North Tonawanda, New York

== History == After the first settlers arrived in 1809, North Tonawanda became part of the town of Wheatfield, New York, in Niagara County, from May 1836.

An abortive attempt at a village containing portions in two counties and two towns from January 1854 until April 1857, it was part of the Niagara County/Town of Wheatfield compo...

After becoming a village on May 8, 1865 (still in the Town of Wheatfield, but as part of Martinsville, New York), North Tonawanda was incorporated as a city on April 24, 1897.

In 1888, Herschell attracted expatriate Belgian Eugene de Kleist to North Tonawanda, who started the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory to produce band organs.

The North Tonawanda City Market, established in 1908, is the oldest farmer's market in Niagara County.

Taken over in 1909 by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company after De Kleist became mayor of North Tonawanda in 1906, Wurlitzer became one of the largest musical instrument-manufacturing...

The Railroad Museum of the Niagara Frontier occupies a 1923 Erie Railroad station on Oliver Street.

The Riviera Theater and Performing Arts Center on Webster Street, in a restored Italian Renaissance-style building, features plays, concerts, movies, and other events, and its 1...

The theater is one of only a handful in the United States with projectors capable of showing nitrate film prints in common use before about 1951.

== Demographics == As of the 2000 census, 33,262 people, 13,671 households, and 8,981 families were residing in the city.