Francis J. Petrie was for many years the City Historian of Niagara Falls, as well as the author of a regular newspaper column in the Niagara Falls Review.
After his death many of his photographs, negatives, slides, and postcards were donated to the Library.
Five canoes are shown boating in Chippawa Creek, The MCR [Michigan Central Railway bridge is in the background ; Left front canoe inlcudes: Thomas Greenwood, Louise Ackerman, Mrs. Greenwood; Left Upper Canoe: Thomas Downey & unknown; Upper right canoes': Hardy Gerber & Deak Greenwood ; tw small motor boats are shown tied up at the boat house centre right ;
- built in 1850, by Dr. Thomas Clark Macklem, it was his family residence, a home for smugglers, an army barracks during W.W.I., and a tourist camp before it was destroyed by fire on November 16, 1927
A two storey house is located left ; businesses in the house are E G McNally Drugs and Furniture Warerooms ; a man is standing ouside the awning over the drug store wearing short sleeved shirt and dark pants ; railway tracks in foreground ; dirt road is lined by mature trees ; another business partially hidden by trees is located right ; this building was also the site of the original Royal Bank in Chippawa ;
The headstone notes that William Strachan died suddenly whilst touring Niagara Falls with the Young Australia League, the headstone was erected in his memory by the Boys Club Federation of America ;
The original tombstone of the murdered Donnelly family was put in place in 1889 by William Donnelly, the original tombstone attracted thousands of visitors, many of whom defaced the monument. It was eventually removed in 1964 and replaced with another which did not have the words Murdered but Died ;