This is a follow-up on Lockport residents’ reports of local underground activity. “Into the Voids” started with me and cave explorer Scott Ensminger going underground at the Niagara Hotel and discovering a buried 1850s tavern. Scott and I believe because the real Lockport Cave on East Avenue was sealed in 1886, residents are obsessed with all things below ground and continue to be enchanted with caves, tunnels and secret rooms. As we explore, sometimes underground, we are discovering history along the way.
The Lockport Exchange Bank, 45 Main St., has a long history as a bank building, with a variety of names. A 1904 advertisement in the Lockport Journal states The National Exchange Bank, the oldest bank in Niagara County, was established in 1844. The 1910 Lockport City Directory lists it as the National Bank of Lockport. In 1929 it was known as the Lockport Exchange Trust Company. In 1960 it was known as the Lockport Exchange Office, Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company. Later it became the Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co. Most residents know it as the M&T Bank. The history of banks on the corners of Pine and Main streets is confusing because at different times there was a bank on most corners, with ever-changing names.
I fielded three credible stories of a tunnel or cave at 45 Main St. After calling the then-owner, David Ulrich, in Florida and getting his permission, I was given a thorough underground tour by Jim Kern, the building superintendent, who knows the building well.
If there was ever a tunnel in this building — and I think there was — it could have been destroyed by the construction (and then later removal) of the so-called parking ramp downtown, a multi-story, cement parking garage to the back and northeast side of 45 Main, constructed for the City of Lockport in the 1970s.
According to the stories, the tunnel was old, cut into rock, and had cave-like features such as small stalagmites. Today the below-ground level of 45 Main is nicely finished with offices and large boardrooms.
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So, was there a tunnel, and if so, where did it go? It could have been a maintenance tunnel like the one in the front of the building behind the large vault, found by Superintendent Kern, extended out under Main Street with cables and pipes leading to the building. It has been mentioned that this may have been one of the Holley steam tunnels that were dug to heat some buildings on Main Street. Or a discreet loading tunnel in the back, long abandoned, that led straight to the large underground vault.
Any reports of cave-like tunnels are interesting because this is also the area where experts have proposed a theoretical branch of the Lockport Cave may have exited at the location of the cut in the escarpment which enabled construction of the Flight of Five Locks in the 1820s.
As I toured 45 Main, a beautiful building, I remembered the large mural titled “The Opening of the Locks” by Lockport resident Raphael Beck on the wall of the first-floor lobby. Where did that go?
There is a large specialty photograph of the mural at the Erie Canal Discovery Center on Church Street, so I visited Niagara County Historical Society headquarters on Niagara Street and asked James Lester, the new executive director, about the famous mural. Lester, a quick study who has a master’s degree in history, said the original mural had been donated to the historical society, and ended up on a wall in the Lockport High School auditorium where it is encased in epoxy. Relocation of the original to the Discovery Center was considered and then ruled out because the mural is too large and delicate to be removed.
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As the city reveals its obsession, the search for underground Lockport continues. Almost 30 sites have been reported. Several owners have been reluctant to let Scott and I investigate and are saying no… for now. However, most people with property or knowledge are eager to participate and help continue the quest. I always welcome any new information.