City of Tonawanda
| Tonawanda, New York | ||
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| City | ||
The North Tonawanda side of the Gateway Harbor
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 Location of Tonawanda in Erie County and New York |
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 Tonawanda, New York
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| Coordinates: 43°0′40″N 78°52′39″W / 43.01111°N 78.87750°WCoordinates: 43°0′40″N 78°52′39″W / 43.01111°N 78.87750°W | ||
| Country | United States | |
| State | New York | |
| County | Erie | |
| Government | ||
| • Type | Mayor-Council | |
| • Mayor | Rick Davis (D) | |
| • Common Council |
Members' List
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| Area | ||
| • Total | 4.1 sq mi (10.6 km2) | |
| • Land | 3.8 sq mi (9.8 km2) | |
| • Water | 0.3 sq mi (0.8 km2) | |
| Elevation | 571 ft (174 m) | |
| Population (2010) | ||
| • Total | 15,130 | |
| Time zone | EST (UTC−5) | |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC−4) | |
| Area code(s) | 716 | |
| FIPS code | 36-74166 | |
| GNIS feature ID | 0979550 | |
| Website | Tonawanda, NY | |
Tonawanda (formally City of Tonawanda, from Tahnawá•teh meaning "confluent stream" in Tuscarora) is a city in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 15,130 at the 2010 census. It is located at the northern edge of Erie County, south across the Erie Canal (Tonawanda Creek) from North Tonawanda, and north of Buffalo, New York. It is part of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area.
Post-Revolutionary War European-American settlement at Tonawanda began with Henry Anguish, who built a log home in 1808. He added to the hamlet in 1811 with a tavern, both on the south side of Tonawanda Creek where it empties into the Niagara River. The hamlet grew slowly until the opening of the Erie Canal, completed in the course of the creek in 1825. The Town of Tonawanda was incorporated in 1836. The Erie Canal and the railroads that soon followed it provided economic opportunity. By the end of the 19th century, both sides of the canal were devoted to businesses as part of a leading lumber processing center. In the mid-19th century, the business center of Tonawanda was incorporated as a village within the town. The village united in a corporation with North Tonawanda across the canal. This corporation fell apart, and in 1904 the village was incorporated as the City of Tonawanda.
On September 26, 1898, a tornado struck the City of Tonawanda. After crossing over the river from Grand Island, the tornado damaged the old Murray School as well as several homes along Franklin and Kohler streets. Its worst havoc was wreaked along Fuller Avenue, where a dozen homes were severely damaged, several being leveled to the ground. No one was killed by the fierce storm, but there were numerous injuries.
From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century a section of Tonawanda existed that was known as Goose Island. Goose Island was a manmade island in the Niagara River formed by the Erie Canal. Goose Island was a triangular piece of land bordered on one side by the Niagara River, on the second side by the Tonawanda Creek, and on the third by the Erie Canal. It was then famous with seamen the world over as the terminus of the Erie Canal and for the Goose Island girls. The Goose Island Section of Tonawanda had numerous cheap boarding houses, cheap hotels, bars, and houses of ill repute. Canalers often wintered over on Goose Island. Goose Island was known as a bad section of Tonawanda, with drunkenness, brawling, and bawdy displays being commonplace. The gentrification of Goose Island began with the decline of the lumbering port business in Tonawanda and the building of a boxboard mill there on the island. Then the canal was motorized, eliminating mules and many canal men. Next the section of the canal from Tonawanda to Buffalo was abandoned in 1918. That section of the canal was filled in and Goose Island was no longer an island. The establishments in the Goose Island section of Tonawanda came under community pressure in the 1920s and 1930s and were closed, with more of the land there being given over to the boxboard mill. In the 1970s the boxboard mill closed and was razed along with many remaining Goose Island structures. Goose Island street names Tonawanda, First, Clay and Chestnut disappeared. At the turn of the millennium waterfront dwellings were built along the Niagara River, completing the gentrification of this area.
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