Yeah, as I mentioned, it's been probably a decade since I hiked around that area between John and James but I do remember following quite a wide trail up next to the escarpment. I also recall reading that parts of the road are still in evidence - if you use your imagination, perhaps. I'll ask the master, Brian Henley.

This next photo is, quite obviously, of the city centre - King East looking towards the Gore. For maximum pointage, I require the precise date of the photo (year) and the vantage from which the photo was taken. There is some pretty strong evidence to help with the date, at least. Good luck and no cheating. ;)

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps86a487ad.jpg
source

^No guesses on this one? Thomas? You're usually quick with a response.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/features/...ennial1913.jpg
A panorama of Hamilton's "centennial" of 1913. (Courtesy of The Head-of-the-Lake Historical Society)
http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/talk/stor...entennial.html

City Hall is about to top out, so it'd probably be 1889.

The perspective suggests that it would have been taken from the NE corner of the roof of what was the Waldorf Hotel, which I believe was being used as the Wesleyan Female College (aka Wesleyan Ladies’ College) at the time of the photo.

Interesting to see 81 King East looking so ornate, and odd to look at the King East streetwall before the Capitol arrived.

^^Extreme pano, dude. Whoa...

81 King E
Yeah, from what I've seen, 81 King E was quite a nice building in its day. Could be again, of course. I seem to recall it being home to a piano manufactory of some sort. Heintzman, perhaps. Don't remember exactly.

Capitol Block
With the burning of the Pagoda's sister building not to mention the construction of Mill's Hardware, the Capitol Theatre and the old Spectator building, lots of change has come to that block in the past century. It would be almost unrecognisable in that photo.

And yes, both the date and location you gave are correct. Well done.

zoom a hundred years into the future today, and that intersection is quite unrecognizable!

It's such a sad intersection now. :(

Hi new here. Don't know if thread is still active. Read all the posts, interesting. I live at 60 Arkledun. It was built in 1880 by Edward Gurney. Some may know of him as the owner of E and C Gurney foundry on John St. He was also one of the bussiness men who started the Hamilton Bank. I'm always looking to find anyone who may have pictures of my house from the past. I'm not on the right computer with my pics of the house right now so I will post a present day pic later. Such a shame to see how the old buildings have been torn down in the city to put up square concrete and glass shells. Enjoyed the trip to the past.

^Check out the Vintage Hamilton Facebook page. You may find the answers you're looking for.

I made this then & now photo for Vintage Hamilton the other day...
http://oi41.tinypic.com/21exd0k.jpg
Source

The horror. The horror...

Nice work! Thanks for your effort!

All the people! No street cars, no advertisements... Seems like a regression :(

I think it would be great (and realistic) to get all the store front awnings back. Looks a bit euro and less sterile.

people in and on the streets. imagine that. we can't have that now because "LOL all over again" needs to get through scary downtown back to the suburbs as fast as possible

The reason so many people were on the streets in the 1913 photo is because that photo was taken during the 1913 fake centennial celebrations. Everyone celebrated the city's centennial around 30 years too early.

So taking a pic around supercrawl would be the modern equivalent?

The loss of the streetcars is probably the biggest negative for today, though a few buildings need to be washed.

Yeah. I wish I would have taken a photo from the same spot at this years supercrawl. It was exactly 100 years since the 1913 photo was taken.

^But wasn't it 1813 that Hamilton became the local seat of government for Gore District? That's worth celebrating, though you'll notice there was no 200th anniversary celebration this year.

I remember the 150th anniversary stuff happening in the '90s. I have a commemorative coin from it.