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Niwka - the village named Niwka was founded on the left bank of the Biała Przemsza River (the area of today's Jęzor), probably in the 16th century. In 1581, it was a fishing settlement included in the Klimontów estate; it belonged to Jakub Broniewski. German sources record its existence in 1590, informing about a mill working in it. In the 20s of the 17th century, probably due to the catastrophic flood that hit the village, it was moved to a new place on the right bank of the Biała Przemsza River and was called Nowa Niwka (present Niwka). 13 families lived here. A document from 1687 informs about 9 homesteads from Niwka, 1 potter, 2 millers and 1 innkeeper. After the Broniewskis, the owners of the settlement were: Gosławscy, Mieroszewscy, Jacek Siemieński, Gustaw von Kramsta, and from 1890 the Society of Mines and Metallurgical Works in Sosnowiec. Around 1780, Niwka - situated by trade and water routes, at that time a market village - received city rights. The act of granting them was signed by Józef Mieroszewski, the then owner of the town. It was one of the smallest towns in Poland. There were 30 wooden houses, including farm houses, and about 100 people lived there. The town was situated around the square shaped like a parallelogram. The largest buildings were: a one-storey brick town hall with a clearly exposed roof and a partially underpinned inn. In its back there was a coach house with stables. At the end of the 18th century, wooden salt warehouses were erected in the market square. The original urban layout of Niwka with the old buildings has not survived to our times. In 1801, the Prussian authorities deprived Niwka of its municipal rights (from 1795 it was part of the Prussian New Silesia).
Until 1840, there was a small river port in Niwka, at the mouth of the Biała Przemsza River into the Czarna Przemsza River, known as a marina. It was used, among others for loading gallons with coal. Here, the Englishman Davny built a steamboat which was used to sail the waters of the Przemsza River. Small merchant ships, raftsmen and the abovementioned lighter ran on the river
From 1874, the settlement belonged to the Górnicza commune. Before World War I, it was incorporated into the Zagórze commune, and in 1915 the Niwka commune with Dańdówka, Bobrek and Bór as well as the Okrzei and Upadowa colonies were established. In the years 1926 - 1928, the S. Żeromski Public Primary School (now Primary School No. 15) was built. It became the center of cultural and educational life of the settlement. There was a choir, an amateur theater, a library and a reading room. According to the 1931 census, 5,752 people lived in Niwka, and 10,928 people in the entire community. The overwhelming majority of the inhabitants were workers employed in mining and other industries. The multi-section Amateur Sports Club "Niwka" was established in the settlement, one of the oldest clubs in the region, operating to this day (called AKS "Górnik"). Its progenitor was the "Korona" club, established in 1917. In the interwar years, the municipal authorities consistently strived for the incorporation of Modrzejów (a district of Sosnowiec) into the commune and the creation of a new town on the land of Niwka-Modrzejów. The Sosnowiec authorities strongly opposed this, which in turn put forward demands to extend the city space to the area of the Niwka commune. Attempts to make Niwka urbanized in the 20th century were unsuccessful. In 1947, Niwka was granted only the status of a rural commune with municipal financial entitlements. Since 1953, it has been a district of Sosnowiec.
Source:
1. Jan Przemsza-Zieliński "Known and ... unknown Sosnowiec" (1992), Sowa-Press, Ekspres Zagłębiowski
2. Marian Kantor-Mirski "From the past of Zagłębie D±browskie and its surroundings" (1931-32)
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