Editing Welland (section)

==History==

The area was settled in 1788 by [[United Empire Loyalists]] who had been granted land by the Crown to compensate for losses due to property they left in the British Thirteen Colonies during and after the American Revolutionary War.

Tensions continued between Great Britain and the newly independent United States, and the War of 1812 broke out. On 19 October 1814, Canadian forces led by [[George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale]],<ref>{{cite web | url=http://virtualwalk.ca/index.php/Welland-Ontario/History-Geography.html | title=Virtualwalk.ca }}</ref> met an [[United States|American]] raiding party, numbering approximately nine hundred, near the eastern edge of the present community during the [[Battle of Cook's Mills]]. After an intense skirmish, the Americans retreated to [[Buffalo, New York]]. Cook's Mills was the second to last engagement of the [[War of 1812]] on Canadian soil.<ref>Collins,Gilbert: ''Guidebook to the Historic Sites of the War of 1812'' (Dundern Group, Toronto Ontario,2006, {{ISBN|1-55002-626-7}}), pgs. 158.</ref>

The [[First Welland Canal]] was extended in 1833 to reach [[Lake Erie]] and has influenced development of this city ever since. A wooden [[Navigable aqueduct|aqueduct]] was built to carry the Welland Canal over the Welland River at what is now downtown Welland, and the area became known as simply Aqueduct. A lock to cross from the canal to the river and vice versa was also built. A small shantytown soon developed around the facility, providing essential services in what was a convenient stop-over location for travellers and workers on the canal.

The growing town was later named Merrittsville, after [[William Hamilton Merritt]], the initiator of the Welland Canal project. This name is reflected in the name of the Merrittville Highway (Niagara Road 50), which served as the primary north–south route in central Niagara before the construction of [[Ontario Highway 406|Highway 406]]. Welland gained its present name when it was [[incorporation (municipal government)|incorporated]] on 25 July 1858. It became a city in 1917.

One of the few railway crossings across the canal was near Welland. Together with the canal, these two factors attracted the development of [[heavy industry]] in Welland. In 1906 the [[Plymouth Cordage Company]] was the first major industrial company to open a plant in Welland. By the 1930s, Welland was an important industrial city in the region and was developing rapidly.

In the 1960s, the city was starting to outgrow the canal passing through its core. The [[Welland By-Pass]] project, started in 1967 and finished in 1973, provided a new, shorter alignment for the Welland Canal by moving it from downtown Welland to the city's outskirts. With the completion of the bypass, Welland's east end (and the former town of Crowland) was like an island between the new and old canal channels.

The City of Welland is working to revitalize the downtown core through an ongoing community improvement plan. Integral to the program is the use of incentives to promote revitalization and redevelopment. A report published by the City of Welland in 2013 said, "for over 10 years now, these programs have produced only very moderate uptake and development since being introduced."<ref>{{cite web | title = City of Welland Community Improvement Plan for the Downtown and Health and Wellness Cluster | publisher = City of Welland | date = December 2013 | url = http://www.welland.ca/development/CIPdocs/CIP_INTERIM_REPORT--December2013.pdf}}</ref>{{rp|78}} Other former industrial cities have grappled with similar painful transitions.