The Great Western Hotel was located on the south side of lower Bridge Street, about midway between Zimmerman and Cataract Avenues. It was one of many hotels in that area during the early part of the century. This location made them easily accessible to rail travellers arriving either at the Grand Trunk (now VIA) station on Bridge Street, or the Michigan Central depot which was on the southeast corner of Queen Street and Erie Avenue.
The Great Western Hotel was established around 1867 and had 30 rooms. In the 1870s, it was generally known as the Ellis House after the proprietor, T. F. Ellis (1876). It was later renamed the Windsor Hotel. The hotel was completely remodelled and refurnished at the turn of the century. It was demolished sometime before 1948.
An advertisement from 1906 stated that the Windsor had electric lights, telephones, baths, and electric bells, and could furnish carriages.
The site of the Windsor Hotel is now an open lot with two billboards. A picture of that same lot from a 1995 Niagara Falls Review newspaper article (in the slideshow below) shows the rear of the Rosli Hotel, another of the cluster of hotels that were established in the Bridge Street area. That building experienced a severe fire in 1995. At the end of its life, it had a modern facade and operated under the name "Royal Inn Hotel".
Zavitz, Sherman 1995. Niagara Then and Now: The Windsor Hotel. Niagara Falls Review, October 14, 1995.
Niagara Falls Public Library. 2017. Niagara Falls - Then & Now: A Photographic Journey Through The Years. [Historic Location Name/ Contemporary Location Name].
Niagara Falls Then and Now
A collaborative project
Niagara Falls Museums - Niagara Falls Public Library - Dept. of Geography and Tourism Studies,Brock University.
Original newspaper series by
Sherman Zavitz, Official Historian for the City of Niagara Falls from 1994 - 2019.
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