St Lawrence Plaza

Massena is a town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. It is located along the county’s northern border, just south of the St. Lawrence River and the Three Nations Crossing of the Canada–United States border. The population was 12,433 at the 2020 census1. The town of Massena contains a village also named Massena. Native Americans have lived in the region for over 9,000 years. Archaeological studies reveal a vibrant pre-Columbian era marked by extensive hunting, fishing, gathering, and sophisticated trading networks. Massena was established in 1792 by Anable Faucher. The settlement was initially called Nikentsiake by the Mohawk Indians, translating to “where the fish live.” Massena was one of the first towns settled in St. Lawrence County, but was not incorporated until 1802 when it was formed from the town of Lisbon. The town and its village are named after André Masséna, a general and Marshal to Napoleon during the Napoleonic Wars. The town boasted the Massena Springs, a pair of sulfur springs, one hot and the other cold, reputed to possess healing powers known to the Native Americans before European settlement. In 1820, an Army veteran, Captain John Polley, hoping to capitalize on the properties, opened a hotel and began to advertise them. By 1858, three hotels, numerous rental cottages, a bathing house, and a plant that bottled and sold the spring water, had been built. By about 1900, the Springs’ status as a popular resort had faded. Up until the 1880s, the town was predominantly agricultural, mainly home to butter and cheese production. The first small mills were built in the 1830s, harnessing the Grasse River to turn their wheels. They included a sawmill, stone-cutter, and a tannery. In 1833, the New York State Legislature approved a canal that would bypass troublesome rapids hindering navigation on the St. Lawrence by linking the Grasse and St. Lawrence Rivers. However, the British North American government preempted this project by building the Cornwall Canal on the Canadian side of the River, completed in 1843. The Massena Canal project was revived at the end of the century and completed in 1898, finally connecting the Grasse River and the St. Lawrence River.