Navy Hall from the Fort of Niagara, artist Elizabeth Simcoe, sketch on paper. The verdant plain and woods above the Navy Hall complex are readily visible. Archives of Ontario, Simcoe family fonds, F 47-11-1-0-13.
Within a year of cessation of hostilities, construction began on a new frame “commissariat store at Navy Hall.”[15] Rebuilt on the same location, but slightly smaller at one hundred feet by twenty-five feet, it was complemented by a new “King’s Wharf” as well. In 1840, the building was fitted as a barracks to accommodate seventy-two men.[16] Meanwhile, a cross-river ferry was operated from the Navy Hall wharf with a customs house, guard house, and the “Ferry House” tavern nearby. The area was very much in the public domain. By the 1850s the barracks shown on maps as either the Red Barracks or Ferry Barracks had been relegated to storage use again. For a short time during the American Civil War, nine married couples of the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment occupied the premises.[17]
In 1864, to accommodate a spur line of the Erie and Niagara Railway, the building was ignominiously moved across the road closer to the ruins of Fort George[18] where it was allowed to deteriorate. By the turn of the century the old building was being used as a stable and cow barn and appeared to be about to collapse. Historians, erroneously believing that this building had survived the War of 1812 and had been the actual site of the first parliament of Upper Canada, petitioned the federal government to restore Navy Hall. A small injection of federal funds supplemented by a bequest of the publisher and historian John Ross Robertson stabilized the building, and a marble plaque was erected.
Inoculation in the First Parliament Building in Canada, Niagara Camp 1915, photo postcard, 1915. Soldiers are lined up at the partially restored Navy Hall, patiently waiting for their inoculations prior to being shipped out to Europe. Courtesy of the author.
During the Great War the partially restored building was converted into a laboratory for the Canadian Medical Corps to test the Niagara River water supply for Camp Niagara. Other uses included a six-chair clinic for the Dental Corps, stores for medical supplies, and as an inoculation site. Abandoned after the war, the building deteriorated again. In the midst of the Great Depression, local Boy Scouts and Girl Guides occupied the old building until finally in 1934 the Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) reached an agreement with the federal Department of National Defence. As a make-work project, the NPC would restore Navy Hall and Forts George and Mississauga with federal funds, in return for a ninety-nine-year lease “with rental set at an affordable $1.00 per year”[19] (see chapter 8). The rarely used railway spur line had been removed two decades earlier, allowing the old ramshackle building to be moved back to its original site.[20] Actual reconstruction began three years later in 1937. It was set on a new stone foundation with a full basement and encased in stone to protect it from the elements.[21] Many of the original beams had deteriorated, and so a number of beams salvaged from an old barn in Niagara Falls were used in the restoration. All the work was completed by the next summer. To provide vehicle access to Navy Hall, the Niagara Parkway was eventually extended from its intersection with John Street in Paradise Grove along the river to the Navy Hall site. Ricardo Street was extended from the northwest. The small frame one-and-a-half storey Customs House was also restored at this time. Also clad in stone and now situated on the Fort George side of Ricardo Street it is currently used for offices of Parks Canada employees. A new wharf was built to accommodate a proposed shuttle service between Forts George and Niagara, although this never really materialized. Nevertheless, the locals and tourists alike could now enjoy the river site of Navy Hall once again. In 1969, the NPC relinquished its lease to Parks Canada. The wharf was upgraded in 1977[22] and later the building was refurbished and the interpretive displays installed within. Today the restored 1816 commissariat store is a popular site for both indoor and outdoor social gatherings … and on a hot summer’s evening, one might see a young family sitting with their dog on the grassy rise above Navy Hall enjoying the view across the river.
Navy Hall today, photo, 2011. The restored 1816 commissariat building clad in stone (1930s). The fortifications of Fort George are barely visible on the rise above.
Courtesy of Cosmo Condina.
Chapter 6
The First Butler’s Rangers’ Barracks
By late summer 1778 Fort Niagara had become dangerously overcrowded. In addition to the regular garrison there were hundreds of Butler’s Rangers, some with families, who would need to winter over, as well as desperate loyalist refugees including Six Nations allies streaming in from the Mohawk Valley. Moreover, with Ranger pay slightly higher than that of regular British soldiers, the potential for dissension among the men had to be avoided.[1]
John Butler, artist Henry Oakley, oil on board, 1834. Butler (1728–1796) raised and commanded the Butler’s Rangers Corps until it was disbanded in 1784. At Niagara he served as office holder, judge, Indian Department agent, member of the Land Board, and church warden. Courtesy of the Niagara Historical Society and Museum, # 988.194.
Private, Butler’s Ranger, 1780–82, artist Don Troiani. Butler’s Rangers researcher and re-enactor Calvin Arnt has concluded the military coat worn by the Rangers was forest green with white facing. Headgear may have been cocked “hatts [sic]” (turned down in this illustration) or the simpler caps.
Courtesy of www.historicalartprints.com.
Before winter set in Major John Butler received permission to erect a barracks for his officers and men across the river.[2] It is not clear why the site (now occupied by Chateau Gardens and Queen’s Landing) was chosen. Although situated on the edge of the embankment it was not opposite Fort Niagara. In fact, only two years later Fort Niagara’s new commandant complained, “[t]here certainly could not be found a more improper spot for the Barracks of the Rangers.”[3] He felt from a defensive standpoint, Point Mississauga would have been a far more logical site. Historian E.A. Cruikshank[4] hypothesized the availability of oak logs nearby influenced the decision; in fact at least some of “the timbers” were floated across the river.[5] Perhaps its proximity to the already established Navy Hall, much more protected from the prevailing winds than windswept Point Mississauga, was a deciding factor. Moreover, these log barracks were considered only temporary accommodation.
Plan of Fort Niagara, artist John Luke, sketch on paper, 1779–1782. This only known surviving plan of the Rangers’ Barracks was drawn by an American spy, John Luke. The upper portion shows a primitive rendering of the Rangers’ Barracks consisting of two “Rangers Houses” and several small huts.
Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society, John Bradstreet Papers MSS. B Box 2, Folder 8,BIB 1D Mss 271268.
Butler was ill, so his capable son, Captain Walter Butler,[6] actually supervised intermittently the construction — much of the basic work was performed by the Rangers themselves, supplemented by more experienced artificers and masons.[7] Meanwhile, the Rangers were quartered in tents until they could actually start to move into the new barracks in late January. The barracks were actually