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city in Ontario, Canada
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St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region and the 8th-largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of 96.2 square kilometres (37.1 mi2) and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, 51 kilometres (32 mi) south of Toronto across Lake Ontario, and 19 kilometres (12 mi) inland from the international boundary with the United States along the Niagara River. It is the northern entrance of the Welland Canal. St. Catharines carries the official nickname "The Garden City" due to its 4 square kilometres (1.5 mi2) of parks, gardens, and trails.
St. Catharines is between the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and the Canada–U.S. border at Fort Erie. Manufacturing was the city's dominant industry, as noted by the heraldic motto, "Industry and Liberality". General Motors of Canada, Ltd., the Canadian subsidiary of General Motors, was the city's largest employer, a distinction now held by the District School Board of Niagara. THK Rhythm Automotive, formerly TRW, operates a plant in the city, although in recent years, employment there has shifted from heavy industry and manufacturing to services.
St. Catharines lies on one of the main telecommunications backbones between Canada and the United States. As a result, a number of call centres operate in the city. It is designated an Urban Growth Centre by the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, intended to achieve a minimum density target of 150 jobs and residents combined per hectare by 2032 or earlier.
St. Catharines is also home to Brock University, a campus of Trillium College, and a university prep school Ridley College.
The Iroquoian speaking Chonnonton peoples, also known as the "people of the deer", lived in the region. The Chonnonton grew vegetables like corn, beans, and squash while living in longhouses. In 1647 the Seneca conquered Chonnonton villages from east of the Niagara River. The Haudenosaunee destroyed the villages in the 1650s. After these attacks and smallpox epidemics, the Chonnontons disappeared completely. Their the last recorded appearance was in 1671 by French explorers.
St. Catharines falls within the original territory of the Mississaugas. A treaty, signed in 1782 between the Mississaugas and the British government, ceded a large tract of land, which included the St. Catharines area, to the Crown for the purpose of European settlement. St. Catharines was settled by Loyalists in the 1780s. The Crown granted land in compensation for services and for losses in the United States. Early histories credit the Loyalists Serjeant Jacob Dittrick and Private John Hainer as among the first settlers to come to the area in 1790. They took their Crown Patents, where Dick's Creek and 12 Mile Creek merge, which is now the city centre of St. Catharines. Historians have speculated that Dick's Creek was named after Richard Pierpoint, a Black Loyalist and former American slave, from an oral history account and events that had taken place around that time that would be consistent with him being the source of the name. Secondary to water routes, indigenous trails provided transportation networks, which resulted in the nearby radial road patterns. The surrounding land was surveyed, and ownships were created between 1787 and 1789.
After the Butler's Rangers disbanded in 1784 and settled the area, Duncan Murray, a former quartermaster in the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants), was appointed by the Crown to distribute free government supplies (victuals) for two years to the resettled Loyalists. He did this from his mill, built on the 12 Mile Creek in Power Glen. After his death in 1786, his holdings were forfeited to the merchant Robert Hamilton of Queenston, who tried to operate for profit the well-established Murray's Distribution Centre and Mill under the management of his cousin. Among other ventures, Hamilton became land wealthy by expropriating lands from subsistence Loyalist settlers who were incapable of settling their debts. Murray's distribution centre, later Hamilton's warehouse, and its location have long been a mystery. Hamilton's major profits were derived from transhipping supplies for the military and civic establishments from his Queenston enterprise, not from charitably supplying the subsistence Loyalist settlers. Hamilton lacked interest in social development and sold his business to Jesse Thompson before the turn of the 19th century.
The Merritt family arrived after this time and was among the later Loyalists to relocate after the American Revolution. They were from the Carolinas, New York, and New Brunswick. In 1796, Thomas Merritt arrived to build on his relationship with his former Commander and Queen's Ranger, John Graves Simcoe, who was now the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. The first Welland Canal was constructed from 1824 to 1833. William Hamilton Merritt worked to promote the ambitious venture by raising funds and enlisting government support. The canal established St. Catharines as the hub of commerce and industry for the Niagara Peninsula. Merritt played a role in making St. Catharines a centre of abolitionist activity. In 1855, the British Methodist Episcopal Church, Salem Chapel was established at the corner of Geneva and North Streets, on land granted to the congregation by Merritt in the early 1840s. The area became known to refugee slaves from the United States as a place of "refuge and rest." It was a destination, one of the final stops in Canada for the Underground Railroad for African-American refugees fleeing slavery. The abolitionist Harriet Tubman lived in St. Catharines. By the mid-1850s, the town's population was about 6,000, of whom 800 were of African descent. St. Catharines remains an important place in Black Canadian history.
At an unknown early date, an inn was built by Thomas Adams on the east side of what is now Ontario Street. It became a community meeting place, election centre, stagecoach stop, and mail delivery deposit. It was preceded by the church and a log school house completed before 1797, all on the east bank of the 12 Mile Creek, at the extreme west end of what was then known as Main Street. This was an extension of the old Iroquois Trail and renamed St. Paul Street by the settlers and their descendants by the mid-19th century. Later, several mills, salt works, numerous retail outlets, a ship building yard, distillery, and various other businesses were developed.
Incorporated as a village in 1845, St. Catharines had a population of about 3,500 in 1846. The primary industry was flour milling. Other industry included ship repairs, four grist mills, a brewery, three distilleries, a tannery, a foundry, a machine, and a pump factory. There were a variety of tradesmen, three bank agencies, and eight taverns. Stage coaches offered service to other towns and villages. There were already six churches or chapels, a post office that received mail daily, a grammar school, and a weekly newspaper.
St. Catharines was incorporated as a city in 1876. The city expanded when it annexed Grantham Township, Merritton, and Port Dalhousie in 1961. Further westward expansion occurred in 1970, when part of Louth Township was amalgamated into St. Catharines as part of a province-wide move to regional government, extending the city boundary to Fifteen Mile Creek, while the remainder of the township was assigned to Lincoln.
Before it was called St. Catharines, the settlement near Twelve Mile Creek was known by various names, including Shipman's Corners and The Twelve. The name St. Catharines was first recorded in 1796, as St. Catherines, and became a common name for the settlement by 1809, but it would often be spelled with -er- or with an apostrophe before the -s. The name and the spelling were standardized as St. Catharines when the town incorporated in 1845. The Catherine after which the city is named is unclear. Common theories include Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Catherine Butler (wife of Colonel John Butler), and Catherine Askin Hamilton (wife of Robert Hamilton). Catharine Rodman Prendergast Merritt, wife of William Hamilton Merritt, may be the source of the -ar spelling. An alternate theory to explain the spelling was that Catharine with an -ar was the typical spelling of the name for Palatine German settlers in the region.
St. Catharines' climate is humid continental (Köppen borderline Dfa/Dfb). It has a unique micro-climate because of the moderating influence of Lake Ontario/Lake Erie and the sheltering effect of the Niagara Escarpment to the south. This climate allows wineries to flourish. As a result, the city records numerous frost-free days and frequent thaws in the winter, although it sometimes receives heavy lake-effect snow during certain wind conditions, and micro-cooling lakeside on some spring afternoons. The summer season is predominantly warm, sometimes hot and humid, with an average high temperature of 27 °C (81 °F) in July. Summer thunderstorms are commonplace but generally less prevalent and less severe than farther west in southern Ontario, due to the diminishing effect of the surrounding lakes.
The highest temperature ever recorded in St. Catharines was 40.0 °C (104 °F) on 10 July 1936. The coldest temperature ever recorded was −25.7 °C (−14.3 °F) on 18 February 1979.
St. Catharines' development history has resulted in a number of unique and distinct communities within the city. The historical area of St. Catharines consisted of nothing more than what is now the downtown core, with the remaining land being part of Louth Township on the west and Grantham Township on the east. St. Catharines continued to steadily grow through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, eventually annexing land to the southwest that would become Western Hill and Old Glenridge, and to the east and north that would collectively become the central part of St. Catharines. In addition to the growth of St. Catharines, the town of Merritton and the town of Port Dalhousie existed as separate municipalities to the south and north of the city, each slowly growing their own residential base.
Along with the rest of Ontario, St. Catharines experienced explosive growth after World War II. St. Catharines continued to annex Grantham Township as development continued, including the large swaths of land to the north known now as "The North End". St. Catharines would also absorb Merritton and Port Dalhousie in 1961, making them part of the city. During this time, St. Catharines nearly tripled in population.
With the formation of the Regional Municipality of Niagara in 1970, the portion of Louth Township east of Fifteen Mile Creek was transferred to the City of St. Catharines. This included the eastern portion of the Hamlet of Rockway, as well as the Hamlet of Power Glen. The few remaining portions of Grantham Township in the Northeast corner of the area, including Port Weller, were also transferred to the city. With the new Louth Township lands belonging to the city, St. Catharines would begin two developments in the west end — Martindale Road in 1983, and Vansickle Road in 1987. These developments are nearing completion. There was also a push to continue further expansion to the west in the late 1990s, but this has since been halted by Ontario Greenbelt legislation.
The following distinct communities exist within St. Catharines:
Numerous efforts have been made to improve the downtown. The restructuring of manufacturing resulted in a loss of jobs and retail businesses. In the early 21st century, city, university, and private developers undertook several initiatives to revive downtown, related to urban design, clustering activities to attract people to the area as a destination from day through evening events.
In 2006, city council approved converting one-way arteries through the city centre to allow for two-way traffic, to make it easier for people to make their way around the city to explore it. In terms of urban planning and use, two-way traffic improves circulation within the area. The city wanted to improve downtown as a destination, rather than a place to pass through. The council also wanted to have downtown St. Catharines on the Wine Route, a driving tour of Niagara wineries and an Ontario Wine Council initiative to boost the number of visitors to the region's many wineries. The Wine Route was modified to officially redirect winery goers through the downtown starting in 2012. The first phase of two-way traffic was completed in 2009, with St. Paul and King streets being converted. The cost of the conversion was $3.5 million and was shared with Niagara Region. In 2012, most observers concluded that the change had achieved its goals; it garnered national media attention.
Text from the Wikipedia article “St. Catharines”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.