From the Globe and Mail: Oscar Wilde, Richard Nixon, Pierre Trudeau, Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, Shirley Temple, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Charles Blondin, Wild Bill Hickok, Laura Secord, H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens, Helen Keller, Sir Harry Oakes, Jimmy Stewart, Princess Diana … Bit characters all – in a story in which the main character has…
At the same store where I saw the old Niagara Falls panorama from 1913, I saw this old map. They had a small area of the larger map that was specifically for the Niagara area. It’s interesting to see that there were traffic circles on the QEW at that point. What would become Highway 420…
The St Catharines Museum is right by one of the big Welland Canal locks, so many of you may have been there at one point or another. It is a nice little museum that has a fair amount of artifacts on display. This is a photo of one of the displays that is specifically related…
From the Niagara Falls Review: While recently reading some Niagara news from 1939 (yes, 1939), I came across some interesting items that I would like to share with you. All concern some sort of discovery. During the spring and summer of that year work was progressing on the restoration of Old Fort Erie which, of…
I’ve had this photo of a photo sitting around for a while and just realized I hadn’t posted about it. Last year while my family was having a long weekend up in Buckhorn, Ontario, we went into Bobcaygeon. My parents like to look at antiques, so we went into a store that they had been…
From the Niagara Falls Review: As recently reported in the Review, a massive redevelopment is underway on the south side of Clifton Hill between Queen Victoria Park and Victoria Avenue. The property, a very popular entertainment and dining area on the Street of Fun, is owned by HOCO Ltd. As the company’s president Harry Oakes…
From the Niagara Falls Review: James Hardy has a special place in the history of Niagara Falls. He was the final official participant in a 19th century phenomenon often referred to as the great age of Niagara tightrope artists — something that captured much of the world’s attention. That “age” began in 1859 when the…
From the Niagara Falls Review: In a way, Colin Chilvers owes his Oscar-winning film career to a pipe that wouldn’t explode… Within a decade, Chilvers faced a much more difficult task as the special effects supervisor on Superman: The Movie. For the film to work, Christopher Reeve’s Superman had to appear to actually fly. In…
From the Niagara Gazette: As I’ve said before, and I say again because it bears repeating, talk to almost any senior Niagara Falls, New York resident with a good memory, or any expatriate, anyone who has moved away but who still harbors grand memories of their beloved, albeit forsaken hometown, inevitably the subject of fine…
From the Niagara Gazette: The imprint left by the career of Paul Gromosiak can be found across the world, from the knowledge of tourists who have taken home his books to the advances of the city of Niagara Falls which might not have happened without him. On Friday morning he was honored for his life’s…