Founding of Port Colborne

Photo by Alan L Brown - August 22, 2004

Plaque Location

The Region of Niagara
The City of Port Colborne
On the wall at the NE corner of Clarence Street and King Street

Plaque Text

In 1831 the Welland Canal Company selected Gravelly Bay as the southern terminus of their waterway connecting Lakes Ontario and Erie, and in 1833 asked the permission of Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Colborne to name the site "Port Colborne". The Hon. William H. Merritt, president of the Canal Company, had streets laid out on both sides of the canal in 1834 and, with several partners, built a grist-mill by 1835. Initially the community's economy depended largely on the canal, but from the 1850's Port Colborne developed as a wheat-shipping point, railway junction and industrial centre. In was incorporated as a village in 1869 and council first met on January 17, 1870.

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