Niagara Falls Then and Now: When cattle grazed at the edge of Niagara Falls

below: one of my favorite photos from the Niagara Falls Library Archives is this 1867 picture of cows grazing by the edge of the Niagara River gorge right by the Horseshoe Falls.

above: On a freezing, dreary Jan.7, 2009, it`s hard to imagine that cattle once grazed along here...

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below: one of my favourite old buildings, the 1883 Federal Customs and Post Office building, on the north-east corner of Zimmerman Ave. and Park St., as seen in 1919, proudly decorated for HRH Prince of Wales. Marlilyn Monroe was filmed entering through the front door of this building during a scene of the 1953 film noir Niagara.

above: This stone structure has sadly sat vacant for decades. It is seen here, under an azure sky, on a bitterly cold late afternoon of Jan.4, 2009, with the setting sun highlighting its boarded-up windows and tattered roof. With all the `stimulus`spending being bandied about recently by every government level you can think of, why is it that a grand building such as this, which has sat in abandoned squalor for decades, isn`t being restored? That this gem has been forgotten and allowed to waste away for so long is one of the shames of Niagara.
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below: May 25, 1948 - a sad day in Niagara Falls as the city`s streetcar tracks are torn up, heralding the new age of the diesel bus. This view looks north-west along Victoria Ave., with an arched door of St. Patrick`s church visible at the far left, and the front of St. Patrick`s school next door beside it, on the south-west corner of Victoria Ave. and Maple St. The west end of Queen St. is at the far right where the two men are seen standing. It can be seen that streetcar tracks turned from Victoria Ave. east onto Queen St.

above: same view, Jun.3, 2008. The old St Patrick`s school has since been torn down and a new one was built slightly further to the rear. Why not bring the streetcar back to Niagara Falls?

The domino effect of McGuinty's Liberal health-care duplicity

Paul Forsyth wrote in "Hospitals struggle with ALC patients" (Niagara This Week, Jan.28, 2009):

"A new report adds weight to the argument by the Niagara Health System that people who have no business being in a hospital are clogging up chronic care beds, leading to a domino effect that leads to lengthy delays in getting treated at hospital emergency rooms.

A Canadian Institute for Health Information report released Jan. 15 backs up long-standing concerns by the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) about the serious impact of what’s known as alternate level of care (ALC) patients.

Those are patients such as people who have had strokes, the frail elderly, people with mental disorders, and people with respiratory and circulatory problems.

Hospital officials say those people end up turning to hospitals because of a chronic shortage of long-term care beds in the community or inadequate home care services.

“Without question, the single biggest challenge facing Ontario hospitals is the number of ALC patients waiting in hospitals for alternate levels of care,” said Tom Closson, president of the hospital association.

The report showed that Ontario tied with Newfoundland for the highest rate of ALC patients in hospitals, with seven per cent of hospitalizations comprised of people in that group.

Nation-wide, excluding Manitoba and Quebec, ALC patients accounted for five per cent of hospitalizations and 14 per cent of hospital days in 2007-2008, the report found.

Niagara is particularly hard hit by ALC patients, said Sue Matthews, vice-president of patient services and chief nursing executive for the Niagara Health System. On average, 35 per cent of NHS beds are taken up by ALC patients, the highest in Ontario and twice the provincial average, she said.

That creates a domino effect of lengthy delays at hospital emergency rooms because people lying on stretchers are forced to wait for beds to become available.

It also has the impact of forcing Niagara Emergency Medical Services (EMS) paramedics to queue up at emergency departments, waiting to offload patients in their care. EMS staff reported recently that it’s not uncommon for only a handful of the fleet of 22 Niagara ambulances mobilized at peak periods to be available to respond to medical emergencies because of those delays.

In a statement responding to the new report, the OHA said it continues to call for “major investments” in health services out of hospitals, and for interim solutions to help hospitals bridge the capacity gap until the longer-term investments begin to chip away at the ALC patient dilemma.

Matthews said the NHS isn’t sitting on its hands awaiting those investments: the system has taken a number of steps to reduce the impact of ALC patients, such as changes to the St. Catharines General hospital emergency department — the busiest in Niagara — including a new clinical systems investigations unit. That unit uses special, dedicated stretchers to ensure the most serious cases get prompt treatment and wait for results of tests in a dedicated waiting room, freeing up stretchers in the emergency room."
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Once again, not a word in this news report from, or about, the local Liberal health-care monopolist, MPP Jim Bradley, and his government's failed, duplicitous role in dealing with this on-going problem. 'Flicking' unbelievable.

Once again, this situation is not new, and it's not anecdotal, the way Liberals would like us to believe. (see: Niagara health-care 'top news story of 2008' - yet no mention of Liberal Jim Bradley: see: Time to debunk Liberal health-care myths)

Dalton McGuinty himself several years ago dismissed recommendations to add extra beds to Niagara's ER's, and to deal with the concurrent ALC shortage. I guess having an average of 35% of Niagara's hospital beds occupied by ALC-level patients - twice the Ontario provincial average - isn't enough to get ideolgically-retarded bait-and-switch-health-care-monopolists such as Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, or his willing co-conspirators, such as Health Minister David Caplan, or Jim Bradley, to get off their negligent asses and deal with their health-monopoly's systemic problems, which for five years they have ignored and exacerbated.

These Liberal politicians should be charged for their health-care crimes.

It's an ironic laugh that the NHS is lecturing us (in "Niagara health officials peeved by protest in Fort Erie", St. Catharines Standard, Jan.28, 2009) that they "cannot, and will not, condone any breach of the law... and will not tolerate any danger to public safety" when it comes to protests against their Liberal-approved bait-and-switch health-care policies. (this was in regards to the protesters in Fort Erie who last week craned and chained a large lock up over the large 'H' sign on the wall of Douglas Memorial Hospital, where the Liberals, through their appointed LHIN lackeys, are closing the emergency dept., shutting down operating rooms, and cutting inpatient beds). Caroline Bourque-Wiley, former St.Catharines Standard reporter and now NHS spokesperson, confirmed the Niagara Hospital System's press release which mentioned that the police are investigating these "acts of vandalism and trespass" and that the NHS was concerned with "liability and insurance issues while people are on our properties" - yeah, I guess they should be - if a protestor did get hurt, at least for now there is still an emergency room in Fort Erie!! But when the Liberal 's bait-and-switch health-care system closes the ER, it's off to St. Catharines or Buffalo for patients - which is the point of the protest. Ironic.

Yet, why isn't any police organization investigating the Dalton McGuinty government's Liberal Healthcare Duplicity and its failing, dangerously ineffective, heavy-handed, ideologically-driven health-monopoly? What "liability" do these Liberal health-care vandals assume? What accountability do they have? Why, they're held harmless from negligence for the blowback of their health monopoly's actions!!

Liberal hypocrites have lied about and underfunded their monopolistic health-care obligations for years, while concurrently preventing patients from being able to pay for their own care. McGuinty's Liberals are the 'danger to public safety'.

Secretive Liberals won't even allow Ontario's Ombudsman access to independently investigate and scrutinize their health-monopoly's claims, purposefully making it difficult to quantify or clearly assess the efficacy of Liberal political rhetoric, or the claimed effectiveness of Liberal policies, as they are translated into practice at the patient level. We're just supposed to believe McGuinty and his clique when they whistle Don't worry, be happy to us, mesmerizing us with their 'just trust us' Liberal bullshit.

But we will unfathomably tolerate these political bags of crap because they're Liberals. And shamefully, the don't ask/don't tell lefty-besotted local press, once again, kisses Jim Bradley's ass without question, allowing him and his Liberals to figuratively get away with murder.
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Springtime for the Globe and Mail

above: letter to the editor, Globe and Mail, Jan.26, 2009
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Was Neil Redding being facetious when he wrote in his Jan.26, 2009 letter to the Globe and Mail editor ("In and out of context"): "I hope that, in future, The Globe will identify all individuals who are Jewish, so we can read their comments in the proper context”?

I applaud Redding for finally making clear that the solution to weeding out those troublesome individuals with ulterior motives is to identify them as Jews. Naturally, it goes without saying that the Globe’s new standard should target only suspected Jews, and of course, no one else.

Why, not only should the Globe and Mail demand that all contributors and reporters provide documentation of nationality and religion, but also proof of their sexual orientation, a list of their favourite songs and of the books they have read, and whether they prefer to shop at Loblaws or Price Chopper.

After contextualizing all this information and diligently performing virus-scans on the opinions of suspected Jewish writers, the Globe and Mail can then appropriately warn its unsuspecting readers of any unsettling and improper Jewish content.

Niagara Falls Then and Now: The Quality Inn demolished

The last of a series of motel buildings which comprised the Clifton Hill Quality Inn was demolished on Jan.23, 2009.
The now-demolished buildings, marked with yellow dots, are seen in this several-years-old google earth image: (click on photos to enlarge!)
above: the red area is where the 1856 Zimmerman-Bush Estate stables were, and still are today, renovated as offices and encompassed within a larger hotel structure.
The blue arrow shows where the former Michigan Central railroad ran.
The green-marked building was a restaurant, demolished several years ago; this is where the Sky Wheel now stands. The area where Clifton Pl. is shown as a road in the image above has now been converted to a plaza and entrance for the Sky Wheel; that road has now been shifted a little to the west to where the orange arrow is seen.
At the far bottom right (pink arrow) can be seen the location of the tracks and the passenger cars of the old Clifton Hill Incline Railroad.
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below: looking uphill, from Victoria Park, at the last remaining Quality Inn structure, as seen on Jan.9, 2009. It was on the brow of this hill that the Bush Estate once stood, overlooking the Falls.
below: same view, Jan.19, 2009, building half-demolished. Note the Sky Wheel can now be much more clearly seen from the park.

below: same view, Jan.22, 2009, only a small portion remains at the north end.

below: looking at the Quality Inn building from the north-east, as seen on Jan.12, 2009.

below: same view, Jan.22, 2009

Time to debunk Liberal health-care myths

The St. Catharines Standard ran a three-part health-care series "Code Gridlock" about Niagara’s health system, written by Peter Downs: Jan.10, 2009, “The current state of Emergency”; Jan.12, 2009, “Frustration in the ER”; Jan.13, 2009, “Solving the patient logjam”.

Not once in this three-part series was local Liberal MPP Jim Bradley mentioned. No comments, no quotes, nothing.

'Flicking' unbelievable.

Good Ole Jimbo Bradley, the Liberal politician in Niagara most responsible for the health-care mess, once again, gets another free ride.

There was nothing new in this latest Standard series – it was frustrating to read this rehash of the same old Liberal crap, and the same old phony Liberal “solutions” being trotted out, not to mention oh how much money the Liberals graciously spent on our behalf, bless them...oh, c'mon!!

Compare the information supplied in this latest series to, for example, this article in the St. Catharines Standard from Sept.19, 2007, headed “The symptoms say health care is ailing”:

“The projection of a significant deficit for the Niagara Health System is a nice illustration to accompany a damning report on health-care spending in the belt around Toronto.

On Monday evening, NHS officials revealed the hospital operation expects to run a $13 million deficit this fiscal year, due largely to a shortage of nurses and a dire lack of hospital bed space.

Tuesday, a report commissioned by agencies in the rapidly growing communities surrounding Toronto found social and health-care services in the so-called 905 are insufficient to deal with the population and demographics of the area.

Niagara may not have the rapid growth of a Halton or Peel region, but it does have unique demographics that stress health-care services.

According to the latest census, Niagara has more seniors than any other community in the 905, with nearly 18 per cent of local residents over 65, and 7.5 per cent older than 75.

The report by PricewaterhouseCoopers specifically states "community characteristics" should be taken into account along with population growth.

This means the provincial government hasn't been properly taking into account new population growth or the fact that an older population will put more demand on health and social services when it funds hospitals in the 905 areas.

The gap in what the 905 needs in health-care spending and what it receives is estimated at nearly $1 billion.

The projected NHS deficit is a perfect example, and highlights where the provincial government has been falling short in its health-care strategy.

The reasons for the deficit projection reveal how complex health-care services are, and how different facets of health care are intricately related - specifically, the space crunch for hospital beds.

It's estimated that 39 per cent of the beds at NHS hospitals are occupied by patients awaiting space in a long-term care home.

That has a ripple effect across the system, driving up costs to care for these patients while putting added pressure on emergency rooms and increasing waiting lists.

The nursing shortage is a provincewide problem that could reach crisis levels soon.

In Niagara, it has meant 76,699 hours of overtime, already exceeding the annual target by 13,000 hours.

Put together, the report and the deficit don't paint a pretty picture of our vaunted public health-care system and do a lot to debunk government claims that the system is improving.

A shortage of beds in nursing homes creating a backlog in understaffed hospitals and driving up costs and wait times is not a symptom of a healthy, efficient system.”
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The same problems and the same ‘solutions’ were identified a long time ago; yet a provincial election came and went where everyone conveniently pretended that there was nothing wrong with Liberal-controlled health care.

You would expect the local press would be able to bring this dichotomy to the local MPP’s attention. You’d hope that the local press would debunk the myths of how Liberals have ‘improved’ their health monopoly.

This 'bed-shortage-causing-backups' story isn’t new, for cryin’ out loud!

What’s astounding is the utter lack of credibility that this hypocritical Ontario Liberal government has shown, and the easy ride that Liberal mouth-bags like health-care monopolist Jim Bradley get from the press. No questions – no problem!! Blame Harris!!

Back on Sept.30, 2006, the St. Catharines Standard reported Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty himself saying that more beds were not in the cards!! Yet Good Ole Jimbo Bradley is immune from accountability, explanation, or responsibility. In opposition, an indignant Jimmy spouted off about health care practically on a daily basis. Now, when it’s time for Jimmy to explain five years of his Liberal health-care monopoly failings…well, Good Ole Jimmy’s done been gone into that thar ole Cone of Silence!!

The Standard’s Jan.13, 2009 story “Solving the patient logjam” proffered this solution in its headline: “The key is freeing up hospital beds occupied by people waiting for long-term care”. (Hmm...really?! You don’t say!!)

But there is another fundamental key: getting rid of monopolistic Liberal health-care parasites like Dalton McGuinty, David Caplan, and Jim Bradley.
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Niagara Falls Then and Now: the Clifton Place mansion on the Zimmerman/Bush Estate

(click on photos to enlarge!) above: Jan.12, 2009 - looking east down along an almost tourist-free Clifton Hill. Samuel Zimmerman's estate was on the right (south) side of the street, encompassing the area from the Niagara River all the way up to the railroad tracks (at the time, the Erie and Ontario Railroad, of which he was a majority owner; eventually becoming the Michigan Central) which ran along the east side of Victoria Ave.

above: Jan.12, 2009 - looking west up a quiet Clifton Hill. The Zimmerman - later Bush - Estate was on the left (south) side of the street. The railroad tracks crossed Clifton Hill at Victoria Ave., which was located slightly west of the tall mansard-roofed tower seen at the far right; this is where the old Victoria Park railroad station had once stood - it was a convenient, easy stroll from the Bush Estate to the railroad station! The railroad tracks were still there and in operation until about 1999.

above: Jan.7, 2009 - looking north-east from the rear of the grounds towards Clifton Hill in the background, where, in the now-vacant foreground, a series of motel structures had been built on the manicured grounds of the former Bush Estate. Another wing of the 1950's-era Fallsway (later Quality) Inn is seen being demolished at the rear right - it was on this location where the Clifton Place mansion used to stand. Construction on the house's footings was started by Samuel Zimmerman, who suddenly died in an accident in 1857. The property was bought by U.S. Senator John T. Bush, who then constructed the building; the home remained in the Bush family until it was sold to Harry Oakes' Welland Securities in 1928. (click here for more on Zimmerman, Bush and Clifton Place)

above: This view in the distance, taken Jan.9, 2009, has not been seen for some sixty years: this is looking east across the Niagara River gorge at the upper Niagara River (seen at the upper right) as it heads towards the American Falls. This view had been blocked since the 1950's after a series of low-rise motel structures were constructed along the brow of the hill overlooking Victoria Park. A motel wing (which had stood immediately to the right, behind the backhoe) was torn down on Jan.9, 2009, bringing this vista back into view once again. This is the same vista which had once been seen from the front windows of Clifton Place, the Bush Estate mansion, which stood here until it was demolished in June of 1937.

above: looking west uphill from Victoria Park as demolition continues on the Quality Inn motel buildings. This is where the Bush Estate mansion once stood on the crest of the hill. To the right (north) just out of frame is Clifton Hill. Above two photos of demolition were taken only eight minutes apart, on Jan.8, 2009, by R. Bobak. Note Sky Wheel peeking from behind the trees at the upper right of photo, above the motel building (at the right) to be demolished next.

above: Jan.12, 2009 - standing a little farther to the north from the above shot, looking south-west - the old motel site under demolition is seen at the far upper left (south); Victoria Park is at the bottom left, and Clifton Hill is seen in the foreground. The former Bush Estate (now-HOCO) lands are seen at the top of the above photo, stretching from right to left all along the top of the hill.

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below: Jan.12, 2009 - a closer view of the right-side of the above shot; at the corner where the ice cream cone sign is - this is the east boundary of today's HOCO lands. At the corner of the building, in the centre foreground, can be seen the large stone end-post of the Victoria Park fence which runs along the south-side of Clifton Hill.

below: looking at the same boundary, as it was in 1937. The large stone end-post of the same fence can be seen at the bottom left corner. A modest gate leads from a cobblestoned Clifton Hill to a set of steps that rise up the grassy hill towards the Bush Estate mansion looming in the background. By looking at where the Clifton Place mansion was from this view, it can be seen that it stood where the motels are currently (in Jan.2009) being torn down. I wonder if HOCO construction workers will unearth the foundations of the old mansion? It would be nice to commemorate the exact location of that building.

above: same view, Jan.9, 2009; note fence-stone at bottom left. The once-idyllic setting is now smack-dab in the heart of the tourist district, and built into the hillside, where the stair path once was, is now a multi-plex of ice-cream shops, burger joints, and amusement games.

above: Looking at the north-face of the Bush Estate Clifton Place mansion as it stood at the top of the hill in 1937. In this view, the Falls were to the left (east). Note the trees around the house; as can be seen in the third photo down from the top, there had been a mature tree just about at the site where the house had stood, which has since been cut down; it's quite probable that this tree had been around in 1937 when the house was still there!above: Bush Estate ca.1900, view of the front (east-face) of Clifton Place; this side faced the Niagara River and the Falls.

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below: old postcard showing the north-face of the Clifton Place mansion in the distance, and its side lawn in the foreground; it is upon this lawn which all the tourist attractions have since been built along the south side of Clifton Hill, as seen earlier above. In this view, the Falls are to the left. Just out of frame, to the lower right, closer to the road, would be where the 1856-built Zimmerman Clifton Hill gatehouse was located.

above: 1856 map showing Samuel Zimmerman's 52-acre estate on Clifton Hill, a year before Zimmerman was killed.

'Clifton St.' as shown on the above map is today's Victoria Ave.

The stables (built by Zimmerman) are marked; the house, which Zimmerman planned to build, was not (as of 1856) yet built; it was completed by U.S. Senator John T. Bush, who bought Zimmerman's estate after Zimmerman's untimely 1857 death. (The estate included the ownership of the first Clifton Hotel)

The red 'X' shows where Zimmerman's Clifton Hill Gatehouse was located; note the other three gatehouses: one at the bottom, in the Park, which became the Niagara Parks' first offices, as mentioned earlier; also, another gatehouse was off Victoria Ave., just north of the stables, and another one was at the south end of the property.

Note the fountain (also built by Zimmerman, downhill from the site of his planned house, and still there and in use in 2010) in what is today's Victoria Park; at the time that was still Zimmerman's land, down to the military reserve strip at the edge of the gorge.

Note that Zimmerman also owned the north side of Clifton Hill, from the railroad station on Victoria Ave. (at the top of Clifton Hill) all the way down to the (first) Clifton Hotel, which Zimmerman bought in 1848. (The first Clifton Hotel was originally built by Hermanus 'Monty' Crysler in 1833; it burned down on Jun.28, 1898) Most of this land surrounding Clifton Hill (known then as the village of Clifton) was bought by Zimmerman from the widow of previous owner Captain Creighton, who had bought these lands in 1832.

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below: standing on the east side of Victoria Ave. just west of the railway, looking across the tracks in a north-easterly direction towards the Zimmerman-built stables of the old Bush Estate, as seen in May 1947. The stables backed onto the tracks which bordered the west side of the Bush Estate. Note below that the railroad is seen in the distance splitting into two lines - the track in the distance (on which the freight cars are seen) followed the tree line seen in the distance, as it headed off to the upper right; this was the main line, which made its way past the Loretto. The track seen at the bottom of the photo is a spur that led to the old Myer Salit steel yard at the north-west corner of Clark Ave. and Robinson St., where the Old Stone Inn now is.

above: the same view in Jan.2009, looking in a north-easterly direction; both sets of tracks are now gone, but the old right-of-way of the main line, seen in the foreground running along this side of the fence, still stretches throughout the Niagara Falls tourist district. The Salit spur now has a row of shops facing Victoria Ave. built along where it once ran. The former Zimmerman stables are within the yellow structure behind the trees; the Casino Tower and the Sky Wheel can now be seen in the background. above: Jan.19, 2009 - looking in a south-easterly direction at the north-west rear corner of the former stables, as seen from Victoria Ave. (the stable building is in the centre with the hip roof and small round upper windows. The surrounding structures are additions of the Comfort Inn hotel.) The railroad tracks once ran along side the fence in the bottom foreground. Note the Skylon looming in the background.
above: Oct.1946 - looking in a south-westerly direction at the north-east corner of the Bush Estate Clifton Place stables. (Victoria Ave. and the railroad right-of-way are behind the building in this view) The stables were built in 1856 by Samuel Zimmerman, just before his sudden death, and were said to have cost at that time $45,000! The side of the stable facing the camera is the east-face of the building (above); this is the same east-face seen below, with the two top small round windows to the right of the chimney.

Prior to the planned construction of his house, Zimmerman had already built four gatehouses around his estate, one of which had been on the west side of the lot at Victoria Ave., just north of the stables: the structure barely seen in the far-centre-right of the above photo is likely that gatehouse, as seen from the previous map.

above: Jan.12, 2009 - looking in a north-westerly direction at the south-east corner of the same Bush Estate stables. The former stables have now been incorporated into a maze of hotel buildings and wings, part of the Comfort Inn, and are now used as administrative offices for the hotel complex. Samuel Zimmerman had actually been buried in a mausoleum on this property, and was later reburied at the St. David's Methodist Church cemetery, below:
above: as seen on Mar.17, 2009 - the tombstone at centre is where Samuel Zimmerman and his wife are buried.

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below: as seen on Mar.17, 2009 - on its west side, the tombstone reads:

"SAMUEL ZIMMERMAN, Born Huntingdon PA 1815, Contractor and Banker, Benefactor of the Town of Clifton, killed at DES JARDINS CANAL C.W. Mar.12, 1857".

(C.W. stood for Canada West, as this part of the jurisdiction we now call "Ontario" was known, after the times of Upper Canada and prior to Confederation) The month and day of his birth are not on the stone; but, he was born on Mar.17, 1815, the fifth son in a family of seven sons and one daughter.

In 1842, Zimmerman arrived in Canada, earning a fortune in the construction business as a contractor on the Second Welland Canal; he then became a railroad builder, bringing the Great Western Railroad  (which eventually became CN Rail) to Niagara from Hamilton Ont. Construction of this rail line - which is still in use today by CN - began in 1851 and it was opened to Niagara by Nov.1853, ending at the Suspension Bridge. Zimmerman was also involved in the construction of the double-deck Suspension Bridge (designed by engineer John Augustus Roebling) which opened in 1855 and was the first rail connection here between Canada and the U.S.

In 1854 Zimmerman bought the Erie and Ontario, which had been the first railroad in Upper Canada, and which was built in the period 1831 to 1841, operating as a seasonal horse-drawn railroad. He rebuilt the line, converting it to steam locomotion, and built a new extension north from Queenston into Niagara On The Lake. Zimmerman also had a steamboat [the "Samuel Zimmerman"] which carried freight and passengers from Toronto to Queenston and NOTL, from where they could take his trains to Niagara Falls or to the States - talk about transit integration!

Just above the cemetery where the Zimmermans are buried, there still is a long-abandoned right-of-way running along the Escarpment of one of the railway lines that Zimmerman had once owned, the Erie and Ontario (a predecessor of the New York Central/ Michigan Central) which went from Queenston (and later from Niagara On The Lake) to Niagara Falls, and later, to Fort Erie.

Samuel Zimmerman is buried with his first wife Margaret Ann; they were married on Aug.15, 1848 and had two sons. Margaret Ann died in 1851, at the young age of 23. (I have not been able to find out the cause of her death)

 

above: Mar.17, 2009 - on the east side of the same above tombstone, is this description:

        " MARGARET ANN
          WIFE OF
           SAML ZIMMERMAN
           & DAUGHTER OF
           RICHARD & ANN
           WOODRUFF
           DIED
           APRIL 24, 1851,
           AGED 23 YEARS "
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Interestingly, Margaret's father, Richard Woodruff, had bought the National Hotel in 1833 from Hermanus Crysler, who had built it in 1827. [It was later known as the Prospect Hotel and as Ward's Hotel, located on Main St. [on the site of today's Mints bar]. During the 1837 Rebellion, government troops stayed at the hotel, which was used as a barracks.] And oddly enough, her husband Samuel bought the Clifton Hotel in 1848 from Hermanus Crysler, who had built it in 1833.
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It was on Dec.16, 1856 that Samuel Zimmerman married his second wife, Emmeline Dunn (of Three Rivers, Lower Canada (Quebec); sister of Timothy Hibbard Dunn); less than three months later, on Mar.12, 1857, he was killed in the Desjardins Canal train accident at Hamilton, Ontario. Zimmerman was killed five days before what would have been his 42 nd birthday. It is said that Zimmerman was most likely the wealthiest man in Canada at the time.
above: photo of Samuel Zimmerman: banker; contractor of canals, bridges and railways; and one of the founders of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Samuel Zimmerman's funeral, with Masonic honours, was held on Mar.16, 1857 - exactly three months after his second marriage. It would be interesting to know what became of his second wife, Emmeline Zimmerman.
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below: illustration of the Desjardin Canal train accident in which Samuel Zimmerman was killed, from the London Illustrated news, Apr.4, 1857. The same railroad right-of-way is still there today, and is now the CN main line from the U.S.A., through Niagara Falls, to Toronto. The suspension bridge, which is seen in the distance behind the collapsed railroad bridge, is now the site a steel arch bridge, which carries York Blvd.,connecting the cities of Hamilton and Burlington, Ont.
This drawing looks westward into Coote's Paradise and the Dundas Valley in the distance.

above: After a business meeting in Toronto on Mar.12, 1857, Zimmerman boarded the 5:00 pm train to get back home to Niagara. The train was travelling on the Great Western Railroad's tracks when apparently it jumped the tracks just as it was approaching the canal bridge. The derailed train hit the bridge, which then collapsed, sending the locomotive and passenger cars into the canal below. Out of ninety passengers, sixty were killed.
Samuel Zimmerman was in the prime of his life, almost 42, and had just recently re-married; I wonder what further accomplishments he would have made in the railroad business and his other ventures. There is no doubt that Zimmerman would have become a leading player in the railroad industry consolidations that were to come.
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below: Feb.12, 1928 - another of the original four Zimmerman gatehouses was this one, which was located downhill in Queen Victoria Park. It also served as the original headquarters of the Niagara Parks Commission, and was demolished in 1928.

below: Built by Samuel Zimmerman in 1856 (a year prior to his sudden death in 1857) this old gatehouse (on the estate upon which Zimmerman was planning to build his new home, until he was killed in (ironically) a railway accident over the Desjardins Canal in Hamilton Ont.) was located on the south side of Clifton Hill at Clifton Place.

Clifton Pl. was the road/driveway which led south from Clifton Hill onto the Zimmerman/Bush Estate. This gatehouse was one of four gatehouses which had been built by Zimmerman around his property, and was the last to be demolished, in 1965. It was at one point the office for Oakes' Welland Securities. Photo below is from 1965, the year of its demolition. What a neat building and location! Note modern buildings and lights in background; that is most probably the old Fallsway/later Quality Inn buildings. Clifton Pl. would be just to the right in the photo below, just out of frame.

above: looking south across Clifton Hill, at the road now called Clifton Place. This is now the main road into the HOCO lands; the Quality Inn buildings now being demolished were located in back to the left (east), the Comfort Inn buildings are to the right. (note Sky Wheel and Skylon Tower in the left (east) distance; and the Hilton hotel (centre, still under construction), as seen Jan.12, 2009. The last Zimmerman gatehouse had stood just to the left, out of frame, of the above shot.above: Standing at the same location as the last shot, but looking more to the left (east) down Clifton Hill. There had been another road which served as the entrance to the Quality Inn buildings, which were farther back south (to the right) of Clifton Hill. This road was closed when the Sky Wheel and its plaza were built (see satellite shots further below). This access road went south from Clifton Hill from about where the grey kiosk sits in the plaza in the centre of the above shot. It was along here, where the Tim Hortons now stands at the right, amidst all the stores and food joints, that the Bush Estate's Zimmerman-built gatehouse had once stood on Clifton Hill, until being demolished in Nov. 1965 - see below: above: taken in 1937, this photo of both buildings on the Bush Estate shows the proximity of the Zimmerman-built Clifton Hill Gatehouse (at the right, facing the south-side of a cobblestoned Clifton Hill) to Senator Bush's Clifton Place mansion [seen farther back (to the south) and to the left (east), facing the brow of the hill, overlooking the American Falls.] It's all but a distant memory now. The road known today as Clifton Pl. would be slightly to the right of the gatehouse, out of frame, in the above photo.

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below: here is a closer view of the same Zimmerman Clifton Hill Gatehouse which was in the previous photo above, now relegated to serving as a snack bar, with souvenirs and fireworks on the menu! In the right distance is the Park Motor Hotel, which is today's Comfort Inn. [The library's info with this photo, oddly, shows the date as being Sept.5, 1968, yet the gatehouse was torn down in Nov. 1965, so there is a discrepancy here]

above: this is the same view in the summer of 2010, of the site where Zimmerman's Clifton Hill Gatehouse had once stood.

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An interesting historical sidebar to these Clifton Hill Gatehouse photos is a story found at this site about the Robert Combe family, which tells of how Thomas Combe came to Canada from Scotland in 1891, and ended up working at the Bush Estate while living in the Clifton Hill Gatehouse (!!):

"...Thomas, the seventh member of the family of Robert and Christina (Watt) Combe was born on 24 May 1867 in Yester Mains, Gifford. In later years a photograph hung in the kitchen of Thomas’s home in Niagara Falls that seemed to have recorded an important event in his life. It appears to have been taken in 1887 during the celebrations for Queen Victoria’s 50thanniversary and shows him beside a wagon. Everyone in the picture is dressed in holiday fashion as though ready for a parade. The sign on the wagon indicates that James Dixon of Spittal and Berwick, Manufacturers of Manure owned it.

Before leaving for Canada Thomas lived with his parents at Steps of Grace, in Northumberlandshire, overlooking the North Sea, and the diary notes he kept suggest some nostalgia as he recorded the name of this home farm. These notes also refer to working as a manager on another farm in Scotland. A post card in his collection is of a cottage and Lovers’ Walk on the estate of the Warrander family in Dunbar suggesting that this was where he was working. A large oil painting of the same cottage belonged to his brother Robert Combe indicating that both of the brothers were perhaps connected to this estate. A granddaughter of Robert Combe believed that this cottage was the Dunbar childhood home of their grandmother, Jane (Goodall) Lawson.

Thomas was already in Canada by the fall of 1891. The diary includes the directions to his brother, Robert’s place “in Homer”, a village in Grantham Township near St. Catharines and just east of the Welland Canal. His obituary stated that he had lived in St. Catharines for a time. By 1892 he had moved to Niagara Falls.

Thomas appears to have worked first at occasional jobs but on 26 December 1891 he was able to make a bank deposit of $94.31. In June of the following year he began to work for the Streetcar Company in Niagara Falls. By the 7thof September of that year he was employed on the Bush Estate. This large estate was created by Samuel Zimmermann on the escarpment overlooking the falls near Clifton Hill and was known as the Bush Estate, named for the American senator who had lived there for a considerable time. The Fallsway Motel now occupies part of this property. This location seems to have been the focus of continuous work from 1891 until his retirement about 1924. We know that in 1905 the family was living on the Bush Estate in the gatehouse that faced Clifton Hill. This building became the offices of Welland Securities, the company that held all the land holdings of Sir Harry Oakes until the 1960’s. Thomas probably lived there continuously until he retired.

On 8 February 1893, Thomas Combe married Isabella Lawson in the Presbyterian Church in St. Davids, Ontario. She was born on 3 February 1863, the daughter of William Lawson (28 February 1831-21 September 1900) and Agnes Goodall (30 June 1840-4 July 1918). The Lawson family farm was east of St. Davids at the corner of Concession Two and York Road. William Lawson had been born in Longside, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. He had chosen to settle near other Scottish families in Lincoln County and in 1858 had married Agnes, the daughter of John and Sarah (Anderson) Goodall.

On 14 July 1893, Thomas Combe was doing some work for the company of Histrop and Thomas and by the end of the month was able to rent a cottage from a Mrs. Thomas. It is interesting to note that he also paid $4 in annual dues to the “Sons of Scotland.”

On 20 Nov. 1893, he noted that his house at 78 Buckley Avenue in Niagara Falls was being built, and by 6 January 1894 that Mr. Lundy was doing the plastering. On 2 March 1894 a four-year mortgage was drawn up for $700 at 6% and Thomas and Isabella moved in on 27 March 1894. The cost for the lot was $350, insurance $8, builders risk $2.40, house $735.50, lawyer $10, coal $6, paint 75¢ for a total cost of $1,413.51. The mortgage was paid off by March 1902.

Meanwhile he received word that his father Robert Combe had died on 14 Jan. 1902 at the age of 66. Now free of debt himself, Thomas decided to make a trip to Berwickshire and seems to have spent the winter of 1905-6 there. His mother lived until the age of 80 and died on 10 August in 1913.

In May 1909 Thomas was able to put all the “conveniences” in the Buckley Street house at a cost of $175. This house appears to have served as a rental property until 16 May 1921, when he sold it for $3,000.

On 14 September 1910, he bought lots #117 and #118 on McGrail Avenue for $450. The contract price for building three houses was $4,100. Other costs included the wiring $82, change in sewer lines $13.50 and furnace pipes $75. By Oct. 1911 the three houses were totally paid for. On 19 Augist 1919 he bought a house on Lot 87, #15 (later 437) John Street in Niagara Falls for which he paid $3,300 in cash. This served as their home after his retirement in 1924.

Prior to leaving Scotland, Thomas appears to have been in somewhat of a managerial position on a large estate. This allowed him to move easily into a similar position on the Bush estate, with apparent responsibility for the grounds and stables. The fact that a house was provided as a part of the position as well as through his careful management of his finances he was able to build a number of rental properties which served to provide income for his retirement years.

The children of Thomas and Isabella (Lawson) Combe were William and Christina. Isabella died on 21 December 1941 and at that time Thomas bought six cemetery plots for $60. He died on 7 March 1944. They were both interred in Fairview Cemetery in Niagara Falls Canada.

Thomas was an excellent gardener and had prizewinning rhubarb. His secret was that he laboriously carried soapy wash water to pour over the plants. He had one idiosyncrasy. He loved to win at games and was more than a little distressed if he lost at bridge or euchre..."
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below: satellite view of the former Zimmerman/Bush estate lands. As mentioned earlier, note that in this photo there is a road near the bottom-right that leads in from Clifton Hill; this is Clifton Pl. which goes to the Comfort Inn. Note a bit more to the left, in the bottom-center, there is another road leading in; this went to the Quality Inn site seen in the rear; this access was sealed up when a restaurant building (lastly a Golden Griddle, seen in the centre-right) was demolished, and the Sky Wheel took its place.

Also note that in this view, the Space Spiral Tower is still visible, seen in the round cut-out of the building at the centre-left (the newer building had been built around the existing ride). The Space Spiral was an observation ride that carried passengers up in a spiralling round pod (seen about halfway up the shaft) to view the falls; built in 1967, it was taken down in Nov.2006.
The red X marks about where Zimmerman's Clifton Hill Gatehouse once stood.

above: same view; now, the Space Spiral Tower is seen being dismantled by a large crane; the restaurant has also been torn down, and the access road closed off, becoming a pedestrian plaza for the newly-built Sky Wheel.

above: same view: now, the Space Spiral Tower has been completely removed; a fudge shop has since been built into the circular area where the ride had been.

Note that at the top of each of the above three shots, you can still see Zimmerman's original fountain, located down the hill in Victoria Park.

Note also that all those angled, interconnected buildings seen at the upper right of the above three shots were the numerous Quality Inn structures which were demolished during the winter of 2008-2009.

Note also the red 'X' in each of the last three above shots: this is about where Zimmerman's Clifton Hill gatehouse had stood.
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below: a view of the Sky Wheel, taken by R. Bobak in the spring of 2006, as it was under construction. Note that the ride's 42 gondola cars have not yet been installed onto the 175-foot Sky Wheel; note ticket booth still under construction; note that the white shaft of the Space Spiral Tower (which would be demolished in Nov.2006) is still visible in the center distance, in front of the old-Oneida/ now-Casino Tower.

below: In Mar.2009 I spoke with workers on the Quality Inn demolition site, who said that they did find the thick stone footings of the Clifton Place mansion, encountering them while laying new sewers on the site. As for any official acknowledgement of the find, I haven't heard anything, but the mansion's footprint, once under the Fallsway/Quality Inn's recently-demolished maze of buildings, will now be underneath a new mini putt to be built on the site just behind the Sky Wheel.

In the left distance (see arrow) is a chunk of the footing from the old Bush mansion, which was removed from the site. This rock and dirt was sorted and reused as fill on the site.

above: Mar.2009 - a closer view of a chunk of the footing, which was made of  cement filled with rubble stone. When Senator John T. Bush finished building Clifton Place after Zimmerman's 1857 death, he built the mansion on footings which had already been installed by Zimmerman, possibly in 1856. This footing seen here dates back to Zimmerman's time.
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below: looking in a south-easterly direction down Clifton Hill; Clifton Pl. (the road, not the mansion!) is at the right, just before the Park Motor Hotel sign (predecessor to today's Comfort Inn).

The Zimmerman Clifton Hill Gatehouse is seen just behind the sign. It's hard to tell whether it was being used as a snack-bar at this time (as was seen in the eighth-previous photo above). Further down the street is the sign for the Quality Inn (the round, taller sign). The Fallsway hotel was also located here.

Photo date not known, pos. late 1950's-60's.
This Gatehouse was the last one remaining of the four which Zimmerman had built in 1856; it was demolished in Nov. 1965.

above: Jan.2010 - same view - Clifton Place is seen heading in at the right; the sign (now Comfort Inn) I believe is pretty much located in the same spot in both of the above shots, making the Zimmerman Clifton Hill Gatehouse's former location about where the Tim Hortons now is, to the centre-left of photo.

above: looking at this undated (pos.1960's-70's) view, most likely taken from the Oneida/Kodak tower, Zimmerman's Clifton Hill Gatehouse had once stood where the building at the lower-left is (this is where the Tim Horton's seen above now is); behind it, going off to the left, is Clifton Pl., and in the far-centre-left is the Park Motor Hotel (today's Comfort Inn building). Before the Park Motor Hotel was built, this had been the site of the Clifton Tourist Camp, seen further below. Also note the paved area in front of the Park Motor Hotel then; this area later became the site of the Dinosaur Mini Putt, which was torn down in Mar.-Apr. 2011. A new dinosaur-themed mini-putt will open this season just across the street, on the east side of Clifton Pl., where the Bush mansion/later Quality Inn had once stood. The access road to the Quality Inn buildings is seen at the extreme lower left.

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below: ca.1920's - looking in a south-westerly direction up along Clifton Hill at the Clifton Tourist Camp operating on the grounds of the Bush Estate. The Zimmerman stables are clearly seen in the upper left; Victoria Ave. and the Michigan Central Railroad ran along the top. In the centre top distance is the roof of the Niagara Falls Arena which was on Victoria Ave., where the Imperial Hotel now stands.

above: a colour postcard view of the same site. The entrance way to the camp (at the left) would be about where the Clifton Pl. road is today. The Zimmerman Clifton Hill Gatehouse stood just out of frame, to the left, along Clifton Hill.

above: seen on a cold, snowy Jan.28, 2010, this is the same view as above, of where the Clifton Tourist Camp once was! Clifton Pl. is the road going in at the centre-left; the Comfort Inn sign is the same one seen four photos above.

above: satellite view of the same site; the tourist camp, between Clifton Pl. and Victoria Ave., became the site of the Park Motor Hotel/today's Comfort Inn. Note the Zimmerman stables seen at the upper left, now incorporated into the Comfort Inn; note the Michigan Central track right of way which ran along the west side of  Zimmerman's property; note the Quality Inn buildings (at the far center left) can still be seen; they were all demolished in late 2008-early 2009; note that the Space Spiral Tower is seen being dismantled, making this view as being from around Nov.2006.  The red X marks where Zimmerman's Clifton Hill Gatehouse once stood. (click photos to enlarge!)

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The old photos in this study are from the Niagara Falls, Ont. Library Historical Digital Archives; the recent ones are by R. Bobak.
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