Utopian Plan for Model City Development Victim of Recession and Power Discovery

By CLARENCE O. LEWIS
Niagara County Historian

Niagara County has been the scene of many spectacular projects that, due to some unforeseen circumstances have failed, despite the fact that they were planned and directed by brilliant men. Such a project was that of the Niagara Power and Development Co. They proposed to dig a power canal 25 feet deep and 40 feet wide from the Niagara River at LaSalle to the lower Niagara at Lewiston.

This canal was to pass over the Mountain Ridge near the west boundary line of the Tuscarora Indian Reservation. At the base was to be a power house which would develop 140,000 horsepower. A lesser amount was to be developed at the Lewiston end. This canal was to furnish water power as well as electric power for an industrial city of an estimated 600,000 persons.

Briefly that was the plan and it appeared so practical that the promoter, William T. Love, a New Englander I believe, soon attracted capital. Associated with him on the board of directors were men from Illinois, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. They secured from the State of New York in 1893 a charter for “the Model Town Company, Incorporated” that was probably the most comprehensive ever issued.

The Niagara Power and Development Co., of which Mr. Love was also the leading spirit secured a charter that put no limit on the amount of water they might take from the river. Their charter covered both Niagara and Erie Counties. Invested with such liberal powers and such a large territory in which to operate and such Utopian plans for a Model City, it is no wonder that the project appealed to investors.

Prospectus Circulated

Mr. Love had a luxurious office in Niagara Falls and the construction engineers had an office at Model City. A capital stock of $10,000,000 was allowed by the charter of the Model Town Co. A prospectus was issued and widely circulated. I have one before me from which I shall freely quote:

“The greatest power canal in the world it will cost $3,000,000 and develop 140,000 horsepower by the 290 foot fall between the upper and lower ends.”

Work was started just above Cayuga Island and a few hundred feet north of the river. Some 2 to 3 thousand feet of canal was dug, extending from the railroad tracks northward to Colvin Blvd., and parallel to 96th street. I was much surprised on a visit there recently to find that the banks of the canal are still discernible its full length and a large part of it is still open. Now however, due to a new school and an expanding residential area, the City of Niagara Falls is gradually filling in the open section.

Water from this canal has, at various times, broken through the banks and plagued the residents nearby and furthermore it is a most unsightly and unsanitary place. I noted that nearby residents were very happy to see it being filled.

In my office is a picture of a large group of men watching John Fleming, who was an ardent advocate of the canal, turn the first spadeful of earth at the formal commencement of the canal. Mr. Fleming was a prominent resident of Lewiston. The late E. T. Williams of Niagara Falls and W. D. Wisner of Ransomville and many other prominent men in our county were there. Mr. Love stands next to Mr. Fleming in the picture.

Ideal Site For City

The level plain north of the Ridge road, extending to the lake was an ideal site for the large city. The plans called for 21,000 acres of parks and public playgrounds, a million dollar industrial university, wide streets, all utilities located in alleys. No saloons and no tenement houses — mail to be delivered to sub-post office stations by pneumatic tubes — free building sites and free power was offered to industrial plants. Sixty thousand residential lots were to be available on a one per cent down payment. No taxes, no interest and no more payments until the canal was completed — surely a Utopian city!

By 1896 work was well under way. Sixty teams were at work grading and excavating. Lots to the value of $2,658,915 had been contracted for. Several factory buildings were completed. Others were in the blueprint stage. Large advertisements were being run in all Western New York papers and smaller notices appeared in papers all over the country. The R. W. & O. R. R. runs through Model City and the company planned connections with the N. Y. C. at Lewiston as well as a belt line around the city. In the prospectus are testimonials from Gov. Flower of New York State and from many industrialists and public men from this and nearby states.

Everything was working out just as planned. A newspaper called the “Model City Power” kept its 1,100 subscribers posted on the latest developments. A Union church was erected for the religious needs of the community.

In 1897 a financial stringency began to be noticeable in the United States and by 1898 sales of lots decreased. Additional capital that was needed could not be obtained. A report filed in the Niagara County clerk’s office that year announced debts of $350,000 and assets of $1,500,000 in contracts which were contingent on the completion of the enterprise. A 50-year mortgage for $5,000,000 had been given by the company in 1895. So that all in all conditions looked bad. Then came the final blow. Nicola Tesla, an electrical wizard of Europe, had discovered that an alternating electrical current could be transmitted by wire for great distances with comparatively little or no loss from leakage. Since it was far cheaper to generate power at Niagara Falls and transmit it by wire to a community than to dig costly canals to develop power on the spot, capital was no longer interested in Mr. Love’s canal nor in his Utopian City.

Model City On Map

However, Model City was already on the map. The population, however, is numbered by the hundred rather than by the thousand. A large cold storage plant occupies one of the original factory buildings. A lumber yard is also in operation. A grocery store and post office and hotel and, of course, the Model City Railroad Station are the nucleus of the small community.

However, to the north on land that was to be covered by the big city are military units; and a $5,000,000 plant is to be completed and operated by the Hooker Electro chemical Co. for the Atomic Energy Commission. Traffic to and from this area is almost like that of a big city. If Mr. Love could see all that is going on and know all that is being planned on his big city site, he could reasonably assume that some day there will be a large city there.

J. Boardman Scovell, a prominent lawyer of Lewiston, was attorney for the Love interests in the late 1890’s. He talked to the Niagara County Historical Society on the Love Canal and Model City project several years ago, and this stimulated my interest in the story. John Brasser and Mrs. Helen Kimball of Lewiston supplied me with some of the above data.