For the purposes of this history, Ithaca's 'waterfront' includes both lakefront and shoreline deep along the Inlet. This waterfront has many aspects. Over time, it has been a center for transportation, a shipping and manufacturing zone, a place for recreation and amusement, a residential area, a cause for concern, a place for celebrations.

Up to the turn of the century (19th to 20th), one can look at the story of the waterfront as being primarily about transportation. For the Iroquois who first lived in this region, and for the early white settlers, the waterfront was too swampy to be a desirable place to live. However, proximity to the lake was desirable, as the lake was a vital means to travel, as well as to ship and receive trade goods. The advent of the Erie Canal and Steamboat travel in the 1820's meant that much of the waterfront bustled with travelers, shipping and boat building activity. By the 1870's, the waterfront continued to be the center of transportation for the growing Ithaca community. As trains became the dominant mode of transportation, much of the Inlet was transformed with track, rail yards and depots.

With the creation of Renwick Park in 1894 at the southeast corner of the lake, the waterfront also became an essential place for amusement, sport and relaxation. Great crowds were drawn to the waterfront for events there as well as for steamboat excursions, for pleasure boating and for watching rowing competitions. In the 20th century, recreation continued to be, and remains, a dominant waterfront theme. In 1921, Stewart Park became the first municipal park on the waterfront. In 1933, the Newman Municipal golf course was created on an old ash dump site. Further recreation areas were developed in the 1970's: Cass Park, Allan Treman State Marine Park and the Hangar Theater. At present, recreation projects are in the works such as this Waterfront Trail, the Black Diamond trail connecting state parks, and enhanced facilities on Inlet Island.

Recreation and transportation are only two of the many aspects of the waterfront. For a brief but exciting time (1915-1919) Wharton Brothers made silent movies at the Renwick Park site. A squatter community once existed on the west side of the Inlet. Known as the 'Rhine', or 'Silent City', it housed the poorest of Ithaca's citizens in shacks that were built from about Court Street north to Hog's Hole. A huge variety of planes once filled the skies around the waterfront when the Thomas Brothers ran their aviation school and airplane testing site. The shape of the waterfront itself once was quite different. Gradual realigning of waterways and filling in of land, and especially the creation of the Flood Control Channel, have meant that the waterfront we see today is quite a different landscape than the waterfront of our past.

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