Island Street

In 1886 a group of lumbermen petitioned the Village Council to open a street beginning at Main Street and running to the Niagara River, with the understanding that the owners of Tonawanda Island would build a “drawbridge for railroad track; also having a free driveway for teams and passengers.”

The Village Council, on April 23, 1886, adopted “That this Board hereby propose to open a street from Main Street to the Niagara River, as described by a petition of freeholders, and as shown on map accompanying same, both now on file with the clerk. The land to be taken being a four rod strip southerly from the northern boundary lines, and running easterly and westerly through the several pieces of land owned by Joseph Skinner, the Lockport and Buffalo Railroad Company, the N.Y.C. and H.R.R.R. Company, and Caroline Sweeney.”

Island Street was the only access to Tonawanda Island until the Frederick B. Durkee Memorial Bridge was dedicated on November 1, 1967, and opened to the public.