The First Welland Canals
A round trip following the first two Welland Canals
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This is a fairly short circular trip, most of which is through built-up areas in the City of St Catharines. It starts where the first Welland Canal started, at the mouth of the Twelve Mile Creek in Port Dalhousie. From there you go to DeCew Falls, where Hamilton Merritt wanted to lift barges up the escarpment by rail. From there, you go to the ruins of John DeCew's house, where Laura Secord told James FitzGibbon of the danger he was in. Next is the former village of Beaverdams, near which the famous battle of the War of 1812 was fought. Then you follow the route of the first and second canals back to the centre of St Catharines. Finally you return to Port Dalhousie. Starting the trip—Port DalhousieStart the trip at the harbour in Port Dalhousie. If you have time before you start the trip, park the car and take a look around the harbour at Port Dalhousie. The first lock of the first canal cut through a sandbar that is now the Lakeside Park. The lock itself ran parallel to Lock Street at the bottom of the hill near the site of the Old Jail.
If you walk from the Old Jail to the harbour, then turn right, you will come to the first lock of the second canal. Although the lock gates are no longer there, you can see the metal hinges imbedded in the sidewalk and the recessed sections of the walls where the lock gates went when the gates were opened. Looking at the walls of the lock, you may see T-shaped cuts in the recessed areas. The locks had wheels that were operated to open small doors at the bottom of the locks to allow water to pass through. The T-shaped cuts were to allow the wheels to fit into the lock wall. There are two vertical slots in the wall. The lockkeeper could slide logs into these slots to protect the lock gates from being damaged by a runaway boat.
From the harbour, follow the one-way street to Lock Street, then continue across the four-way stop to Main Street. Turn left onto Martindale Road. Turn left onto Welland Vale Road. The road winds down to the Twelve Mile Creek. Here is where Merritt's farm was located. At the bottom, park in the small area on the right and walk to the bridge. The "bridge" is actually two bridges. The first bridge crosses a little stream. This is all that's left of the Twelve Mile Creek and the first Welland Canal. When the second canal was built, it was decided to straighten this section and this is one of the few places where you can actually see the first canal, which was basically the creek. Nothing is left of the locks for the first canal because they were made of wood. As you continue to walk, you will see a building on the right. This was formerly part of Niagara College. It is on the site of Merritt's mill. Continue to the second bridge. This bridge crosses the second Welland Canal. You can see the indentations in the walls for the lock gates. You can also see some of the hinges for the lock gates.
Return to the car. Do not cross the bridge; instead continue up Sawmill Road back to Welland Vale Road and back to Martindale Road. Turn left and follow Martindale Road as it crosses Fourth Avenue and becomes Louth Street. At the traffic lights at the end of Louth Street, turn right onto Pelham Road. Turn left onto Power Glen. Find somewhere to park so that you can look across the Twelve Mile Creek to the DeCew Falls Power Generating Plant. You can see the concrete tubes that funnel the water from Beaverdams Creek as it falls down the escarpment and direct it to the turbines in the buildings at the bottom. Here William Hamilton Merritt wanted to build an inclined railway to take barges up the escarpment. This power-generating plant was the first hydroelectric plant in Ontario; it was operating before the plant at Niagara Falls and it is still operating.
Continue along Power Glen. Turn left onto Pelham Road, then turn left onto Louth 1st Street. Follow the road around as it becomes DeCew Road. On the left, just past Cataract Road, turn into the parking lot for the Morningstar Mill.
The original mill, the gristmill, was built in 1872 by Robert Chappel as the Mountain Mill to harness the DeCew Falls, where the Beaverdams Creek goes over the escarpment. The site contains a gristmill, a sawmill, a turbine shed, and living quarters. Of the gristmill, only the exterior is original. The interior was destroyed by fire in 1892 but was reconstructed by Wilson Morningstar. When Morningstar bought the mill in 1883, there was a building where the sawmill is now located. It was used for community activities such as dances and meetings. Morningstar converted it into a sawmill. Both mills were driven by turbines located in the rear section of the gristmill. The turbines are driven by water flowing over the DeCew Falls. In the picture, the sawmill is on the left, the gristmill on the right and the DeCew Falls are hidden between them. On leaving the parking lot, turn left. In about one kilometre, you will see a sign on the left for the DeCew House. Turn left onto the short path to the remains of the house. This was the home of John DeCew and, in 1813, was the headquarters of Lt. James FitzGibbon and his Green 'Uns. Here is where Laura Secord ended her famous nineteen-mile hike to warn FitzGibbon of a surprise attack.
Continue along DeCew Road. Before the canal created Lakes Patterson, Moodie, and Gibson, this road followed the Beaverdams Creek to Beaverdams and the site of the 1812 battle. Now the creek has been replaced with these large lakes on both sides of the road. From the DeCew house, you can see the bridge over which the road travels, separating Lake Moodie on the left from Lake Gibson, just visible on the right of the picture.
Follow DeCew Road until it meets Beaverdams Road and turn left. The old village of Beaverdams is down the next road on the right. Before the Welland Canals were built, this road, Marlatts Road, joined up with the Beaverdams Road on the other side of the canal and went to Lundy's Lane and Niagara Falls. Instead of turning down Marlatts Road, continue along the Beaverdams Road on this side of the canal. Before the Welland Canal changed the landscape, this Beaverdams Road was called Mountain Road and extended all the way to Stamford in the northern part of today's City of Niagara Falls. Along this road in the summer of 1813, the 500 Americans under Col. Charles Boerstler intended to march on their way to attack FitzGibbon at DeCew's House. They never reached the village of Beaverdams.
Continue along Beaverdams Road to Pine Street and turn left. This is as far as the Americans got before trying to retreat back along the Mountain Road. They had been attacked at what is now the far (eastern) end of the Thorold Tunnel by two native forces: a band of Mohawks from the Grand River under John Norton and William Kerr and a band of Caughnawagas under Dominic Ducharme. By the time the Americans reached this junction, they were in severe trouble and had no idea how big the force attacking them was. It was near here that FitzGibbon saw what was happening and decided to bluff the Americans into thinking that they were about to wiped out by the wild screaming natives. The bluff worked and the Battle of Beaver Dams was won. Cross over Highway 58 and turn right onto Richmond Street. Follow the road as it turns left and becomes Ormond Street. Turn left onto Sullivan Avenue and then left onto Front Street. Find a place to park and visit Beaverdams Battlefield Park. This park is not at the site of the battle; the site is actually on the other side of the Thorold Tunnel. The park contains various markers related to the battle but is actually the site of lock 25 of the second canal.
Drive across Sullivan Avenue down Front Street. You are now driving on the road that once ran alongside, and to the east of, both the first and second Welland Canals. Turn left onto Albert Street. The old building on the right is the old Thorold Firehall It was built in the 1870s to house two fire engines. The tower was used to hang the hoses up to dry.
The parking lots just past the firehall have taken the place of the Welland Canals. The second canal was closer to the firehall because the builders had to build the second canal parallel to the first so that one canal was always open. The old mill buildings on the other side of the parking lot and a little to the north were the Welland Mills and were built in 1847 by Jacob Keefer, son of one of Merritt's partners, George Keefer. The mills were powered by the canal and used the canal to receive grain and deliver flour.
Drive to Pine Street and turn right. At Townline Road, turn right, then turn left onto Bradley Street.
As you drive down Bradley Street, look down to your right at the section of the second canal, complete with water. Lock 21 is at the corner as Bradley Street bends to the left. Further down is lock 20, which is complete, locks 19, 18 and 17, and further down, lock 15, which is only half its original depth and is dry. Park in Bradley Park near lock 18 and follow the markers around the second
canal locks that have been preserved here. For more information about this park, refer to http://www.tourstcatharines.com/tours-mountainlocks.shtml.
You are now in the city of St Catharines. Leave the park, continue along Bradley Street, turn right onto Mountain Street and then right again onto Glendale Avenue. Continue along Merritt Street and turn left onto Oakdale Avenue. The avenue runs alongside a park on the left, which contains the remnants of the second canal. Follow Oakdale Avenue as it bends around Centennial Gardens and becomes Gale Street. The street here follows the route of the raceways that made St Catharines into an industrial centre in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Part of the water for the canal was allowed to be diverted into channels called raceways. Mills and other industrial buildings were built along these raceways and used water-wheels to drive the machinery. Each mill diverted some water from the raceway to its millwheel and the water, after passing through the millwheel, went into the canal. Drive across Geneva Street into Race Street, named for the raceway that preceded it. At the end of Race Street, turn left, then first right onto the Parkway. This road takes you past the old Canada Hair factory. Park and walk around the factory and up a lane to St Paul Street. This street was named after Paul Shipman, the owner of a tavern at the corner of St Paul and Ontario Streets. St Catharines was once named Shipman's Corners for the same man.
Return to the car and drive along the Parkway, across Westchester Avenue to McGuire Street. At the end of McGuire Street is Merritt Park with a statue to the great builder of the first Welland Canal. The small park also contains a plaque commemorating the first Anglican chapel named St Catharines, which stood here from 1795 until 1836. The plaque lists 44 early citizens of St Catharines including the founders of St Catharines, Jacob Dittrick and John Hainer (spelled Hayner here). The list was part of a church document dated 1796. Other notables listed are John DeCew (Decow) and George Keefer, two colleagues in the early planning days of the first canal until the route was changed to bypass DeCew's land.
At the end of McGuire Street, turn left onto St Paul Street, then immediately right onto Yates Street. This street was named after one of Merritt's principal financial backers, John B. Yates. The building on the right as you enter Yates Street is Merritt's former home and is now the home of a radio station CKTB. The original house, which Merritt called Oak Hill, was built in 1829 but burned down in 1858. Merritt built the present house to replace it. The property once extended to the Twelve Mile Creek at the bottom of the hill.
If you can find a place to park nearby, walk to the wall on the left side of the road and look over the wall toward the creek. Down there, on the other side of the creek, was the Shickluna Shipyards. Louis Shickluna was a shipbuilder from Malta who emigrated to New York but then moved to Trois Rivieres, Quebec, where he worked on the Royal William, the first Canadian steamer to cross the Atlantic. He later worked on ships at Oakville and Niagara. In 1837, he bought the Armington shipyard in St Catharines and set up in business here. At one time he had two shipyards in St Catharines and was one of the biggest shipbuilders in Canada. Drive down Yates Street. On Yates Street were the homes of all the upper echelon of St Catharines. The street overlooked the Twelve Mile Creek and dominated the Welland canals below.
At Norris Place, turn right. This street is named after Captain James Norris, sea captain, businessman, mayor of St Catharines, MP, and the founder of the Norris family, famous for owning the Detroit Red Wings hockey club. His home was at number 9, on the right just before Cherry Street. This is a Classical Revival house and was built in 1834 by Geoffrey Ward. The step for getting into and out of coaches is still in front of the house.
Across the road at numbers 6 and 8 are brick semidetached houses built by Captain Norris.
Number 10 is the house that Captain Norris bought for his
daughter Annie. The Italianate house was built in 1876.
At the end of Norris Place, turn left onto Ontario Street. Drive
along Ontario Street to Lakeport Road. Turn left and drive across the bridge than crosses over the first lock of the third canal. Turn right at the traffic light and drive to Lakeside Park.
You have completed the trip. |
Chace House
Bate House
Beeton House
Wright House
Captain Norris House
6 and 8 Norris Place
Annie Norris House