There has been so much interest manifested recently among students and adults in the history of Lockport, and so many erroneous ideas circulated concerning it that I deem it my duty to present the following "Synopsis of the History of Lockport". It is intended primarily for students. Any phase of this history can be selected for school use. Every precaution has been taken to make this as accurate an account as possible. In April 1816 the New York State Legislature authorized the construction of the Erie Canal. The route laid out by the surveyors came through this area, which was then covered with primeval forest. Not a man lived on the site of the present Lockport. The nearest settlers were at Cold Springs. As soon as it became known that the long discussed Erie Canal was actually to be built, land speculators began to buy large plots of Land along and near the proposed route of the Canal. By December 1820, when the exact location of the locks had been determined, practically the whole area now comprising Lockport was owned by fifteen men, largely Quakers .
Early Drawing: Excavation Of The Canal at Lockport.Prior to 1824 when the Town of Lockport was organized, that part of our village west of the Transit was in, and governed by the Town of Cambria; that part east of the Transit was governed by the Town of Royalton.
By the time the Canal was opened on October 26, 1825, the population had grown to about 2500. Rochester and Buffalo had about the same population. During the years of Canal construction, in Niagara County, - 1821 to 1825, - Lockport, as it was named in 1821 by a committee ittee of prominent villagers, was a village of log cabins. Those near the Canal were protected
On June 6,1825, General Lafayette visited Lockport and a public reception was held for him in the Washington House (site of the Park Hotel). June 24th the capstone of the locks was laid with elaborate ceremonies and on October 26th the canal was officially opened with never to-be-forgotten celebrations. Begining the next spring, traffic on the canal increased tremendously each year. Boatsmen then had to pay toll. The amount collected in Lockport in tolls,for example, in 1833, was $15,540.00; in 1835 it was $20,828.00.
Many people thought that after the canal was finished, Lockport would become a "ghost town" but only a few hundred canal workers left., and the village after this temporary set-back, began to grow.
EarlyDrawing. Packet Boat going through the canal at
Lockport.A large frame hotel called Lockport House was built on the corner of Exchange and Market. From 1829 to 1841, when it burned, it was stated by travelers who stopped there to be one of the finest hotels in western New York. A Newspaper "The Lockport Balance" was started. Numerous substantial stone and brick mansions were built between 1829 and 1835. In 1836, another impetus was given to the Lower Village by the construction of the Lockport and Niagara Falls or "Strap" Railroad. The depot was on the Canal Bank near the end of Chapel Street. A Ticket office was located in the Lockport House and the cars stopped in front of the Hotel. Its entire route was through Lower Lockport to Gooding Street, thence to Glenwood Avenue, (Railroad Street). Opposite to the Lockport House on the Canal was the Dock where the packet boats stopped to discharge their Lockport passengers and pick up those bound westward.
Industrially, Lower Town was also outstripping Upper Town. In 1833, a large four story stone cotton mill was built by the Lockport Manufacturing Company, at the junction of Spring, Garden and Exchange Streets. The lower story still stands as Farley Bros. Garage. Some 200 employees were engaged. This was the first industry aside from flour and saw mills and quarrying in Lockport. Market Street from Chapel to some distance east of the Comstock Bridge (Lake Avenue) was lined with beautiful homes occupied by the aristocracy of Lockport. Most of these homes are still standing and give newcomers the mistaken idea that Lockport started in Lower Town.
In 1829 when Lower Town was just starting a building campaign, Upper Town had a population of 2100, some four hundred less than in 1825, due to loss of Canal construction personnel. The village was incorporated this year (March 26, 1829), with the boundries as follows: The Escarpment and Olcott St. on the north; Prospect Street on the West; High Street on the south; and Vine Street on the east. A large sector south of the East Main (East Ave.) and east of Fifth Street (Washburn Street) was entirely undeveloped. Jesse P. Haines made a map of the incorporated area in 1830. The Village was divided into two Wards. Buffalo people ridiculed the large area mapped, saying Lockport would never grow enough to occupy it all. Lockport was the second incorporated village in the County, Lewiston having been incorporated in 1822.
In 1833, Lyman A. Spalding built a sizable stone hotel where the Farmers and Mechanics Bank now stands. This hotel replaced a small tavern that had been operating there. It was called the Central House although it was a long way east of the center of the village. Later it was called the "American". Diagonally across on Main St., the Quakers in 1819 when the street was first opened, built a log meeting house, the first in the area. The first cemetery was near it, and the first school was held in the building.
Aside from this hotel and church and Lyman A. Spaldings home on the southwest corner of Third Street (Locust) there were only a few buildings east of Pine St. There were two stores, one a brick and one a stone at 69 & 71 Main St., built in 1832 by Lyman A. Spalding. There was a peeled log cabin next east where Dr. Isaac and "Aunt" Edna Smith (Quakers) lived. Where the Bewley Building stands was a house which about 1870 was moved to East Ave., and is now the Professional Bldg. It was generally believed in the early days that growth of the village would be westward but such was not the case and it gradually spread eastward and southward. One factor that retarded growth, temporarily at least eastward on Main St., up to 1830 was a huge ridge of sandy soil some ten feet high extending across Main St. nearly in front of the late Woolworth 5 and 10 cent store at 63 Main St. In June 1830 it was graded to its present slope.In 1828 the first County Clerk's Office was built on the site of the stone office building now the Civil Defense Headquarters. It was a brick structure, torn down in 1855, and the present stone building erected in 1856.
The Canal, having been the real source of Lockport's growth, it is well to stress the feature of Lockport's history. By 1838 traffic had increased to such an extent that the four feet deep and forty feet wide channel was entirely inadequate. Seventy tons was the peak load that could be carried. A bitter controversy began over the desirability of enlarging it. After lengthy debates the State Legislature authorized the work. It was to be seven feet deep and seventy feet wide. It would then accomodate barges of 240 tons capacity. Changes in the political majority in the Legislature held up the work after it was partly completed. This increased the cost of the work and was particularly distressing to the contractors. It was 1860 before the work of enlargement was officially declared to be completed, and the stoppage of water by Dams to Lower Town Mills in the winter months ceased.
Until 1881 tolls had been collected from the boatsmen. Up to that date $42,000,000 had been received in tolls. This paid for the entire cost of digging and maintaining the canal, and left a sizable profit. Tolls were discontinued to better allow the boatsmen to compete with the railroads in carrying freight. With this incentive traffic on the canal continued to be heavy. As an illustration, on November 13, 1892, there were 134 boats passed through the locks at Lockport.
During 1908-1918 the Canal was again enlarged and as always the Upper Lockport section because of the rocky formation and the installation of two new locks capable of handling boats of some two thousand ton capacity was the most difficult section of the Canal construction. Since the advent of trucks the Canal has suffered greater loss of traffic than the railroads. However, in 1956 the total tonnage consisting largely of petroleum products, and some scrap iron, fertilizer, grain and chemical products aggregated 4,858,044 tons. This was a considerable increase over 1955. The use of pleasure boats on the Canal is always increasing. The present cost of operation is, I am told, about fifteen million dollars. Since 1956 tonnage has decreased more than one-half.
The very first industries in Lockport were made possible by the Canal. The first, of course, was lumbering. Vast quantities of white and red oak on the site of Lockport were cut and shipped to the Atlantic seaboard. A large saw mill in the Lock Basin operated by Lyman A. Spalding used power from the raceway. Likewise, he operated a large grist mill (flour) and shipped quantities of flour on the Canal as did five other flour mills that were built in the 1830's. For many years Lockport was the flour center of western New York. It is interesting to note that the first grain to be ground was by means of a hollowed out oak stump and a hard wood pestle operated with a spring pole. This was located on Saxton Street just above LaGrange. The next was a log mill built in 1821 in the woods at the point where later the 18 mile Creek was to pass under the Canal and act as a spillway for surplus water.
Business establishments of Lockport in 1844 were: 3 banks, 1 cotton factory, 1 woolen factory, 1 glass factory, 8 saw mills, with 43 saws, 2 machine shops, 2 foundries, 2 tanning concerns, 1 piano factory, 2 gun factories, 1 last factory, 1 skin dressing plant, 1 patent fence factory, 1 bedstead factory, 1 brass foundry, 1 sash factory, 4 cabinet shops, 22 dry goods stores, 15 groceries, 3 clothing stores, 4 hat, cap and fur shops, 2 window sash and paint stores, 3 book and stationery stores, 3drug stores, several cooperages. 159,771 barrels of flour were manufactured in this year. 134,771 were shipped. Quarries sold over $60,000 in stone to Rochester and Buffalo.
Business continued to increase way out of proportion to the population increase but this was because of cheap canal shipments, and after 1851 direct railroad connection with the eastern part of the State
A gesture by some of the prominent business men in 1859 might well be studied today. In order to induce industries to come to Lockport they erected on Market Street at the foot of the hill, just above the present Lockport Engineering Works, a large five story building, the top of which was accessible from Garden Street on the escarpment above. Here water power from the raceway was made available to a firm destined to be to Lockport as important as is General Motors today in proportion, of course, to the size of Lockport at that time. This was the Holly Mfg. Co. They first engaged in the manufacture of sewing machines, pumps, and hydraulic machinery. In 1864 they erected a number of buildings from the Canal bank northward between Gooding and Lock and one large building at the corner of Caledonia and Lock Streets. The Hydraulic Raceway Co. built a large tunnel to carry surplus water from the Canal to the new plant. Birdsall Holly, promoter and engineer for the Company devised in 1864 a plan to supply the City with water for-fire protection from a central pumping station by means of underground pipes and hydrants. This system was demonstrated here to Fire Chiefs from various cities and proved so successful that the Holly Mgf. Co. installed their system of water works in nearly 2,000 cities and villages in the United States.
In 1876 this same Birdsall Holly invented a central steam heating system that likewise proved successful and a company later called the American District Steam Co., installed the system in all of the larger cities in the country.
Another rather unique but important industry was started in 1833 by Dr. George W. Merchant in Lower Town, and moved to Upper Town in 1836. It was the manufacture of "Merchant" Gargling Oil" "Good for Man and Beast". Three different owners during the period from 1833 to 1895 made large fortunes from its sales. From 1895 it was made and sold in a constantly diminishing volume until 1928 when the Beautiful Merchant's Gargling Oil Building on Market Street burned.
Returning to Lower Town, which in the period from 1829 to 1850 bid fair to become the business and residential center of Lockport, we find a series of events happening which destroyed the dream. First, a charter was obtained for the Canal Bank to be located in Upper Town in 18381, secondly, the famous Lockport House burned in 1841. True., the business was moved to the McCollum Block and continued to carry on, but its prestige was destroyed. Thirdly, in 1850 the Strap Railroad was purchased by the Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad, later the New York Central, and a new line of tracks laid through Upper Town. last and quite important, in 1841-60 the curtailment of water power during Canal enlargement was a serious blow to industry. Also the Lockport Balance, Lower Town's one newspaper sold out to the Niagara Democrat and was moved to Upper Town.
In 1870 the utilization of water power from the Canal by overhead cables to Upper Town destroyed the monopoly Lower Town had enjoyed. However, Lower Town and lower Market Street, particularly, continued to be the residence of many of the most prominent people in Lockport until the turn of the century.