About The Hamlet

Massena Center is a hamlet located in the northern portion of New York State along the International Border with Canada on the southern banks of the Saint Lawrence River.

Established around 1825 the hamlet is made up of roughly 80 homes and several businesses and has a population of roughly one hundred people. The hamlet is located in the Town of Massena in Saint Lawrence County.

The hamlet was a central location for the local agricultural farms that dotted the fertile meadowlands between the Grasse River and St. Lawrence River and was home to some of the earliest settlers of the area.

– Our History –

Massena Center is located 3.25 miles east of the Village of Massena in an area once known as the Indian Meadows or Grasslands on the northern banks of the Grasse River, at the head of its still waters where in the early days Durham boats would bring in goods and carried away the crops.  The area is relatively flat meadowlands with sparse forests and fertile soil thanks to a glacier and the Champlain Sea that once covered the area at the end of the last ice age.

The Center was roughly established in 1823 when the Town of Massena was reduced to its present size.  It is home to some of the earliest settlers of the area and became a central point for areas north of the Grasse River such as Barnhart Island, Robinson’s Bay, and the original International Park located at Massena Point.

At its peak in the early 20th century the hamlet was home to several businesses, two churches, a one room brick schoolhouse, two community halls, a cheese factory, its own Post Office and in a few history books, a Town Hall.

During the 20th Century the hamlet began to dwindle little by little.  The farms located between the hamlet and the Village of Massena were slowly purchased by Alcoa.  Many remained operating as tenant farms but most were emptied and razed by the 1950s.

Barnhart Island which at its own peak featured multiples farms, churches and school houses had slowly become a abandoned by the early 1900s.  Talks of damming the mighty Long Sault Rapids for hydroelectric power and the difficulties crossing between the island and the mainland had slowly drawn people off the island.

The camps and hotel of Massena Point and the original International Campground fell on hard times once the Spa Era of Massena was over.  With the dawning of the 20th century the town had quickly turned from tourist retreat to an industrial complex thanks to the creation of the Massena Power Canal in 1898 and the founding of Alcoa’s aluminum smelter in 1903.

The biggest blow to Massena Center came with the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway starting in 1954.  The St. Lawrence River was heavily travelled as ships could sail from the Atlantic Ocean and reach the very interior of the United States and Canada via the river and the Great Lakes.  A series of rapids in Massena and Montreal prevented easy travel and by the early 1800s Canada had constructed several canals and lock systems to bypass them.  With the industrial and agricultural boom taking place in the Mid-West ships sailing the St. Lawrence became bigger and heavier.  The need to enlarge these canals and improve shipping condition on the river came came to a climax in the post World War 2 economy.

Discussions of the project came to a head in the early 1950s when after resistance from the United States to join the project, Canada began moving forward with its own design that would not involve the US. This nudged the United State Congress to act and propose the US Seaway Power Project that would be located in Massena, New York.  This would involve the construction of two dams, two locks and a nearly 10 mile canal in the United States.  At the zero hour the United State Congress signed the Wiley-Dander Seaway Act in 1954.

While this was a major economical boom to the Town of Massena, it was the lands surrounding Massena Center that were sacrificed to make this project a reality.  Now out scaled by more modern projects, the St. Lawrence Seaway Project was boasted as one of the largest of its kind and dubbed the 8th Wonder of the World.

Barnhart Island which had become all but abandoned was taken over by the Federal Government, and the lands south of it such as Robinson’s Bay were bought out.  In leu of many other areas in the region, Massena Center’s sacrifice was minor.  Ten Towns on the Canada side were sent to the bottom of what would become Lake St. Lawrence.

Eisenhower Lock was constructed near Robinson’s Bay near the western end of the hamlet and Snell Lock was built south of Massena Point at the hamlet’s eastern end, with 4 miles of the Wiley Dondero Canal dug between them.

The Moses – Saunders Power Dam was built from Barnhart Island to mainland Canada at Cornwall, and the Long Sault Control Dam was built at the other end of Barnhart to the US mainland.  Together this system controls all of the water flowing from Lake Ontario and the rest of the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean while also allowing “Seaway Max” cargo ships to traverse the river safely.

With the Seaway came several large employers to the Town, such as the New York Power Authority, the Seaway Corporation, and two industrial plants to join Alcoa, a Reynolds Metals aluminum smelter, and a General Motors fabrication plant that forged aluminum engine blocks for the Chevy Corvair.  Together these businesses brought 5000+ well paying career level jobs to the region.

For Massena Center it was the final nail in the coffin of progression.  With its crossroads now dead ends and nothing but Federal lands and shoreline beyond it the hamlet settled into retirement as a quaint and quiet neighborhood.  The few farms left operating continued to do so into the 1980s, while the Churches and School House were replaced with new accommodations outside of the hamlet, and the general store and post office closed by the 1960s.

While our past history has not exactly been kind to us, Massena Center has settled into the life as a quiet and safe hamlet outside of the noise of the Village of Massena.  Since the construction of the Seaway, while our farms became vacant, those empty fields have grown with the construction of new houses along with the restoration and preservation of our historical homes.  And as we settle into the 21st century we are always working towards a brighter future for our beloved hamlet.

Early Settling of Massena Center

Last Updated: 03/30/2021