Model City, New York

[1] It was proposed in the 1890s as an urban utopia by railroad lawyer and con man[2] William T. Love (born 26 May 1856 in Keokuk, Iowa),[3] who had tried a similar investment scheme in Huron, South Dakota, earlier in 1890.

Love promised in his advertising pamphlets that the city would be free of smog-filled skies, that the land would be beautifully landscaped, housing and quality of life would be a cut above even the loveliest urban environments.

Amid the panic of 1894 his investors backed out and development stopped, with the only visitors to Model City being "curious reporters and bill collectors," trying to find an absent Love.

[2] Instead, having absconded with an unknown amount of money, he practiced law in Cordova, Alaska, for several years, then attempted to start a new model city scheme in the Puget Sound area[6] before settling on Lomax, Illinois, in 1911.

His "Love's Canal", meant to connect the two levels of the Niagara River, was to anchor this booming Model City as a shipping lane.