Then: Wesley Park International Camp Ground

The International Camp Meeting Association, a group of Methodist ministers and laymen from both sides of the border, had an ambitious plan for outdoor religious services near Niagara Falls. The circular streets of the Epworth Circle area were part of the Wesley Park subdivision, which had an auditorium, tenting grounds, a hotel/boarding house, a stable for horses, a stairway to down to the Niagara River, and a Wesley Park Station on the Michigan Central Railway.

The first summer's program boasted a temperance gathering, a missionary conference, a meeting of the Holiness Association and the International Camp Meeting. Admission was free.

Now: Epworth Circle

Plans for riverside and off-shore services fell through when the roar of the falls drowned out the preachers. Unfortunately, while visitors flocked to the area, it was usually to see the falls, rather than to participate in religious services, and after a few years, the project disbanded.

The Wesley Park Hotel, renamed Park Hall, remained until it was destroyed by fire in 1979. A fountain on the grounds of the Niagara Parks Commission's Floral Showhouse has the inscription "Spirit of Park Hall, May 1978".

Niagara Falls Public Library. 2017. Niagara Falls - Then & Now: A Photographic Journey Through The Years. [Wesley Park International Camp Ground / Epworth Circle].

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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