The first fire hydrant was invented in Lockport

• In 1859 Birdsill Holly, a Lockport inventor and businessman, developed the method for using pressurized water to fight fires through a hydrant system located throughout the city.
• Lockport was the first city school district in the United States to desegregate their school system.


Lockport's Seven Sutherland Sisters

• The Seven Sutherland Sisters lived in Cambria, just outside of Lockport. In the late 19th they were considered world famous celebrities with their floor length long hair and beautiful singing voices. Their hair products made them millionaires; their spending made them paupers.
• Belva Lockwood was born in nearby Middleport and in 1884 was the first woman to run for President and actually receive votes. She ran again in 1888.
• Harrison Radiator started in Lockport in 1910 and became part of General Motors a few years later.


Tuscarora Native American beadwork

• The Tuscarora Indians are famous for their raised beadwork designs that were sold at Niagara Falls in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• Niagara County was once the “Apple Capital” of the United States and agriculture was the number one industry in the county.
• TUCO Puzzles were once sold over the world from their manufacturing headquarters in Lockport.
• The Upside Railroad Bridge over the Erie Canal in Lockport was built by the railroad and believed to have been built with the supporting members below the bridge and closer to the water to limit the size of boats that could use the canal.
• One set of Lockport’s Flight of Five locks still exist and are adjacent to the pair of newer locks in the lock basin
• The existing iron railing next to the Flight of Five still shows the indentations made by the tow ropes over the years that the mules dragged across the top of the railing.
  

  Lockport was once home to the widest bridge in the world

• Lockport’s Big Bridge was once the widest single span bridge in the world and is a few inches short of 400-foot wide.

Learn More About These Unique Stories at the History Center of Niagara County

Compiled by: Ann Marie Linnabery, Assistant Director, History Center of Niagara County and Douglas Farley, Director, Erie Canal Discovery Center

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