From Queenston to Kingston. Ron Brown
highly pleasing, the road leading along the summit of the banks of one of the most magnificent rivers in the universe.”13
Due to the scenic appeal of the river, and its access to a navigable section of the Niagara River, wealthy Loyalists and army officers chose its banks on which to build their grand homes. And, being farther from the American bombardments during the War of 1812, a few of those early mansions remain standing.
What is arguably one of the grandest homes visible from the Niagara Parkway is the southern-style “Willowbank.” Built in 1834, it is considered a classic Greek revival-style house, with grand pillars lining the east façade. Its history is linked to that of Queenston, as its builder was one of Robert Hamilton’s sons, Alexander. The eighteen-room limestone structure sits on a bank overlooking the river, on a seven-hectare property. Though not open to the public, the house has processional steps, hand-carved capitals, and classical mouldings. A grand spiral staircase graces the inside of the rear entrance.
The Parks Commission has been careful to balance the privacy of property owners with the public appeal of the river road. Newer homes generally are accessed by service roads that parallel the main road, while scenic pull-offs allow travellers to follow the pathways to the riverside. Historic plaques describe the many heritage highlights of the route, such as Vrooman’s Battery, from which cannon fire harassed American troops attempting to cross the river during the War of 1812, or Brown’s Point, where Adam Brown opened a tavern and operated a wharf from which local settlers could ship their produce. Two of the river road’s grander homes are also highlighted. Built in 1800, a plaque describes the “Field House” as being one of Ontario’s oldest brick homes. Located at 15276 Niagara Parkway, the house remains in private hands (after briefly being used by the Ontario Heritage Foundation) and is protected by covenant.
Another grand home of similar age is the “McFarland House.” Built by His Majesty’s boat-builder James McFarland in 1800, the house served as a hospital for both British and American troops during the 1812 conflict. King George III had granted McFarland 240 hectares of land, and he and his sons fired bricks in their own kiln to build the impressive structure. Now owned by the Parks Commission, the house, since 1959, has operated as a museum, complete with a nineteenth-century style yard and garden. The McFarland House is located at 15927 Niagara Parkway. Despite its proximity to Niagara-on-the-Lake, it was one of the few buildings from that community to survive the torching of the town by the Americans.
Today’s Niagara-on-the-Lake has evolved into one of Ontario’s major tourist attractions. While the annual Shaw Festival draws tens of thousands of visitors, the city’s situation as a jump-off point for Niagara-area wine tours draws even more. Its heritage homes and historic main street are lures for tourists year-round.
Originally, the location, due to its proximity to water transportation, its bountiful supply of fish, and its defensive advantages, attracted the Neutral Nation. The British, too, saw its military strengths, and established a fort here in 1781, calling the community Butlersburg. In 1792, lieutenant governor John Graves Simcoe, who was fond of naming anything he could after locales in his cherished England, renamed it Newark and established Upper Canada’s first parliament here. But he soon realized that it was too vulnerable to the Americans, who had built Fort Niagara just across the river, and moved that function to a safer location across the lake, to a place he called York. Shortly after Simcoe returned to England in 1796, the town restored its original name, or at least one close to it: Niagara.
In 1807, Heriot wrote that Niagara may not have been particularly healthy: “a swamp [between the fort and the town] becomes, at particular seasons, from the vapours exhaled from it, prejudicial to the health of those whose residence is by the river, and sometimes to that of the troops in the garrison.”14 This was an observation in stark contrast to the healthful properties being promoted less than a century later. But of the town itself he wrote, “The houses are in general composed of wood and have a neat and clean appearance, their present number may amount to two hundred,” [houses which would lie in a smouldering ruin a mere six years later]. “The streets are spacious … so that the town when completed will be healthful and airy.”15
While Queenston thrived as the terminus of the Niagara portage road, the town of Niagara grew into a key port of entry for goods destined for the area’s settlers. Its location on the Niagara River made it a focus for many of the battles that raged during the failed attempt by the United States to annex their wayward cousins in Upper Canada. In 1812 the Americans slipped across the river and burned the town to the ground.
“Nothing but heaps of coals and the streets full of furniture that the inhabitants were fortunate enough to get out of their houses met the eyes in all directions,” one visitor was quoted as saying in the Atlas of Lincoln and Welland Counties. “We were very apprehensive that a mine was left for our destruction.”16
The ruins of Ontario’s best “ghost fort,” Fort Mississauga, are now surrounded by a golf course in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
But once the occupying forces had retreated across the river, Niagara began to rebuild, many of the owners building on the original foundations despite orders to move their homes farther away from the river. The British Army quickly rebuilt Fort George, also adding Butler’s Barracks and the more strategically located Fort Mississauga. Although Fort George was too far from the river mouth to be useful, Fort Mississauga lay directly across the river from Fort Niagara on the American side. At this time, the land around the new fort was owned by James Crooks, a merchant and land speculator. In order to keep Crooks from developing the land around the fort, and thus possibly endangering prospective occupants, the government exchanged his property for a parcel of land farther from danger. (Crooks’s former property is now the golf course.)
The fort was built on the site of the Mississauga Point Lighthouse. Dating from 1804, it was the first brick lighthouse built in Canada. Although it somehow survived the otherwise total destruction of the town, a new fort was more vital, and the stones from the lighthouse were incorporated into the new fort, as were many of the ruins of the town. But a light was still needed, and a new beacon was placed on the fort, where it remained in operation until the 1840s. For several years afterward, only the light on the American shore guided ships into the river. A number of shipwrecks convinced the government that new lights were needed on the Canadian side, as well, and in 1904 a pair of range lights flickered on. These lights continue to guide pleasure craft to the new yachting harbour.
Following the War of 1812, Niagara quickly re-established its role as shipping centre for the northern part of the Niagara Peninsula. Soon steamers began carrying tourists to Niagara, where they would board stages to see the wonder that was Niagara Falls. It also regained its role as the seat for the counties of Lincoln and Welland (a role it later lost to St. Catharines). To accommodate this new function, English architect William Thomas designed a simple, classic stone courthouse, built in 1847, that served as the district seat for fourteen years.
To house the growing number of tourists, hotels began to spring up, among them the Whale Inn and the Moffat Inn. In 1832, the Niagara Harbour and Dock Company built new wharves and shipbuilding facilities. Eight years later, Ontario’s first railway, the Erie and Ontario Railroad, was completed between Chippewa and Queenston. It was extended to Niagara in 1854. But the bubble would soon burst.
An early view of Niagara’s courthouse, originally built as the county seat in 1849.
Back in 1851, the second Welland Canal had opened, replacing the limited capacity of the first, much smaller, canal. In 1853, the Great Western Railway extended its route well to the south of Niagara, allowing through east–west rail traffic to bypass the northern peninsula completely. In 1859, another new railway, the Welland