Model City (Post-WWII)

When William T. Love ran out of money in the late 1890s and failed to build a canal and artificial waterfall that would power Model City, he fled the Niagara Falls area. In his wake, he left the residents of the fledgling utopian community and the unfinished canal vulnerable to environmental contamination. 

For decades, the northern section of Model City stayed the same. And then, America’s involvement in World War II and the nuclear arms race forever changed the landscape of this “sleepy hamlet.”

As part of the war effort, the U.S. government purchased 7,500 acres in the area to build a gigantic TNT plant known as the Lake Ontario Ordnance Works. The 149 private landowners, most of whom owned farms and orchards, “were given thirty days to move […] during an unusually cold winter in January 1942.” Most of the 663 barns and farmhouses were burned or torn down. 

Due to the climate of government secrecy, fear, and patriotism during World War II, the landowners accepted their fate. One resident recalled, “Our country was at war. Our government needed a place to make TNT. Loving both God and country, [we] prepared to move.”

The TNT plant was completed in a year and cost a whopping $42 million. 5,000 acres of undeveloped land functioned as a buffer zone to protect the public from the dangers of TNT production. The plant operated for nine months and then “newer, more effective explosives were manufactured elsewhere.”

Two years later, the plant was converted into a dumping ground for radioactive waste left over from production of the atomic bomb for the Manhattan Project. 

Over time, most of the undeveloped land was “sold back to various private and public entities,” including the Lewiston-Porter Central School District. The site of the TNT plant now contains a hazardous waste facility and a garbage dump. Unsurprisingly, some of this land is contaminated with radioactive and chemical wastes. 

Eight miles south of this area is Love’s unfinished canal. People swam, fished, and ice skated on it for fifty years. Then, Hooker Chemical Company dumped 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals into the canal. It was filled in, redeveloped, and sold to the city for one dollar in 1953. 

A school and about 100 homes were built at the site. “Perhaps it wasn't […] Love's model city, but it was a solid, working-class community. For a while.”

You see, the contamination didn’t stay buried. It seeped into people’s basements and yards, causing the mass evacuation of hundreds of families. 

The Love Canal story broke in 1978 and a health emergency was declared. To this day, much of the area remains undeveloped

Hope L. Russell, Ph.D.