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First stage is located in front of an aviary in Niagara Falls. The 2nd stage is in Queen Victoria Park a little ways up the Niagara River past the falls.
Stage 1:
State is located in front of an aviary in Niagara Falls. This aviary has been here since 2003 and has gone though some major transformations since it was built.
In 1908, the Spirella Corset Company built a four-story concrete building on the current site of the aviary. By 1958, the company had shrunk in size, resulting in the company's moving their location to a smaller facility. The building was purchased that year by Jacob Sherman, who owned the Niagara Falls Museum. Sherman then renovated the building extensively, adding a five-story viewing tower while also moving 700,000 artifacts to the building. It was discovered later that the museum had been home to the actual mummy of King Ramesses I. By the time of the discovery, however, the museum was closed and the mummy back in Egypt.
The museum was operated by the Sherman family until 1999, when the maintenance of the building and artifacts became too costly. Most of the artifacts were sold or returned to their place of origin. Larry Vann, a resident of the Niagara area, purchased the museum building. Over the next few years, $15 million dollars was spent on renovations to the building. The renovations included a large addition to the south side of the old museum building. In June 2003, the building re-opened as the aviary.
Stage 2:
The area comprising Queen Victoria Park was originally part of the upper Niagara River bed. Father Louis Hennepin is purported to be the first visitor to explore the area in depth in 1678. Active settlements in the area did not begin until the dawn of the 19th century with the establishment of a small hut which served as an inn. William Forsyth, a Buffalo immigrant, settled in the area in 1818 and by 1822, had established the first stairway down to the lower Niagara River below the falls, in addition to the first substantial building in the area, the Pavilion Hotel. By the late 1820s, the parcel was sold to Thomas Clark and Samuel Street, who began the construction of several buildings near the area now called Table Rock on the south end of the future park property. They were joined in competition by Thomas Barnett who, in 1827, built a museum just south of Table Rock, on the present site of the Table Rock Center. The north end of the property, now occupied by Oakes Garden Theater, housed the Clifton House, built in 1833 and catering to the well-to-do traveller.
The first suggestion of a park at this site came in 1873 as an idea offered by Edmund Burke Wood, a member of Canadian Parliament, in an effort to quell the criminal element in the area. This idea was refused, however, by the new Premier, Oliver Mowat, even when given a federal offer to split the cost of establishing such a park. By 1880, Mowat began considering the possibility of using a private corporation to take on the idea. Several proposals were floated in the ensuing years, all either struck down by Mowat or failing to get legislative backing. Mowat did not want the government to pay for land acquisition and development.
A three-member committee was established in 1885, headed by Polish immigrant Sir Casimir Gzowski (see my cache named after him in St. Catharines), who proposed a government-run park encompassing 118 acres (0.48 km2), to be free to the public. A follow-up report in 1887 warning of "general regret and disappointment" convinced Mowat to push through the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park Act in March, 1887. Unsightly outbuildings were razed, grounds were cleaned up, and Queen Victoria Park was officially opened to the public on May 24, 1888; the birthday of Queen Victoria.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Fgntr 1 - Va gur penpx
Fgngr 2 - Nobhg 1z sebz gur ovt ebggra gerr