Quote:
Originally Posted by TinChelseaNYC
Some of those townhouses are magnificent. Are there protected historic areas within Hamilton? And, if so, why wouldn't this be one of them? New York is full of landmarked neighborhoods where building or altering facades is practically impossible these days. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know, but it does protect some fantastic historic areas like Greenwich Village and Brooklyn Heights from the wrecking ball. Is Cabbagetown in Toronto landmark protected?
Were there more of these at one time? If so, it seems like a lot more has been lost than gained.
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The building in the picture you quoted narrowly escaped demolition in 1972. It's called Sandyford Place. It was built in 1858 and is now protected. There were many more stone townhouses. In addition to the others in the original post here, some, although less elegant, still exist such as this one (which is in Durand but I didn't include a photo because I've shown it many times before)
These photos show remnants of other stone rows that have been lost:
Alone in a sea of parking lots:
The City of Hamilton gets an F on heritage preservation. There is a series of books called "Vanished Hamilton" (yes, a series!) that shows many incredible mansions in Durand that were demolished over the years to make way for the apartment towers that are visible in about half the photos. The Durand Neighbourhood Association was formed to stop the rampant demolition of historic properties in the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood association proposed a heritage district in 1982. The city finally created the Heritage district in 1996. I don't know how strict it is, many of the homes have had bargeboarding, porches and other details ripped off. There are also a lot of bad renovation jobs, additions and unsightly stairs and fire escapes added to the many that have been converted to apartments. Just this past summer the city itself tried to buy two houses for demolition. Luckily they were outbid by private owners.