Model City is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in the town of Lewiston in

Niagara County Niagara County is in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 212,666. The county seat is Lockport. The county name is from the Iroquois word ''Onguiaahra''; meaning ''the strait'' or ''thunder of waters''. Niag ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, United States. It was conceived as an urban utopia by an ambitious entrepreneur named William T. Love in the 1890s. He planned it to be "The most beautiful

ark Ark or ARK may refer to: Biblical narratives and religion Hebrew word ''teva'' * Noah's Ark, a massive vessel said to have been built to save the world's animals from a flood * Ark of bulrushes, the boat of the infant Moses Hebrew ''aron'' * ...

in the world" and planned housing for more than 1 million people and a canal and hydroelectric plant. 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. However, his plans were never realized, and amid the panic of 1894 his investors backed out. He went on to manage an

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

gold mine a few years later, leaving his projects idle. He had only built a few streets before he became bankrupt. Ironically, despite its environmentally-friendly conception Model City is now home to an enormous landfill owned by Waste Management.

Connection to Love Canal

The name of

Love Canal Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, United States, infamous as the location of a landfill that became the site of an enormous environmental disaster in the 1970s. Decades of dumping toxic chemicals harmed the health of hund ...

was taken from the name of William T. Love. His "Love's Canal", which would connect the two levels of the

Niagara River The Niagara River () is a river that flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the province of Ontario in Canada (on the west) and the state of New York (state), New York in the United States (on the east) ...

, would be the basis for this booming Model City. It would be a shipping lane. He became bankrupt after digging only 4,600 feet of his canal, this segment of which was within the present-day city of

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

. He had also constructed a few streets, which would lead him further into bankruptcy. This same canal, after being used as a toxic waste dump and holding more than 20,000 tons of chemical waste, had a school and a neighborhood built on top of it. It subsequently became a major environmental disaster that would be exposed in the 1970s.

References

{{Niagara County, New York Lewiston (town), New York Hamlets in New York (state) Hamlets in Niagara County, New York