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I found this picture of some road construction in Edmonton and it gave me Deja Vu, it looks like an alternate reality King St. W, just before MacNab.

https://cdn.skyrisecities.com/forum/...36-jpg.295110/

that tower in the background looks like First Place, too.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...42/unknown.png

This got me thinking. It wouldn't be impossible to salvage Jackson Square's streetscape from the mess it's in. Imagine something like Brookfield Place. A shopping mall with seemingly separate facades at the sidewalk, not unlike the buildings that used to be at this point in the street 60 years ago. Am I crazy? Probably. If nothing else, this street will automatically improve with the LRT, and having lane capacity halved will in turn lend itself to a better streetscape by itself.

^It could be better, a bit better.

But I do think there are limits to how friendly and attractive that stretch of road could be made. It's a wind tunnel and it's very dark. I think the best we could hope for is that the buildings get tarted up but making it a vibrant people-friendly spot is very unlikely.

^My fantasy has always been to raze the mall, plow a couple of the streets through as they once were - Market and MacNab perhaps - and create a new Market Square. If money were no object, that's what I'd like to see.

...on the right in the Edmonton picture is the Edmonton City Centre (former Edmonton Eaton Centre) -- specifically that's the Hudson's Bay store (former Eaton's) - built 1980s - currently in the process of closing. HB was founded in Edmonton -- as recently as the early 90s had 3 major downtown department stores -- Hudsons Bay, Woodward's and Eaton's

Some nice ones from a Spec "175" story about the Pigott Building.
https://www.thespec.com/life/local-h...kyscraper.html

1928:
https://images.thestar.com/VC01nTpzG...igott_1928.jpg

Postcard from the same era:
https://images.thestar.com/NW7JsNCAd...r/postcard.jpg

Some of the accompanying text... I never knew about this:

Quote:

His name was Willie Thompson and he is remembered for having worked as the elevator operator at the Pigott Building. Willie started at the Pigott in 1946, making a name for himself as the kindly fellow with gold-trimmed green jacket with matching pants who piloted people up and down the 18 floors of the building.

In its heyday, the Pigott was filled with doctors, lawyers, architects and other office workers, and Willy was a busy man moving them all from floor to floor. In the bad times — the 1980s in particular, when the building was derelict and vacant — the elevator was turned off and he lived in the basement.

He was quoted in The Spectator in 1994: “Some people think I’m daft. But I am a happy, contented man. I’m actually quite proud of myself.”

He told Hamilton Magazine in the early 1980s he didn’t mind living in the big building all by himself. “Now, you know, when you’re here late at night and there’s no one else about, you hear all sorts of funny things. You think there’s someone behind you, or someone on the staircase. Oooooo, it’s a spooky sort of place, this is, at night. Like a graveyard.

“Now, one night I was in the elevator at about 11 o’clock. Just me alone, and all of a sudden I hear this voice coming up the elevator shaft and it says, ‘Wait for me, Willie, I’ll be there in a minute.’ And you know, it was the voice of a man who had died in the building a year before.”

According to local historian Margaret Houghton, “Willie vowed that he would stay in the Pigott building forever, even after he died.”

Haunted Hamilton’s Stephanie Cumerlato says Willie may have succeeded in his wish after dying about a decade ago. “People who live in the building often tell us that they are all too familiar with Willie. He has been spotted walking through the halls, perhaps still residing at the place he loves.”

I was under the impression that this area was a mass grave of people that died coming to Hamilton via ship and Cholera. When you look at the one picture just north of the sunken gardens the grounds just steep towards the Bay once you leave what is now York Blvd.

What happened to these graves? You go to the area now and there is a small 4-5' berm down from York Blvd but the ground is now level to the grave of the unknown soldier?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ahatmose (Post 6338484)

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/722/3o61.jpgCan't believe how much they had to fill in.
http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/4103/kz3i.png

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/1558/tnbb.png

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/4448/3lkd.png

It still looks like the City is looking after the area as the area appears to be getting the grass cut. Who know with the work they are doing on Gage Park they might just decide to reopen this great feature for the entrance to Hamilton one day.

I am certain that little white dot in the middle of the large green area is the grave of the unknown soldiers of 1812.

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/4164/wr6x.png

cheers

When they built the 403 they had to do a lot of landscaping here, so the bodies had to be moved. Apperently it caused quite a stir then. The bodies were supposed to have been re-interred at the municipal cemetery, but the details are foggy. Staff are unsure where that was, if they were even interred there at all.

This isnt the only mass grave along York actually, when it was expanded from a street to a boulevard, more bodies were discovered during the demolitions. Records for all of these are difficult to come by, especially considering that when the last one came through in the 1850s, the city had barely been incorporated as such for 10 years.

It's a pity the sunken gardens have been neglected for so long. All the formal gardens in the city have been, really. :shrug: But, at least they haven't let this area become completely overgrown, it still has potential to be a great entrance to the city. In fact, even in it's current state this site is still seeing use, its a popular vantage point for Canada Day fireworks over the harbour.

Beautiful Building

Back in the 1980's we did electrical work in that building and on the west side of the building there is a vehicle entrance that curves up to the second floor. Always thought that would be a cool studio apt and that I could ride my motorcycle into my living room - LOL

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce (Post 6405726)

I heard somewhere that the original Crappy Tire was housed in this building on Main E. Does anybody know whether or not that might be true?
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps3f4f5d75.png

Quote:

Originally Posted by 410001661 (Post 9626392)

I remember the old Hamilton Motor Products building at Main and Bay had a similar design, a big ramp for moving cars inside the building and up to the roof. I had never seen something like that anywhere else before.

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