St. Catharines

St. Catharines is a city of 137,000 people (2021) in the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario. It has the Welland Canal, a dry-dock for ships, and automotive plants. A pond near the mouth of the first Welland Canal now hosts regional and national rowing championships every year. Three World Rowing Championships have been held here: in 1970, 1999, and 2010, with another planned in 2024.

Understand
It is a shame that St. Catharines is overlooked by most tourists visiting Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake as it has a lot to offer. St. Catharines offers better value and quality for food and accommodation than the nearby tourist destinations which are only 10-20 minutes away.

Manufacturing is the city's dominant industry, as noted by the motto, "Industry and Liberality". General Motors of Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of General Motors, used to be the city's largest employer, a distinction now held by the District School Board of Niagara. St. Catharines lies on one of the main telecommunications backbones between Canada and the United States, and as a result a number of call centres operate in the city.

History
The city was settled by United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution in the 1780s. The Crown granted land in compensation for services and for losses in the United States. Secondary to water routes, Native trails provided transportation networks, resulting in the present-day radial road pattern from the city centre. The surrounding land was surveyed and townships created between 1787 and 1789.

Loyalists troops from New York State and settled the area in 1784, the Crown distributed free Government supplies for 2 years to the resettled Loyalists. Merchant Robert Hamilton of Queenston then took over the distribution, and became wealthy by expropriating lands from subsistence Loyalist settlers who were incapable of settling their debts.

The first Welland Canal was constructed from 1824 to 1833 behind what is now known as St. Paul Street, using Twelve Mile and Dick's Creek. The canal established St. Catharines as the hub of commerce and industry for the Niagara Peninsula.

Incorporated as a village in 1845, St. Catharines had a population of about 3500 in 1846. The primary industry was flour milling. Other industry included ship repairs, four grist mills, a brewery, three distilleries, a tannery, a foundry, a machine and pump factory. William Hamilton Merritt, a Loyalists from New York State, played a role in making St. Catharines a centre of abolitionist activity. In 1855, the British Methodist Episcopal Church, Salem Chapel was established at the corner of Geneva and North streets, on land granted to the congregation by Merritt in the early 1840s. The area became known to refugee slaves from the United States as a place of "refuge and rest"; it was a destination, one of the final stops in Canada on the Underground Railroad for refugee African-American slaves. During this time, abolitionist Harriet Tubman lived in St. Catharines. By the mid-1850s, the town's population was about 6,000, 800 of whom were of African descent. St. Catharines remains an important place in Black Canadian history.

Climate
St. Catharines' has a unique micro-climate because of the moderating influence of Lake Ontario/Lake Erie and the sheltering effect of the Niagara Escarpment to the south; these allow wineries to flourish. As a result, the city records numerous frost-free days and frequent thaws in the winter, although it sometimes receives heavy lake-effect snow during certain wind conditions, and micro-cooling lakeside on some spring afternoons. The summer season is predominantly warm, and sometimes hot, with an average high temperature of 27 °C (81 °F) in July. Summer thunderstorms are commonplace but generally less prevalent and less severe than further west in southern Ontario due to the diminishing effect of the surrounding lakes.

Visitor Information

 * St. Catharines Economic Development & Tourism

By car
The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) highway (which runs from Toronto to the Fort Erie-Buffalo border crossing) runs right through the city.

By bus




By train

 * Train operators:
 * Amtrak operates the Maple Leaf train service daily between Toronto and New York City, in partnership with VIA Rail Canada. Stops between Toronto and New York City include in Oakville, Burlington, Grimsby, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls (Ontario), Niagara Falls (New York), Buffalo, Buffalo (Depew), Rochester, Syracuse, Rome, Utica, Schenectady, Albany (Rensselaer), Hudson, Rhinecliff, Poughkeepsie, Croton-on-Hudson, and Yonkers. Border crossing processing takes place in Niagara Falls, where passengers must detrain with their baggage. Train crew members are staffed by VIA Rail within Canada, and by Amtrak within the United States.
 * GO Transit provides a limited commuter service with the once-daily train between Toronto and Niagara Falls calling here. On weekends year-round, GO Transit offers the Niagara Weekend GO Train Service which stops in St. Catharines. Both the Maple Leaf and commuter trains can accommodate bikes.

Merritt Trail
The Merritt Trail follows a narrow river that was once part of the First and Second Welland Canals. The 11-kilometre trail runs from Martindale Road south to Bradley Street passing near downtown St. Catherines. There are a few gaps in the trail, and a map is advised. Some early industrial ruins are along the trail.

Port Dalhousie
Port Dalhousie (pronounced Da-loo-zee) is at the mouth of Twelve Mile Creek on Lake Ontario which was once the entrance to older versions of the Welland Canal. Port Dalhousie has a small town centre, basically one square block, but it hosts more than 10 bars, almost all of which have patio areas. Adjacent to the town centre is Lakeside Park, made famous by the Rush song of the same name, and is a very popular place for locals and tourists in the summer time; it features an antique wooden carousel. Not far away is the Henley Rowing course. Great food can also be found at the four point five star Italian restaurant called The Twisted Pig. One of the most famous restaurants in port Dalhousie is Rozie's Cafe.

Eat
Typical Canadian chain restaurants can be found around town. McDonald's, and Tim Hortons are probably the most common. St Pauls Street near the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre has an ever-changing variety of restaurants.

Drink
There are two primary bar areas in the city: Port Dalhousie and downtown. Generally, Port Dalhousie is the active bar scene during the warm summer months, and downtown is the prime location for nightlife in the winter. The downtown area also has its fill of bars, likely more than twenty. Everything from small pubs to large dance clubs fill the area, although almost every bar has a laid-back feel (with matching laid-back clothing requirements.) There has been a bit of an upscale trend lately, with the addition of a few martini bars. It's a bigger area to cover than up in Port, but even still it's quite easy to walk from a bar at one end of downtown to another at the opposite end.



Vineyards
There are world class vineyards to the west of urban St. Catharines. Tours can be arranged and there is much available for tasting at every stop. As one of the principal Wine Regions of Ontario, its wineries produce some fantastic white wines, some excellent reds, and, of course, the ice wines for which the region is internationally known.

Go next
Interesting places nearby include:


 * Niagara Falls (Ontario) - for the Falls, of course.
 * Niagara-on-the-Lake - quaint, historic town with great little shops, restaurants, and (in the summer) the Shaw theatre festival.
 * Thorold — The next city along the Welland Canal.