The Buttery Elevators

The Buttery Elevators. The Passing of a 19th-Century Landmark. The public accessed the Whirlpool Rapids via a rickety stairway at an old saw mill that was purchased by John M. Buttery in the 1850s. When the site became a popular tourist destination, Buttery abandoned the mill and built a safer stairway into the gorge. In 1869 to further improve access to the Whirlpool Rapids, he built the Buttery Elevators on land purchased from DeVeaux College for Orphans and Destitute Children. The Buttery family operated the elevators, which were powered by a water wheel, for over 20 years.

In 1889, the family formed the Whirlpool Rapids Company, and in 1893, a new longer shaft with double elevator cars was built. The company also erected an electric plant to light a park, the elevators, and the rapids. To attract even more visitors, the company petitioned for an extension of the Niagara Falls Street Railway to its property. Eventually, the property was sold to the Gorge Railroad. In 1899, a windstorm blew down the original elevator building, and a rockslide almost completely destroyed the machinery in the newer elevator building. In 1901, the city of Niagara Falls burned them in a controlled fire.

J. M. Buttery was born in the town of Homer, NY, arrived in Lewiston around 1830, and married Priscilla Nichols in 1835. He took an active part in the 1837 Canadian Rebellion and supervised the excavation of the "Through Cut" of the Lewiston and Niagara Falls Railroad.

Whirlpool Rapids and Double Elevator on American Side. Most charming and Delightful Spot about Niagara. Grand View of the old Suspension Bridge. Hero Blondin crossed the gorge on a rope, and past here Robinson, in 1861, piloted the steamer "maid of the Mist" through the boiling rapids. Grandest View of Rapids and Gorge. the fearful current forces the water in the centre of the stream forty feet higher than at the edges. Don't fail to visit the spot. M. Buttery Sons. The Daily Gazette, September 9, 1883.

You are standing near the site of the Buttery Elevators. Chasm Avenue, which now stops at Whirlpool Street, at one time ran to the edge of the gorge. This map shows the Niagara Falls Street Railway terminating at the Buttery Elevators.

The Buttery Whirlpool Rapids Company successfully petitioned for the extension of the railway, which included construction of a tunnel and the extension of Spring Avenue from Bellvue Avenue to Chasm Avenue. Courtesy of the Niagara Falls Public Library.

Born in Roxbury, Vermont, in 1813, Priscilla and her family moved to Western New York in 1816, eventually settling on a farm in Lewiston in 1820. She was a school teacher, mother of ten, and following her husband's death, managed the Buttery Elevators for 16 years. . This historical marker is in Niagara Falls in Niagara County New York