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15-512: The Tower Hotel , opened in 1962, is located in the Fallsview district of Niagara Falls, Ontario and was the first of the contemporary observation towers built near the brink of the Falls. It features an indoor observation deck, restaurant, and hotel. The tower is 99 metres (325 feet) tall above street level and 160 metres (520 feet) above the falls. The tower assumed its present name in 2010 as

30-603: A lack of transportation services in the area. Main streets through the area (Stanley Avenue and Fallsview Blvd.) have been widened recently to address this issue; however and parking has improved. The Niagara Parks Commission provided a parking lot (capacity: 200) just north of the Falls Incline Railway and the parking issues have been largely improved. 43°04′53″N 79°04′58″W  /  43.081264°N 79.082645°W  / 43.081264; -79.082645 This Ontario geographical article about

45-554: A location in the Golden Horseshoe is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Table Rock, Niagara Falls 43°04′45″N 79°04′42″W  /  43.079154°N 79.078442°W  / 43.079154; -79.078442 Table Rock was a large shelf of rock that jutted out from the Canadian shore of Niagara Falls, Ontario , just north of the present day observation and commercial complex. Revealed in

60-410: A non-glare finish designed to enhance photography. There are many historical photos and news articles about the construction of the tower mounted around the deck in addition to pay-per-use telescopes . The observation deck is now closed and only available for weddings. The restaurant has an International House of Pancakes location on the 26th floor, previously home to Marilyn's Bistro & Lounge ,

75-481: A restaurant themed after Marilyn Monroe in honour of the film, Niagara , in which she starred. The tower's original, award-winning gourmet Pinnacle Restaurant had been located there for many years. In 2002, the tower re-opened after extensive renovations to include the four-star Ramada Plaza Fallsview. This franchise was lost and the hotel has operated without the Ramada flag since 2011 choosing to instead go by

90-467: A result of its most recent renovation; as Minolta was the longest-tenured sponsor of the building, tourists and locals may still call it the Minolta Tower . For more than 100 years, there had been various smaller towers built throughout the area with most of them being wooden structures. Two notable towers were the wood construction tower located at the top of Drummond Hill on Lundy's Lane behind

105-537: The Fallsview Hotel, Hilton Hotel, and Embassy Suites by Hilton, as well as the nearby Oakes Hotel and Radisson, has diminished the Tower Hotel's prominence as a landmark. All of these hotels strive to give their guests as good a view of the Falls as possible by taking advantage of their position of the height on land above the falls, once dominated solely by the Tower Hotel. In contrast, the airspace around

120-900: The Skylon Tower remains fairly open, thanks to its position further down the Niagara River away from the American Falls and Horseshoe Falls. The Tower Hotel was originally called the Seagram Tower , named after the House of Seagram business in Montreal, Quebec . Over the years, due to multiple bankruptcies and ownership changes, tower names changed between Heritage Tower (1969), Royal Inn Tower (1971), Royal Centre Tower (1972), Panasonic Tower (1973), Minolta Tower (1984), and Konica Minolta Tower Centre (2003) with

135-408: The blaze. The tower opened for business on July 1, 1962. When the tower and surrounding area was first designed prior to groundbreaking on March 15, 1961, it was to be the centrepiece of a proposed hotel/convention centre. Due to finances, the accompanying hotel buildings were not built, and it would be over forty years before hotels began to rise adjacent to the tower. During the 1970s and 1980s,

150-513: The historic Drummond Inn, and Street's Pagoda on Cedar Island. Construction began in 1961, and was reportedly the first using of the slipform construction method in North America. One minor fire occurred on the roof on September 2, 1961, due to spillage of hot-mix concrete igniting a tarp and causing several propane tanks to explode. Damage was minimal, estimated at "a few thousand dollars", and nine people suffered minor injuries battling

165-416: The merger of Konica and Minolta in 2003. The tower underwent renovations again in 2010, resulting in its colour reverting to the original white, the banner displaying Konica Minolta being replaced by the title Tower Hotel , and the removal of the exterior clocks. Located on the 25th floor, this deck features a panoramic view of the falls and Niagara River in addition to floor-to-ceiling windows treated with

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180-579: The mid-18th century as the Horseshoe Falls receded, Table Rock was the first major vantage point for tourists of the early and mid-19th century. In 1818, the first part of the rock collapsed, followed by minor rockfalls in 1828 and 1829. The most notable rockfall occurred in July 1850, when roughly one-third of the point collapsed into the Niagara Gorge . A driver was washing his carriage on

195-561: The new name The Tower Hotel. Fallsview Tourist Area The area is linked to the Table Rock Center and Journey Behind the Falls , on the Niagara Parkway just above the falls, by the Falls Incline Railway . The Fallsview Tourist area was also known for its gridlock traffic issues. These traffic issues were mostly caused by shortages of parking spaces in the area for tourists during peak demand periods and

210-516: The point when the rock structure gave way. The man escaped, but the carriage was destroyed. Further rockfalls occurred in 1853, 1876 and 1897. For safety purposes (with the Ontario Powerhouse directly in the gorge below), the remaining rock was blasted in 1935. Table Rock is a popular stop for tourists. During the winter months, the site's proximity to the mists from Niagara Falls causes the shelf and surrounding areas to be covered by

225-552: The surrounding land was occupied by an aquarium to the north, and the Waltzing Waters attraction to the south. The Waltzing Waters site was moved across the street in 1995 to allow for site planning of the current Marriott hotel. The Waltzing Waters, a light and water show synchronized to music, disappeared altogether by 2000. The aquarium was dismantled in 1996 to allow for further site expansion. The 2000s boom in large hotel construction on Fallsview Boulevard, such as

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