1890s Hamilton

    “The T.H. & B. road applied for permission to be relieved from the order directing it to be responsible for the crossings over the roads of the Hamilton & Milton Road Company and asking that the city of Hamilton and the county of Wentworth should bear all expenses in connection with the matter. Mr. Waddell strongly proposed on behalf of the road company against this concession, Mr. Carscallen appearing for the railway company. Hamilton Times.    January 06, 1897. The year 1897 had barely begun when the matter of getting traffic across the Desjardins Canal became a source of conflicting agendas among a variety of vested interests. The Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway had been built through the City of Hamilton in 1895, notably with the construction of a long tunnel under Hunter Street West and the addition of a handsome station building on Hunter Street East, just east of James street. It had, of course, always been the intention to conn...

 In the depths of winter, the Hamilton Times carried a lengthy account of what conditions were like along the Hamilton Beach Strip, the sandstrip between Lake Ontario and Burlington Bay (now Hamilton Harbor) Accompanied by noted Times artist, J. Thompson, the Times reporter's observations, which appeared in the February 19 1897 edition follow in full:        “Until Burlington Beach gets a first-class hotel to replace on a larger scale the once-popular Ocean House, the favorite summer resort will never be the place it once was. Last year an elaborate plan was developed by the Colony Company for the erection of a big hotel, with water toboggan, swimming baths, inland lakes, fountains, parks and cottages, and the scheme may yet be carried out, but the company’s affairs are not in a particularly promising condition just now. When the Ocean House disappeared, a severe blow was struck at the beauty of that portion of the Beach around the canal, and that part is desola...

On Tuesday February 2, 1897, Hamilton’s Grand Opera House was filled almost to capacity. However the theater was not filled with the usual ticket-buyers out for an evening’s entertainment of music and/or plays. The crowd was mainly members of Hamilton’s ‘sporting community,’ a not-insignificant portion of the city in 1897. The evening at the Grand was called an ‘Assault-at-Arms’ and was held under the auspices of the Hamilton Hunt Club: “There was a large crowd present, the ground floor being almost filled and the galleries crowded. The ‘gods’ knew that no ladies were present, and they were noisy at times. Among those who occupied seats in the boxes were : Mayor Colquhoun, ex-Mayor Tuckett, Chief Smith, John Crerar, H. Carscallen, Samuel Barker, G. Lynch-Staunton, John S. Hendrie and Jas. W. Hendrie.” 1             1 Hamilton Times. February 03, 1897. Former Chief of Police and former Mayor A.D. Stewart was the master of...