The Tower Hotel, opened in 1962, is located in the Fallsview district of Niagara Falls, Ontario and was the first of the contemporary observation towers built near the brink of the Falls. It features an indoor observation deck, restaurant, wedding chapel, and hotel. The tower is tall above street level and above the falls. The tower assumed its present name in 2010 as a result of its most recent renovation; as Minolta was the longest-tenured sponsor of the building, tourists and locals may still call it the Minolta Tower. History Previous towers For more than 100 years, there had been various smaller towers built throughout the area with most of them being wooden structures. Two notable towers were the wood construction tower located at the top of Drummond Hill on Lundy's Lane behind the historic Drummond Inn, and Street's Pagoda on Cedar Island. Drummond Hill Tower was built for visitors to have an aerial view of the War of 1812 Battle of Lundy's Lane battle field and the Drummond Hill Cemetery where many British and American soldiers killed during the battle are buried. Street's Pagoda was named for an early area settler, Thomas "T.C." Street, who had ownership of Cedar Island, located between the Horseshoe Falls and Dufferin Islands. This tower was dismantled in 1887, and Cedar Island was eventually made part of the mainland with the construction of the Rankine Generating Station upriver by 1910. Construction Construction began in 1961, and was reportedly the first using of the slipform construction method in North America. One minor fire occurred on the roof on September 2, 1961, due to spillage of hot-mix concrete igniting a tarp and causing several propane tanks to explode. Damage was minimal, estimated at "a few thousand dollars", and nine people suffered minor injuries battling the blaze. The tower opened for business on July 1, 1962. Changing skyline When the tower and surrounding area was first designed prior to groundbreaking on March 15, 1961, it was to be the centrepiece of a proposed hotel/convention centre. Due to finances, the accompanying hotel buildings were not built, and it would be over forty years before hotels began to rise adjacent to the tower. During the 1970s and 1980s, the surrounding land was occupied by an aquarium to the north, and the Waltzing Waters attraction to the south. The Waltzing Waters site was moved across the street in 1995 to