Lackawanna is a culturally diverse city located on the shore of Lake Erie and just minutes from Downtown Buffalo. Our Lady of Victory Basilica, a national shrine, is in the center of our downtown business district. The Buffalo Botanical Gardens, a Frederick Olmstead Park, is just walking distance from the Basilica.When Erie County was first settled, the area we now refer to as the City of Lackawanna, was still in the possession of the Seneca Indians. Being the strongest of the six Iroquois nations, they eliminated by conquest, all other Indian groups from this area by 1655. the Seneca used the district only for trapping and hunting during the summer months. Around 1780, the British helped the Seneca establish log cabin villages on Buffalo Creek and supplied them with clothing, agricultural equipment and seeds.

An Indian settlement stood on the banks of Smokes Creek which still passes through Lackawanna. The creek was named for a local chief known as "Old Smoke." A ridge of high ground separated the watersheds of Smokes Creek from that of Buffalo Creek. A road built along this high ground came to be known as Ridge Road.After the American Revolutionary War, people from New England began to move westward to the Genesee River and to Lewiston, NY, near Niagara Falls. In 1790 a road was opened, and used by the stage coach, extending along high ground from Batavia to Black Rock.

In addition to the settlement at Limestone Hill another settlement was developed by the Wood Harmon Company, land developers from Boston, Massachusetts. Their development in the nineties was called "Roland." The rest of the area was undeveloped or in small farms. Politically it was part of the town of West Seneca. On the lake shore was an area called Stony Point. After 1870 several railroads were built through the town. Limestone Hill was located on the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad, the Erie Railroad, the Lake Shore Railroad and the Nickel Plate Railroads. The movement of freight from the west through congested areas in the City of Buffalo was so slow that these railroad companies decided to establish freight yards in West Seneca. This vast railroad facility and terminal yards furnished a great deal of employment thus encouraging settlement in the area. Another important development, vitally affecting the growing district of West Seneca was the erection by the Federal Government, at the close of the century, of a long breakwall at the eastern end of Lake Erie. The southern arm of this breakwall, 7,500 feet in length, extended to Stony Point in West Seneca and made the lake shore an ideal spot for industry.

Attracted by these facilities, the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company decided to locate in West Seneca. Therefore in April 1899, John J. Albright purchased all of the land along the shore of Lake Erie on behalf of the newly formed Lackawanna Steel Company. The authorized capital of this new venture was $60,000,000 of which one third was issued, share for share, for the stock of an old Scranton Company, the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company. Actual construction of the steel plant began on July 14, 1900. By the spring of 1901, several large buildings were completed and the withdrawal from Scranton had begun. Wherever possible both men and machines were removed from Scranton to the new plant site at Stony Point. Many of these people were of Irish extraction. This project out-stripped all other efforts in the steel industry, becoming the greatest individual steel plant in the world and having incorporated in it many ideas new to the industry. It prospered as a leading manufacturer of rails and sheet piling. The first two blast furnaces were blown in February, 1903 and the rail mill started operations in October of the same year. Each year saw further expansion with more products available. In 1922 the plant was acquired by the Bethlehem Steel Company, which at once began an extensive expansion program. The Kalman Steel Company was purchased in 1931 and the Seneca Iron and Steel Company in 1932. The plant's products include bars, sheets, rail, tie plates, structural shapes, sheet pilings, etc. The huge plant fabricating works and non-plant land of the company cover over 1,500 acres of ground and the plant has its own ship canal, locks, bridges and storage space for coal, limestone and coke.

About the time the steel plant came to Limestone Hill, a controversy arose between the eastern and western sections of West Seneca over the payment for certain improvements in the town, with the result that Limestone Hill separated from the town and formed its own city.

On the evening of March 2, 1909 a meeting of the Victory Volunteer Fire Company was held at which John Widmer presided with Edward C. Flanagan as Secretary. The matter of making the Limestone Hill district a separate city was proposed. A mass meeting of residents was held on March 6th to determine the popular feeling for establishing a separate city. The Lackawanna Steel Company and the rest of the business community encouraged the matter and the City of Lackawanna was soon to come into existence. The Lackawanna Chamber of Commerce was established on March 4, 1909 and has been promoting the community ever since.