The Terrapin Tower in 19th century Niagara

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About the Collection

The Terrapin Tower was built by General Pankhurst Whitney in 1829, and it was the first of the towers to be built at the Niagara Falls (Niagara Falls Info 2017). The tower was located on the western tip of Goat Island at the edge of the Canadian Horseshoe falls. Goat Island, where the Terrapin tower was built on, was owned by General Peter Porter and his brother Augustus Porter, who gained possession of the site in 1816, making them the American owners of the site (Berton 2009, 20-29). It was the Porter brothers who initially built a 300-foot wooden bridge (visible in multiple photos in this exhibition) on the Terrapin rocks which were situated just off the edge of the Niagra Falls; The Terrapin Tower was later added to this bridge (Niagra Falls Info 2017).

The Terrapin tower, which was circular shaped and measured 12 metres in height and 3.7 m in diameter, offered tourists an unmatched view of the Falls and the boiling gorge below it (Niagara Falls Info 2017). The Terrapin tower’s interior included a spiral staircase from its bottom leading to a small door at the peak of the tower, which then led to circular balcony surrounded by metal railing on the exterior of the tower (Niagra Falls info 2017). Overall, the tower was built in such a way that it offered visitors an extraordinary view as well as a level of safety and comfort. Due to this fact, the tower was an incredibly popular observatory structure to overlook the Niagra Falls at the time of its existence, with the only other major observatory on the Falls being Prospects point which was further downriver (Berton 2009, 20-29). It is no surprise then, that the Terrapin Tower rapidly attracted many visitors to the Niagara Falls.

During the peak of its popularity the Terrapin tower was essentially an observatory hotspot at the Falls and many prominent photographers, such as George E. Curtis, took multiple pictures of the site for their personal collections or to advertise the tower as a tourist attraction of the Falls. Furthermore, as was commonly done in many of Niagara’s attractions, photographers would create stereo cards and photographic prints to capture the mesmerising scene of the Terrapin tower and sell them to people who visited the site (Vanderwilt 2007, 35). In this exhibition, there are a number of stereo cards present (distinctive in their display of two identical photographs next to each other), and this is because the Terrapin tower was a significant tourist attraction, thus a number of stereo cards would have been created to advertise its appeal. For more context, in the 19th century, stereo cards were often collected by middle-class families to commemorate the tourist sites they had visited, and a stereoscope would be used to view the stereo cards to produce the illusion of a three-dimensional image (Walton 1999, par. 4). Hence, the Terrapin tower having quite a number of stereo cards is evidence of its life span as a tourist attraction site.

In addition, It is evident in a number of the photos in this collection that the Terrapin tower itself is not truly being centered in the composition. Instead, the Falls and the foilage surrounding it takes up much space in the photograph. This is not necessarily because the photographers did not want to get good photos of the tower, but moreso alludes to what main purpose of the Terrapin tower was: to attract tourists. The Terrapin tower was supposed to highlight the beauty of the Falls, so it does make sense that even the photographers capturing the structure would center the Niagra Falls. Therefore, all the images where the Terrapin tower may be barely visible or far in the distance in this exhibition are not poor quality photographs, but rather testaments to the Terrapin tower’s importance as an attraction site.

Despite the fact that the Terrapin tower was a popular tourist site, there were also many critics of its existence that found it to be obstructive, especially when viewing the beauty of the waterfalls of Niagra (Berton 2009, 20-26). In 1872, the Terrapin Tower was intentionally deconstructed so that it would not compete with a new tower that was planned to be built at Prospect park. The new replacement tower was in fact never built afterwards. (Niagara Falls Info 2017).

The Terrapin tower and the visual culture associated with it highlights the importance improvements of photography in the 19th century had on tourist sites, landmarks, and the sharing and collecting of images in general. Due to the progression of photography, stereo cards and prints of the Terrapin tower like those shown in this exhibition could be made in large numbers and sold to different classes of people (not just the extremely wealthy) to advertise the Niagra falls and the tower as an observatory. These photographs being as small and portable as they were, would easily travel with people and attract more visitors to the tower. This kind of utilization of visual culture would not have been as straightforward or even possible before photography.

Bibliography

Berton, Pierre. Niagara: A History of the Falls. State University of New York Press, 2009. https://books.google.ca/books?id=P_Rr06A2H6UC&pg=PA20&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Niagara Falls Info, February 7, 2017. “History of Niagara Falls Towers - Terrapin Point Tower, Niagara Falls, New York..” https://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/niagara-falls-history/niagara-falls-tourism-history/niagara-falls-tower-history/terrapin-point-tower/.

Vanderwilt, Dirk Niagara Falls: With the Niagara Parks, Clifton Hill, and Other Area Attractions. Channel Lake, Inc., (2007). ISBN 978-0-9792043-7-1

Walton, Bill C. “THEN AND NOW Stereo Card Sets.” P.S.A. journal 65, no. 3 (1999): 14–.