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This Oliver Street address appears to have its foundation laid in 1886, in the midst of a grist mill, boiler and engine works, a train depot, and a…
Alexander's, ink and watercolor (Dennis Reed Jr). If you are expecting the current gentlemen's establishment Alexander's Lounge to have a colorful…
An 1894 Armitage-Herschell advertisement shows a not-at-all-dangerous-to-children-looking steam boiler and pulleys providing motive power to the…
Before the electric age, there was the steam age. Steam (harnessing the pressure created by boiling water) was used to power factory equipment,…
I am not only interested in local history, but I also enjoy sketching and painting local scenes! Email me to buy prints of any of the art here, or…
The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the…
Employees of the Buffalo Sled Company in North Tonawanda plant. PHOTO: North Tonawanda History Museum Organized as the Buffalo Sled Co. in 1905 by…
Looking east over the Avenues from the Niagara River. 2016 Google Earth In the 1880s, new industrial jobs (at Tonawanda Iron and Steel, the lumber…
Center: A young Mary Kijowski on the porch of 47 15th Avenue, c.1933. Photos from her personal collection. In North Tonawanda, the Polish ruled the…
Avondale Theatre as it appeared in 1924 (Dennis Reed Jr) The southwest corner of Robinson and Oliver Streets—now an empty lot—was formerly occupied…
The Elks Club home c1920–2011; northeast corner of Main and Sweeney.The North Tonawanda chapter of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks…
The Backer House on an 1886 map. The long-gone, three-story "Backer House" at the crook of Main and Webster Streets has been called the city's first…
Island and Main Streets. Bennett began his lumber business at Main and Island Streets as Hoadley and Bennett in 1902, eventually expanding to 190…
The Blue Whale as a steel-girded tadpole, ca 1972.The Blue Whale Car Wash seemed harmless enough: a building-size mass of periwinkle fiberglass…
PHOTO: Dennis Reed Jr. Around the junction of Tonawanda Creek and the "Little River" three small slips cut into the land. The slips were dug in the…
W. H. Boulton's Cleveland company manufactured carbons used in arc lighting. From Wikipedia: By 1894, he had formed the Boulton & Crown Carbon…
The electric High Speed Line is an electric streetcar (trolley) passenger train operated by the International Railway Company from June 9, 1918 to…
Formerly situated on Oliver Street near East Ave., this longtime employer got its start in Amsterdam, N.Y. in 1855. They moved to a small two-story…
This hockey team played a single season (1975-1976) in the NAHL at the Tonawanda Sports Center in North Tonawanda.
A general early description of the plant my be found at fultonhistory.com: "The Pump Works." Tonawanda News, August 24, 1893.
From at least 1934, this address in the heart of North Tonawanda's Polish community serves as a vital neighborhood deli. It has since been remodeled…
Formerly the public library. Built in 1903 from a Carnegie endowment.
The former North Tonawanda City Hall was located on the southeast corner of Main and Tremont. The current North Tonawanda City Hall and police station…
Public School #5
In November 1929 Island Street facility nearly wiped out by a disastrous blaze that does an estimated $250,000 in damage and destroys 100 carloads of…
The "Boat House Gang," probably photographed at the Gratwick slip. Colorized by Dennis Reed Jr. In 2018, I was asked by a local woman and family…
DeGraff Mansion c.1970, from DeGraff Mansion Memoirs Few residences are as striking--or ancient--in North Tonawanda as the stately Queen Anne red…
In 1913 business leaders in the Tonawandas including LeGrand S. DeGraff and NT Mayor Dr. John A. Rafter developed a plan to create a badly needed…
Most of North Tonawanda's downtown area developed between 1875 and 1900. In this collection are preserved views of many vanished buildings: The YMCA…
The Strand at Oliver and 1st opened as a silent film and vaudeville theater on June 24, 1914, and was originally named "Dreamland." It joined several…
General Plastics--the company that would become Durez--is incorporated in 1921 by Texas-born Harry Mason Dent (1888-1967) in North Tonawanda. Dent was…
These book excerpts and articles shed light on the earliest days of the Tonawandas, as well as the nearby villages of Martinsville, Sawyer's Station,…
In the mid 1920s, the area between Tonawanda and Ellicott Creeks near Niagara Falls Blvd. was aggressively marketed for sale to prospective homebuyers…
The Erie Canal in North Tonawanda followed the existing Tonawanda Creek from Pendleton. The first work done locally was the 1823 construction of a…
The Erie Bridge at Vandervoort carried Erie Railroad trains, electric streetcars--and apparently courageous pedestrians across the Tonawanda Creek and…
Built in 1901, the visually striking Felton High School once stretched along Thompson Street between Bryant and Falconer streets. It was named after…
Rough chronology at NT History Museum, including notes about many defunct companies. A provocative (if unlikely-sounding) morsel about Hydrant Hose…
The First Baptist Church of North Tonawanda is built in 1888 at 190 Vandervoort Street. On May 30, 1965 the congregation commences worship at their…
Fleuron pottery stamped with "N. Tonawanda" appears to be produced in the 1920s and 1930s. Contemporaneous ads for home goods sellers mention it…
The current Ghostlight Theatre, as living memory will inform many residents and casual observation will inform the rest, began as a church. From…
William M. Gillie's main foundry and plant is located on Goose Island at Tonawanda and Chestnut. In September 1892 a massive fire destroys some of…
Calls had been made for over a decade for a new school to serve the city's Ironton district (Public School #7). Opens in 1926. For the first few years…
The W. C. Goerss Dairy is started in Martinsville in 1925 by Wilmer C. Goerss. It seems likely that his brother Gerhart is involved early on. By 1937…
Goose Island as seen from Tonawanda Island, postcard detail, ca 1913. In the mid-nineteenth century, Tonawanda's so-called "Goose Island" has a…
From the village's earliest days, Goundry Street was a showcase of its most luxurious homes. Wealthy lumber barons and bankers settled here, enjoying…
The Goundry Street School was a stone building constructed in 1866. From History of Niagara County 1821-1878 (1878): The North Tonawanda Union School…
The White, Gratwick & Mitchell Lumber Company establishes a planing mill and substantial lumberyards along the Niagara River in 1879. They employ…
Opens in 1894, two years after Pine Woods school, and five years after the second public school, Ironton (According to a 1979 News article).
(ca. 1799 - 1883) Hannah Johnson is a Black woman who lived with her husband John in the predominantly white township of Wheatfield, near the village…
The son of a German immigrant, Herman P. Schroeder came to North Tonawanda in the mid-1890s in the employ of Buffalo Bolt. He first lives in Gratwick,…
The inventor of the Mighty Wurlitzer organ which catapulted the company to worldwide recognition was a brilliant (if troubled) Englishman named Robert…
Postcard, c1890This massive hotel once occupied the southeast corner of Goundry and Main. A general description from Lumber City (1891): Nothing is…
(1898-1975?) The International Paper occupied the northern edge of Tonawanda Island for over 50 years, processing lumber for use in magazines and…
Ironton Public School #2 opened in 1889 at the corner of 1st Ave and Oliver Street (present-day Elizabeth Harvey Apartments / Olmsted Center for…
During Prohibition, this 791 Niagara Street "roadhouse" in Tonawanda was known as The Red Pump, and found itself the target of numerous vice raids.…
(c1953-1982) The 1950s TV craze peaked in 1954 and 1955, with sales topping seven million sets each of those years. One of the companies feeding the…
In the heyday of the Tonawandas' lumber years, practically every available inch of the Niagara riverfront and Tonawanda Island is covered in lumber…
[UNDER CONSTRUCTION] Evans testimonial.
Old Falls Boulevard, looking north from Lockport Ave. to Niagara Falls Blvd. Postcard detail, c.1900. The northeast part of North Tonawanda known as…
This little theater drew an impressive array of stars to North Tonawanda, and it saddened the hearts of many to watch it fall into disuse in the 90s…
Painting by Dennis Reed Jr. (2023). The Memorial Pool opens in North Tonawanda in the summer of 1948. It is a memorial for the veterans of the recent…
An Oliver Street favorite since 1978, "Mitch" now slings tacos at Mitch's General Store (9005 E Otto Springville Rd, East Otto, NY 14729). 474 Oliver…
Articles relating to the murder of Captain Lorenzo Philips and his son Charles at the Scribner docks in Tonawanda, and the subsequent…
PHOTO SEARCH: Learn about the search for a photograph of Niagara!(1905-1917) The Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company is formed by former…
The Niagara Silk Mills plant once dominated Sweeney Street, standing where Gateway Center is today. Postcard c. 1912. The Niagara Silk Mills (later…
Nucleus of Wurlitzer: The North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory in 1893. It still stands in 2023. The first of its kind in America, the North…
North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works factory at 435 Payne Avenue, c1913; photo colorized by the webmaster. (1906-1919) The North Tonawanda…
The North Tonawanda Public Market brought thousands of customers on its first day of operation. Photo date unknown. The first official date of…
From their website: Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish was established on May 1, 1901. Father Peter Lotocha was named Pastor and the first Mass was…
Young at Heart parade float, 35mm color slide (photographer unknown) These 21 colorful slides provide a wonderful record of many of North Tonawanda's…
These four color photos from a parade on Sweeney Street take us back to a summer day beside the canal in 1961. They feature a brass band looking sharp…
Goundry Street. Notices as early as 1905, though unclear if they apply to this location (another "Park" was in Buffalo).
Built c. 1925. A pool is added soon after. Later Payne Junior High, and Lowery Middle School.
The area north of Wheatfield Street and on both sides of Payne Avenue--formerly the farm and dwelling of early resident and major landholder Colonel…
Perew's most famous invention, a patented, giant automaton known variously as the "Electric Man," "Peter the Great," "Christopher," and the…
A 1908 map depicts the course of the State Ditch, which was originally Pettit Creek. The background photograph shows the mouth of the creek at the…
"Sweeney Park Entrance." Postcard, c. 1920 The largest park in North Tonawanda is also the oldest. Originally named "Sweeney Park," it is comprised…
Public School #3, built 1892.
The Rand family powerfully shaped the Tonawandas' business landscape over several generations. Starting in banking, the Rand men (sometimes in direct…
Located directly across River Road from the former Tonawanda Iron and Steel, this location has been host to a string of businesses, as well as long…
Built in 1895 for trolleys, the squat orange-brick building was subsequently used by carousel and motor builders Herschell-Spillman and the…
From the Richardson Boat Owners Association website: In 1909 G.Reid Richardson founded the Richardson Boat Company in North Tonawanda, New York to…
From their website: Riverside Chemical was founded in 1906 by A. C. Rasch. The business started running out of the basement of a grocery store at…
Andrew and Pauline Rojek immigrated to the US in 1905 from present-day Poland. They were were carpenters and dairy farmers, eventually establishing…
In a 1913 map, the theater is shown in the north half of the Fowler Block, at the southwest corner of Webster and Tremont, or 40 Webster: though a…
This former beauty of a building on the northwest corner of Webster and Sweeney Streets housed the State National Bank and other businesses. James H.…
William Dittmar (former curator, Historical Society of the Tonawandas) is quoted in a 7/23/72 Niagara Gazette article as saying the future Sweeney…
Located at 1174 Erie Ave. Talismanic and Frontier were owned and operated by Stanley C. Peuchen and his brothers. Manufacturers of Tops Oil and Oak…
"In 1880, both the Bell Telephone Company and the Edison Co. opened general offices and began extending service in both villages here. The Home…
Apr 21 1883 "An act to incorporate the Tonawanda Island Bridge Company, for the purpose of constructing and operating a bridge from Tonawanda island…
Recreation of newspaper headline by Dennis Reed JrOn October 31, 1900, Republican candidate for vice president and Governor of New York Theodore…
There were several Thiele's locations: The original was on Shawnee Road (the farm, out on Niagara Falls Blvd. in the Martinsville / Sawyer Creek…
People outside the Tonawanda Brewing Company. Colorized by the webmaster. The northeast corner of Hinds and Niagara Streets in Tonawanda hosts a…
You wouldn't know it from the site today, but the massive plant of the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company once occupied all the land along the Niagara…
1860 illustration showing the southern tip of Tonawanda Island. The lavish Beechwater residence and a smaller building are seen to the left of a…
This Tonawandas football club was a member of the NFL--for a single "away" game in 1921. They lost that game (against the Rochester Jeffersons) 45-0.…
National Grid transformer station in 2023. Photo by Dennis Reed Jr.First located on Tonawanda IslandAround 1889, what would be come the Tonawanda…
In April 1974 construction began on the massive Twin City Racquet Club / Tonawanda Sports Center complex on Ridge Road in North Tonawanda, behind the…
Before everybody in North Tonawanda could afford their very own muffler-less Honda Civic to run up and down Oliver Street, trolleys and trains were an…
(?-1916): Long bridge (1918-1978) A "Bascule" bridge (which could open to allow masted boats to pass) once connected Webster Street in North Tonawanda…
Started by Norman Wulf Sr. in 1921 (at 20 Minerva St., Tonawanda). His sons become partners in the business along the way. The operation has moved to…
Built c. 1925 on land donated by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, serving Martinsville. Public School 6
The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters. Postcard, c.1940. Its iconic tower has presided over Sawyer's Creek and…
Real estate developers begin marketing the “Wurlitzer Park Village” as a safe, family-friendly escape from the aging and industrialized portions of…
Ferdinand Ziehl (far right in the colorized 1918 photo) has a general store in Martinsville as early as 1903. Delivery of fresh meat and produce was…