Township of Wainfleet photo albums, c. 1890-1940

Abstract

Two photo albums with photographs from the Township of Wainfleet, c. 1890-1920. Some of the photos also include surrounding areas such as Niagara Falls and Queenston. The first photo album contains 96 small black and white photographs featuring local residents, businesses, farms, churches, and houses, including the Fenwick Railway Station; the Alexander [Alexandra] Bridge in Welland; O’Reilly’s Bridge; the brink of Niagara Falls; P.J. Gracey’s Store; Steward Carriage Works in Wellandport; a shingle factory; Sutherland’s Gingerette; Wainfleet S.S. #8/Beckett’s Bridge School; military camp labeled “Tent Med 1908”; boaters in Chippewa Creek; Hamilton; the Port Colborne Elevator; Hewitt’s Post Office and Store; and the Town of Wellandport. A picture of two men in blackface wearing suits and hats, with one man holding a banjo, is also included. Enclosed in the pages of the album is a postcard of men and women picking berries in a berry patch.

The second photo album contains 47 large photographs. Most of the photos are black and white but some have had colour added. Most of the photos are affixed to the album but there are also 12 loose photos included. Photos feature farm life; large family gatherings; houses; J.E. Chambers Store at Chambers Corners (1909); the Erie Apple Evaporator (Forks Rd.?); the Horseshoe Falls from the American side, showing the newly constructed Canadian Niagara Power Plant on the Canadian shore (c. 1905); the Whirlpool Rapids with the steel arch bridge and cantilever bridge over the gorge; Brock’s Monument; Sutherland’s Deering Machinery Shop; Central Roller Mills in Wainfleet Centre; O’Reilly’s Bridge; the collapsed Falls View bridge (January 27, 1938); and a lumber yard in Fenwick (Chambers?).