Merritton is a neighborhood in the southern portion of St. Catharines. The neighborhood was named after William Hamilton Merritt, who founded the Welland Canal Company. Merritton was originally an independent settlement, and was incorporated as a village in 1874. The community was amalgamated into St. Catharines in 1968.
Merritton was called Welland city until 1858, when the community exchanged names with Merrittville, which is now Welland and became the seat of Welland County at that time.
The Merritton neighborhood is located along the Niagara Escarpment, and the community grew along the Welland Canal as it climbed uphill. The Welland Canal opened in 1829 and featured wooden locks. The original Welland Canal was in use until 1844, when rotting locks and larger ships necessitated a new canal. The second Welland Canal opened in 1845 and was used by ships until 1866. In Merritton, the close series of locks for the second canal became known as Neptune's Staircase, and overcame an 85-foot height up the Niagara Escarpment. Locks were 150 feet long and 26.5 feet wide.
Eventually, a shorter and wider route was needed. The third Welland Canal was completed in 1887, but the locks of Neptune's Staircase in present-day Mountain Locks Park were still in use until 1915 in order to provide water to the mills located alongside the old canal.
Community Park, on Seymour Avenue. The ballpark was built in 1986 and is home to the St. Catharines Metros of the Central Ontario Major Baseball League in the Ontario Baseball Association. The stadium was once the home to the St. Catharines Blue Jays and St. Catharines Stompers of the NY-Penn League, a short-season Single A affiliated minor league.
A house on Seymour Avenue.
Houses on Park Avenue.
Merritton Centennial Arena, on Park Avenue. The arena was built in 1971.
Houses on Merritt Street.
Businesses on Merritt Street.
The Merritton Senior Citizens Centre, on Merritt Street. The senior center was originally the Merritton Town Hall and was built in 1879. The structure was the home of the St. Catharines Historical Museum after amalgamation until recently.
St. James Anglican Church, on Merritt Street. The parish was founded in 1869 and the present church was built in 1892.
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, on Merritt Street. The parish was founded in 1867 and the durrent church was built in 1899.
An old building hidden behind the Merritt Street overpass that crosses over the old Great Western Railway line.
A residential building on Merritt Street.
A building on Merritt Street.
A restaurant at Merritt Street and Glendale Avenue. The structure was originally the Canadian Coloured Cotton Mills, and was built in 1861. It later became a paper mill and was closed in 2002.
The Keg restaurant, on Glendale Avenue. The old cotton mill was built in 1883 after the 1850s cotton mill burned down, and was originally the Merritton Mills. The building later became the Independent Rubber Company. The restaurant opened in 2002.
A ditch that was once part of the canal's waterway system. This ditch was likely part of the first Welland Canal, which used wooden locks. The wooden locks slowly rotted, and did not hold their place enough, and so stone locks were used when the second Welland Canal was built. The first canal was then used as ponds and wiers for the second canal. On the right is the bottom of an old barge, left from when this portion of the canal was abandoned.
Lock 16 of the second Welland Canal, in Mountain Locks Park next to Bradley Street. This lock is now mainly filled with dirt from when Mountain Locks Park was created in 1961 with the area around this section of the canal.
An abandoned wier in Mountain Locks Park.
Lock 17 of the second Welland Canal. Like Lock 16, this lock is mainly filled in and the entire depth of the lock is not seen.
Lock 20 of the second Welland Canal. This lock is still filled with water, now just normal stream flow.
Lock 20, like the other stone locks, were built between 1842 and 1845.
An old gatehouse, at Lock 21 in Mountain Locks Park. The gatehouse was built in 1845 and was used to store spare gates and to monitor canal traffic.
A lockmasters' house, on Bradley Street across from Locks 20 & 19. The house was built in 1852.
Another lockmasters' house, down the hill on Bradley Street, across from Lock 17. The tender's house was built in 1852.
Houses on Allanburg Road.
A house on Mountain Street.
A modern house on Mountain Street.
A house on Keating Street.
A house on Wanda Road.
A house on Ball Avenue.
The Kimberly Clark paper plant, on Merritt Street. The plant was built in 1913 as the Interlake Tissue Mills.
The old Riordan Paper Mill, on Merritt Street. The mill was built in 1885.
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