There’s a new storyboard that has been recently unveiled at Niagara Falls Ontario City Hall outlining the history of, “The founder of Niagara Falls-Samuel Zimmerman”.
Niagara Falls City Historian, Sherman Zavitz, “I suspect many of our residents don’t know the history of this great man”. Zimmerman was an American businessman who came to then the community of Clifton (now Niagara Falls) some 172 year ago. He formed a construction company and won a contract to rebuild sections of the Welland Canal. He then expanded into building bridges and railways. Zimmerman foresaw the little village of 2,000 known as Clifton had great potential to become a large and prosperous city. He was right. He purchased lots of property in the 1850’s and built a large estate at the top of what we refer to as Clifton Hill. Part of that estate still exists today. Zimmerman Fountain Pond at the foot of Clifton Hill is now decked out in lights as part of our annual Ontario Power Generation Winter Festival of Lights.
Clifton changed its name to Niagara Falls in 1881.
Samuel Zimmerman died in a railway accident in 1857 and Clifton declared the day an annual holiday in recognition of Zimmerman’s great accomplishments.