James Maloney, a porter at the venerable Cataract House for over a half century, met many a celebrity over the years, not the least of whom was a portly Chinese potentate.
Maloney, a native of Youngstown who moved with his parents to Niagara Falls when he was 6 years old, recalled his days working at the hotel in a 1927 newspaper article.
The "wise old Chinese diplomat who stayed at the Cataract House was Li Hung-Chang, called the wizard of China." Hung-Chang was "heavy of build," and Maloney said he often helped him up the stairs to his upper-floor apartment.
Maloney added, "Hung-Chang never indulged in any physical exertion he could dispense with. His pipe was filled, lighted and put in his mouth by servants who seemed to anticipate their master's every need."
Hung-Chang traveled with a large retinue, including his own cooks, who brought the food with them. He also had several tasters "whose duty it was to taste the food served before their august master," Maloney said.
Maloney's family lived on Third Street when they moved here from Youngstown. He attended the Third and Fifth street schools and in later years lived with a daughter at 433 Main St., "within view of the waterway and equipment that is continuing to develop a mighty municipality."
At a young age, he got a job at an old stone tavern at the site of the later Imperial Hotel at Falls and Second streets.
He learned the hotel business there, and then obtained employment at the Cataract House, where he worked for 52 years.
He said the Cataract House was not the original Eagle Tavern, as some believed. The Eagle, he said, was nearer the upper rapids and carried an insignia in the form of "the king of birds done in wood and richly engraved standing about three feet tall."
Parkhurst Whitney later moved this relic to the Cataract House lobby when he purchased it in 1831. Soon the Cataract House became more prominent than the Eagle Tavern, which Whitney sold in 1835.
A subsequent owner, local publisher, entrepreneur and historian Peter A. Porter, took the Eagle relic when he sold the Cataract House. The relic is now in the Local History Department of the Niagara Falls Public Library.
At one point, Maloney recalled, a wealthy New York City businessman, one Col. Girard, "dreamed of establishing a Crystal Palace out of the ancient hotel, a rendezvous that would outshine anything in the nation."
He agreed to purchase the Cataract House from Porter for $135,000, putting $15,000 down, Maloney said. He was to pay the balance in three months but failed to obtain the financing and so lost his deposit. Porter eventually sold the hotel in 1908.
Maloney recalled some of the other famous people who stopped at the Cataract House, including President Lincoln and Civil War generals Grant and Sheridan. Many rich Buffalo families spent weekends at the Cataract House, he said.
Another famous guest was Boss Tweed, who ran the powerful Democratic political machine at Tammany Hall in New York City.
And Maloney recalled one birth at the hotel, that of Scott Wilson Weatherly about the year 1870. "The parents came here from the south for a few months visit and, incidentally, to have an heir born near the falls," Maloney said.
He recalled two suicides at the hostelry. One was a woman who, after a several-day stay, took poison. The other was a considerate gentleman who slit his own throat but thoughtfully did it over a basin to catch the blood. Maloney said, "He had not harmed the floor rug to any appreciable extent."
For a good many years, Maloney said, his job was a seasonal one. The hotel opened May 1 and closed Nov. 1.
After retirement, he took a job with the city as a day watchman at the city service yard. The machinery for repairing and cleaning streets was kept there. He checked all of the equipment in and out of the yard.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Oct. 2 2007 |