Adding insult to injury, the setting of the falls is set to take a plunge. With the arrival of the casinos came myriad new high-rise hotels, most within a stone’s throw of the falls. The result—an expanse of concrete and glass extending downriver from the Horseshoe Falls. That wall is slated to infiltrate the seven acres of green space surrounding Loretto Academy, the stately, 148-year-old convent school that sits atop the bluff at the brink of the Horseshoe Falls, and from where Bess, in The Day the Falls Stood Still, glimpses prayers drifting heavenward above the falls. In 2006 a hotelier bought Loretto, and the City of Niagara Falls has subsequently amended its Official Plan to add the Loretto property to the area deemed suitable for high-rises, a first step toward allowing the treed grounds of Loretto that today frame the falls to be replaced by three towering buildings. The falls will be dwarfed by the tallest, a monstrous fifty-seven stories—more than three times the height of the falls. And it isn’t just the view that will be spoiled. The high-rises will cast shadows on the falls and the surrounding parkland and could increase the number of rain-like days at Niagara Falls by altering the airflow near the falls and drawing the mist toward the land, an effect that has already been demonstrated to be the case for the high-rise hotels that came with the casinos.
The idea of high-rises forming the backdrop to a natural wonder of the world does not sit well with me. Since childhood, I have stood at the brink of the falls countless times, filling with wonder, filling with awe. The sanctity of the place, I feel, must be preserved. I’ve become a founding member of conservation organization Friends of Niagara Falls. Our first task: stopping the high-rise development planned for the grounds of Loretto Academy. (Learn more at www.FriendsofNiagaraFalls.org.)
When the New York State Reservation at Niagara Falls opened in 1885, it was with a declaration that Niagara Falls was “not a property, but a shrine—a temple erected by the hand of the Almighty for all the children of men.” Yet we find ourselves on a path of turning Niagara Falls into a trifling, measly thing, framed not by nature but by a looming wall of concrete and glass.
Web Detective
I often hear from readers that TDTFSS inspires a trip to Niagara Falls, and I’d like to pass along these excellent websites:
www.cathymariebuchanan.com/interactive-map
A historical map of Niagara Falls where readers can click on landmarks from the book, calling up an excerpt, a short history, and gorgeous old pictures. In Niagara Falls, you’ll see plenty of signage for the Niagara Glen and Whirlpool, both downriver of the falls on the Niagara Parkway. Those who go searching will find Glenview at 4223 Terrace Avenue and Loretto Academy at 6881 Stanley Avenue.
www.cathymariebuchanan.com/
cathy’s-niagara-falls-top-10
My top ten Niagara Falls attractions.
www.niagaraparks.com
A wealth of information for visitors from the Niagara Parks Commission, which owns and maintains a tract of Canadian parkland running the length of the Niagara River. Favorite activities include hiking the Niagara Glen and climbing aboard the Maid of the Mist.
www.niagarafallsstatepark.com
Information for visitors from Niagara Falls State Park, on the U.S. side. Descend to the wooden walkways of the Cave of the Winds, and take in the falls from Goat Island, wedged between the Horseshoe and Bridal Veil falls.
Photo Credits
Library of Congress, cph 3b15325 and 3b39941. p. 5: Courtesy of Loretto Archives, Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Toronto, Ontario.
George Barker, Library and Archives Canada, PA-181218.
Niagara Falls Public Library, Niagara Falls, New York.
Copyright unknown.
Niagara, copyright 1902 by A. Wittemann, Brooklyn, New York.
Niagara Falls (Ontario) Public Library.
William James Topley, Library and Archives Canada, PA-008929.
Photo courtesy of Ontario Power Generation. p. 270: George Barker, Library and Archives Canada, PA-056072.
Library of Congress, ppmsca 18039.
Copyright
The Day the Falls Stood Still
Copyright © 2009 by 2167549 Ontario Inc.
P.S. Section © 2010 by Cathy Marie Buchanan.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2011 ISBN: 978-1-443-40964-3
Published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
First published in Canada by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd in an original trade paperback edition: 2009 This Harper Perennial trade paperback edition: 2010
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Buchanan, Cathy Marie
The day the falls stood still/Cathy Marie Buchanan.
ISBN 978-1-443-40964-3
I. Title.
PS8603.U2987D39 2010 C813’.6 C2010-903483-X
RRD 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Cathy Marie Buchanan, The Day the Falls Stood Still
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