This book portrays Niagara Falls as it once was between the mid-1800s to the late 1960s. Once a small tourist town, a great industrial city was built based upon the very thing that first attracted
visitors; the Falls became a revolutionary source of
hydroelectricity. After World War II, however, the
city's industries gradually declined and, one by one,
relocated to other parts of the United States. The late 1950s and 1960s show a paradoxical time for the city. An immense new power station was constructed immediately north of the city, while "urban renewal" methodically destroyed the city's beloved, albeit by then grossly neglected, Falls Street business district, leaving behind a confused patchwork of vacant lots.