Niagara Falls‘ “Old Stone Chimney” is considered the second oldest masonry structure west of the Hudson River. This significant historical structure however sits on an obscure piece of land on the embankment of the Robert Moses Parkway, near the John B. Daly Boulevard exit and behind an abandoned parking lot.

The “Old Stone Chimney” obscures location will all soon change however, in the summer of 2014. $200,000 in Niagara River Greenway funding has been approved to move the chimney to a location closer to the Niagara River known to locals as the Niagara Power Project “spoils pile”.

The “Old Stone Chimney” has a rich history and was originally built in 1750 by Daniel de Joncaire as part of two-story barracks on the site of the French “Fort du Portage,” or “Fort Little Niagara”. This historic structure was built from approximately sixty tons of stones that were collected along the Niagara River and Niagara Escarpment.

In 1759 Daniel de Joncaire instructed his troops to burn the barracks because British forces were approaching from the west. Joncaire and his men fled to Fort Niagara and the only thing that remained from his former location was the “Old Stone Chimney”.

In 1760, the British utilized the stone chimney as part of a two-story house with a one and one half-story addition attached to the French stone chimney. That house remained in one form or another through the Revolutionary War, but during the War of 1812 it was burned by the British in December 1813 in retaliation for the burning of Niagara-on-the-Lake by American forces, still the “Old Stone Chimney” stood.

The “Old Stone Chimney” survived as an attachment to a two-story wooden building used as an Inn and later a home. In 1889 the building was torn down, but in 1890, the Niagara Falls Power Company bought the property. The “Old Stone Chimney” then became the focus of concern by citizens wishing to maintain it’s integrity.

A song was actually written by Thomas V. Welch in 1891 to draw attention to the “Old Stone Chimney” and the words were:

“Long may the old stone chimney stand,
Upon Niagara’s shore;
The sons of France and Britain’s band,
They battle there no more;
The pioneers, and sweethearts dear,
Are sleepin on the hill,
Where the stone chimney stands,
In the evening gray and still.”

The “Old Stone Chimney” was then dismantled and moved about 150 feet in 1902. In 1942 the “Old Stone Chimney” was again moved to Porter Park, where it has stood until the summer of 2014.

[Show slideshow]