Heritage

Well before its official incorporation as a city in 1876, St. Catharines has had a rich history worth exploring and diving into. 

Spend an afternoon at the St. Catharines Museum & Welland Canal Centre @ Lock 3 and see  visiting ships from all corners of the world.  You’ll observe these giants climb the escarpment as they travel between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

The Morning Star Mill provides a rare glimpse back in time to when moving water provided power to mechanically grind grain into flour. It features a working gristmill built in 1872, a turbine shed, sawmill, a blacksmith and carpentry shop.

St. Catharines was the final terminus on the Underground Railroad for hundreds of slaves in the 1820s. The Underground Railroad and Niagara’s Freedom Trail was a network of people who hid and guided black slaves as they fled the United States and headed north to Canada to seek freedom.

The railroad began at the “The Crossing,” which is located along the Niagara River by historic Fort Erie and ends at the British Methodist Episcopal Church, Salem Chapel. Harriet Tubman, an important Underground Railroad conductor and abolitionist attended this chapel which became an important space for early abolitionist activity in British North America. Tubman remained in St. Catharines for 10 years where she worked as an abolitionist and helped former enslaved people adjust to their new life.