Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Site

Location

Niagara Falls, NY, Niagara Falls, NY 14303, USA

Lat/Long

43.084722, -79.063917

Grant Recipient

Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Commission Inc.

The Cataract House hotel opened circa 1825 in Niagara Falls, NY. The hotel’s African American staff helped freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad cross the nearby Niagara River into Canada. An 1841 letter written by a slave owner recalling how one of his slaves was aided into freedom by staff of the Cataract Hotel was printed in The Times-Picayune, a newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana. The letter stated that:

…the proprietors of the ‘Cataract House’ keep in their employ, as servants, a set of free negroes, many of whom have wives and relatives in Canada, and they have an organized plan of taking off all slaves that come to the house.

On October 14, 1945, the Cataract House was destroyed by a fire of unknown origin. Contemporary news accounts of the fire reported on the loss of the world famous hotel that was once host to presidents and royalty.