple two-room layout, still stands at Gate and Johnson streets. In stark contrast, the rambling Victorian-style mansion at 177 King Street was built in 1886 by merchant Sam Rowley for his black wife, Fanny Rose.
Of all the historic streets in Niagara, perhaps one of the most significant is Prideaux. Several houses here were among the first to have been rebuilt after the destruction of the town by the Americans — some as early as 1815.
In contrast, the historic wharf area is much changed, with little to remind the visitor that the Michigan Central’s tracks once ran beside a wharf-side station. Amid the new condos and wharf-side development, the King George III Inn is a reminder of the location’s key role as a transportation hub. The downtown station on King Street also still stands, though altered somewhat by the addition of a small faux tower.
The most prominent of the military structures in the area is the much touted Fort George. Although a key outpost during the War of 1812, it was never completely rebuilt after its destruction by the Americans. Today’s recreation came about as a Depression-era make-work project. Another military site, Navy Hall, originally consisted of five separate buildings built by the British as early as 1765. Destroyed by the Americans during their rampage through the town, Navy Hall was reconstructed after the war. Today, only one of those buildings still stands, and is now used for private functions. It lies on Ricardo Street, at the east end of the town, opposite Fort George.
Faring somewhat better is the complex known as Butler’s Barracks, located at the corner of King and John streets. These five structures stand on what is known as the Commons, and today house the museum of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, which was descended from the renowned Butler’s Rangers.
The most haunting and original of the town’s military buildings is the ghostly ruin of Fort Mississauga. Following its reconstruction by the