A local historian was quoted recently on a proposed project in Niagara-on-the-Lake:

How would you feel if a significant part of your history is planned to be erased, as if you have never existed, never contributed one iota to the history of your people.

No one planned to erase the history of Tennis in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Rather it faded away with time and circumstance.  At neither the community level nor the national level is a legacy to be found.  In fact, knowledge of the events that took place here is scant, and the value arising from the foundations laid here is largely unrecognized and unappreciated.

A noteworthy contrast exists in Newport, Rhode Island – location of the earliest United States Tennis Championships (now known as the US Open).  The tournament was played at Newport from 1881 to 1915.  These were the ‘glory years’ for tennis in both Newport and Niagara-on-the-Lake, and the events had much in common.  They were played back-to-back at the end of the summer, with Niagara-on-the-Lake seen as the ideal place to complete the season through the first weekend of September.

Noted tennis historian, Heiner Gillmeister, writes in his book ‘Tennis, A Cultural History’ :

In Newport, the International Tennis Hall of Fame and an annual men’s tournament on grass are today the only reminders of a glorious past.

A motivation for this blog is the need for ‘reminders of a glorious past’ for Tennis in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Just because it has been forgotten for 100 years is no reason for it to continue to be forgotten.