Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company

[2] When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it made the portage obsolete and plans to develop Niagara Falls suffered.

[3] In 1852, Caleb Smith Woodhull and his associates purchased the land and the water rights from the heirs of the Porter brothers with the intention to build a canal, and in 1853 formed the "Niagara Falls Hydraulic Company."

A grant was obtained from the owners of a strip of land 100 ft. wide extending from a point above the upper rapids to the high bank below the Falls.

At an investment of $1.5 million,[2] (equivalent to $42,919,000 in 2023) the canal was finally completed in 1861, but could not be used because of the American Civil War.

[8] In 1898 the company built the Niagara Junction Railway to encourage industrial expansion in the area.

In 1907, the New York Public Service Commission law was passed which regulated the rights of non-electrical corporations from engaging in the development of electric energy and distribution of it.

[11] The "Hydraulic Power Company" owned the building itself, the land, the penstocks, the turbines, and the water wheels.

[4] As of 1908, officers of the company were George B. Mathews (president), William D. Olmsted (vice president) Arthur Schoellkopf (secretary and treasurer), Paul A. Schoellkopf (assistant secretary and treasurer), John L. Harper (chief engineer).

[11] Schoellkopf's success in developing millsites led Charles B. Gaskill, of "Cataract City Milling Company", the canal's first customer in 1875, to believe that there would be a growing demand for power.

Therefore, in 1886, Gaskill formed the "Niagara River Hydraulic Tunnel, Power, and Sewer Company" to meet the demand.

It was determined that Evershed's plan was too expensive, so Edward Dean Adams and others decided to develop hydro-electric power.

On December 20, 1892, the Evershed tunnel and the Edward Dean Adam's power house inlet canal are completed.

[12] Therefore, the "Cataract Construction Company" sponsored the "International Niagara Commission", which met in London in June 1890 and was headed by Lord Kelvin.

[13] The construction lasted for several years and was funded by an interest composed of notable businessmen including: J. P. Morgan, John Jacob Astor IV, Lord Rothschild, and W. K. Vanderbilt.