Catherine Polk

Catherine Polk (1812 to 1822-1890) was pastry cook at the Cataract House hotel from 1850 (and perhaps as early as 1836) until at least 1883, part of the core group of people of African descent who worked together year after year, both in serving guests and helping freedom seekers escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad.

A valued member of the Cataract House staff, her role was a very important one, for the Cataract House was renowned for its cuisine. Her personal preserve in the basement kitchens was sometimes visited by guests to the hotel, and she was a popular figure amongst the staff.

Catherine Polk was born sometime between 1812 and 22. She is recorded in the census records from 1850 to 1870 as having been born in Pennsylvania. In 1880, however, she told the census taker that she, as well as her parents, had been born in Delaware. Catherine Polk may have been one of those who escaped from slavery and camouflaged her origins by reporting her birthplace as a free state. If so, she most likely learned her unparalleled cooking skills while still enslaved, since she was quite a young woman when she arrived in Niagara Falls.

Menus at the Cataract House during Mrs. Polk’s tenure changed daily. They always included the finest ingredients to be found in the market. Waiters served soup, fish, meat, vegetables, pastries, desserts, and fine wines, both domestic and foreign. Pastries were Mrs. Polk’s specialty.

Recollections in the 1930s by children who had grown up in Niagara Falls described “Aunty Pope” as “quite a character with her bandanna around her head” and whose domain was the basement pastry rooms. Years later, Alice Trott remembered: “We children loved to go into the basement pastry rooms where the barrels of English walnuts, almonds and raisins were kept. (There were always some on the dining room tables) and Aunty Pope would let us have some and some of the ice cream which came from the gallon cans.”

Like many who worked in the tourist industry in Niagara Falls, Polk lived elsewhere during the winter months. She owned a home in Geneva, New York, 125 miles east of Niagara Falls. Neighbors in Geneva included Clarissa Condol Hamilton and Dorothy Condol Fossett, each of whom were married to waiters who worked at the Cataract House. Clarissa Hamilton also worked with Polk at the Cataract House herself and surely enjoyed some of Aunty Polk’s delicious treats.