[DC83]

The Barton Street Forum

Barton St E, looking West towards Wentworth St N

THEN:

Source: http://www.trolleybuses.net/ham/htm/can_h_ham_brill_750_11.htm


NOW:

Barton Street Forum was the home to our NHL Tigers until they moved to Rochester in the late 1920's, and well, you know Hamilton's NHL history there-after
Replaced by small, 70's-type homes. These small houses are pretty much staple infill in the Lower City. Garages & Finished Basements were apparently super important to a lot of Hamilton European folks who spend the majority of their time in their basements units rather than the main floors.

 

[Jonny5]

These small houses are pretty much staple infill in the Lower City. Garages & Finished Basements were apparently super important to a lot of Hamilton European folks who spend the majority of their time in their basements units rather than the main floors.

That's is so true! The furniture on the main floor is to never be touched! Couches are covered in plastic for museum-like preservation until beyond the time the whole family is dead, when it is thrown in the trash.
If the Pope came, he might not even be allowed to sit on the couch.

 

[DC83]

Gawdy

That's is so true! The furniture on the main floor is to never be touched! Couches are covered in plastic for museum-like preservation until beyond the time the whole family is dead, when it is thrown in the trash.
If the Pope came, he might not even be allowed to sit on the couch.

You think the Plastic Couches are gawdy, you should see some crazy european-owned homes in Hamilton.

This one is in the St Clair Neighbourhood, this house is on Blake St South near Cumberland. Rediculous!
Google Streetview

by Flar, source Flar's St Clair Neighbourhood Tour

 

[flar]

Urban renewal!!!

Everything in the red shaded areas was erased by urban renewal:

 

[matix]

wow.. i'm just shaking my head.
comparing that to a google aerial is scarey.
any idea what those long linear buildings are at what would have been McNab and York?

 

[Edward]

Toronto lost a lot as well but at least some it was replaced by the TD Centre, Commerce Court and so on.

 

[DC83]

wow.. i'm just shaking my head.
comparing that to a google aerial is scarey.
any idea what those long linear buildings are at what would have been McNab and York?

Market Stalls. This was Market Street, I believe. So Market & McNab.

Toronto lost a lot as well but at least some it was replaced by the TD Centre, Commerce Court and so on.

Hamilton got a lot of cheap parking lots! They're one of the biggest money-making 'investments' in Downtown Hamilton. Infact, poeple buy buildings just to tear them down to profit off a parking lot (old HMP --Hamilton Motor Products-- Building).

 

[DC83]

Some East End Shots

Ottawa St South, looking South towards Lawrence Rd and the Escarpment (and train tracks)

THEN

NOW

Also, note the caption on the 'then' shot.
There is no longer a mountain access (road) here, it was moved a couple kms east to Kenilworth.

Check out the Google Streetview to see where the mountain access was.

 

[DC83]

More East End

King St, looking East towards Bartonville from Kenilworth Ave South (now referred to as Rosedale)

THEN

NOW

 

[matix]

Market Stalls. This was Market Street, I believe. So Market & McNab.



Hamilton got a lot of cheap parking lots! They're one of the biggest money-making 'investments' in Downtown Hamilton. Infact, poeple buy buildings just to tear them down to profit off a parking lot (old HMP --Hamilton Motor Products-- Building).

watch out for a hotel on the HMP site sooner than later.

 

[DC83]

HMP Hotel

watch out for a hotel on the HMP site sooner than later.

I'll believe it when I am sitting it it's lobby enjoying a drink!

This has been 'happening' for YEARS!

HMP

from the skyscraper page : http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=140234

Original Hotel Rendering with HMP incorporated into it

from the skyscraper page : http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=140234

Revised Rendering:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=140234&page=2

HMP comes down with promise of a hotel being built:

from the skyscraper page : http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=140234

And today (well, this past summer):
Google Streetview

Yes, it actually is illegal in Hamilton to use land of a torn down building for surface parking. CLEARLY this doesn't get enforced. Just look at the Google Streetview Evidence! How this developer gets away with what he has been doing for years is disgusting.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Everything in the red shaded areas was erased by urban renewal:

Holy Crap! German cities that were saturation bombed during WW2 lost less of their historic core than Hamilton did due to urban renewal.

 

[DC83]

Holy Crap! German cities that were saturation bombed during WW2 lost less of their historic core than Hamilton did due to urban renewal.

To be fair, yes all of this stuff is now gone. But some weren't b/c of urban renewal.
For example, this 8-10 storey building in the middle-bottom of the photo actually had an explosion in the late 90's; blew its roof right off.

A more serious issue in Hamilton, however, is Demolition By Neglect.
Downtown Hamilton is mostly owned by land speculators who sit on lands for decades sometimes.

The City has zero Property Standard Bylaws, which allows these speculators to buy an empty building, do nothing to it (no heat, hyrdo, protection from the elements), then sit back and watch it fall. Once it's a parking lot, the developer pays less taxes. Hamilton's system literally encourages speculators to let their buildings fall apart.

 

[Hipster Duck]

^I would say that's even worse than urban renewal, because blockbusting was a coordinated process during the 1950s and 1960s that has been completely discredited, whereas having slumlords sit on vacant property until they burn down or rot to death is an endemic problem that is not going to go away easily. Worse, it tells me that city leaders in Hamilton care as much about the city's history as they did in the 1960s, except they'd rather that it just go away quietly rather than in one big swoop. Stuff like this happens in Toronto, too, like Walnut Hall, but it is much more rare.

When I was a teenager growing up in Peterborough, there was a beautiful example of a Second Empire commercial block on the main street that was owned by a slumlord. After years of neglect the building was condemned and awaited demolition. At the eleventh hour, the city seized the building from the landlord and immediately spent $2M to renovate it from top to bottom. It now houses upscale loft apartments, a cafe, record store and a restaurant. While I am not sure whether investing $2M to save the building paid off in strict economic terms, I'm sure that most Peterborians today would not be against spending the money to preserve that building. In the end, it's not about the money, but about where citizens assign value, and how they prioritize where finite resources should be allocated. If the citizens of Peterborough valued history on that day, it's pretty clear that, repeatedly, the citizens of Hamilton value their history much less. I think that's the sad lesson here, more than the loss of buildings for their architectural sake.

 

[matix]

I'll believe it when I am sitting it it's lobby enjoying a drink!

This has been 'happening' for YEARS!

true indeed, but a little birdie told me everything is FINALLY falling into place to make this happen.