[ScreamingViking]

From the "Spec 175" anniversary series:


Jackson Square was the first phase of a new vision for downtown Hamilton

https://www.thespec.com/life/local-history/spec175/2021/08/28/hamilton-jackson-square.html

The Hamilton Spectator
Sat., Aug. 28, 2021


After years of planning, expropriation, demolition and construction, the first phase of the city’s vision for downtown Hamilton opened in 1972. It was called Lloyd D. Jackson Square, named after the city mayor who had laid the groundwork for core renewal many years before.

...

An Aug. 22, 1972, Spectator article about the Phase 1 opening said: “Hamiltonians, you are about to take a $30 million step into the future. At a brief ceremony tomorrow morning, the first phase of the giant Lloyd D. Jackson Square project will be opened. And a new life for the downtown area will have begun.

“It is hoped that the new buildings at King and James streets will bring suburban shoppers flocking back to the city centre ...”

Urban renewal timeline
— 1972: Jackson Square Phase I opens.
— 1973: Hamilton Place opens as well as the Canadian Football Hall of Fame nearby.
— 1977: Second phase of Jackson Square opens with a six-storey office tower.
— 1980: Central Library and new Farmers’ Market opens on York Boulevard.
— 1981: Hamilton Convention Centre and the government office tower, later known as the Ellen Fairclough Building, opens.
— 1983: Standard Life Building opens.
— 1985: Copps Coliseum opens as well as the Sheraton Hamilton hotel.
— 1990: Hamilton Eaton Centre opens.


The site, cleared of all that old rot... making way for newer rot.


1970: construction begins


1985: Copps Coliseum nearing completion


Cheers to a project... done (at least the early phase of it).



full story here