In 1824, the first monument for the late British Major General Isaac Brock was erected at Queenston Heights. The 19.8 metre tall white limestone tower was the first built in memory of the War of 1812 hero. Inside the tower was a circular staircase that led to the viewing area at the top of the tower. The bodies of Major General Brock and his aide de camp Lieutenant Colonel Macdonell were entombed at the base of this tower.
On April 17th 1838, Benjamin Lett, an Irish Canadian rebel who was a supporter of the Mackenzie Rebellion, and a group of saboteurs set off an explosive blast at the base of Brock's Monument causing irreparable structural damage.
The bodies of Brock and Macdonell were disinterred from the vault and reburied in the Hamilton family cemetery in Queenston.
On October 13th 1853, Toronto architect, William Thomas, started construction of the new Brock's Monument. It was completed in the autumn of 1856. The 56 metre tall tower was completed in 1856, and inside had a 235 step circular stairway. At the top of the tower is a small twelve foot diameter observation deck/pod.
At the beginning of the construction of the new monument, the remains of Brock and Macdonell were dug up from the Hamilton cemetery and reburied in a vault underneath the monument.
On April 5th 1929, during a heavy wind storm, the outstretched arm of the statue of General Brock broke off. Upon falling to the ground, the arm broke into three large pieces weighing one thousand pounds. Scaffolding was built around the tower to the very top to allow workers to reconstruct the statue of General Brock.