The Hamilton Video Archives: History of the Downtown Core
 

So I have done a LOT of research over the years of the city of hamilton, esp. the downtown core, and I consider myself a historian of sorts, so I wanted to share with you some of the videos that can teach you about our wonderful city as well.

It is my belief that if we are going to move forward as a city we have to be aware of our past, what existed, and where, and what happened to it, and why.

Most of the downtown core at some point or other burned down. We lost a lot of buildings that way, others were demolished to make way for urban renewal, and others simply collapsed due to neglect.

I have compiled a playlist of some of the more noteworthy videos which you can find here:

A history of Hamilton Playlist

• Video Link

I will add more to the playlist as I deem them relevant as they continue to be made. Feel free to add any below I might have missed as well, and I will incorporate them into the playlist :)

The Library has done a really nice job with those videos. You name it, they know it about Hamilton.

It's great to see someone taking an interest in the history of their city. It didn't start for me until about 25 years ago when I stumbled upon a book called 'The Prints of Time.' Prior to that, my view of the city was shaped by what I saw - decay, neglect and desperation.

I was stunned by what I saw in that book. We had a Market Square? What's that beautiful building? And that one?! Then I started prowling the downtown trying to figure out what went wrong and what was left. I often dropped into the Library a chatted with the experts there about the city - do that.

In those days (mid-to-late-90s) there was little optimism that there might be a turn-around. Things have changed, slowly but surely.

haha I have the prints of time book as well, as well as the prints of hamilton :) - both by the same author who worked for the spectator - yeah it's amazing how much glamour was in hamilton - nearly every original building was glamorous! And to see what many were reduced to was just heartbreaking..