Hamilton's Stone Heritage

[flar]

Original thread with comments:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=150491


Old stone buildings of central Hamilton

When thinking of stone towns in Ontario, the first that come to mind are Guelph, Kingston, or St. Mary's. Hamilton might have been
among them if it hadn't experienced explosive growth in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In her book "A Heritage of Stone",
Nina Perkins Chapple writes: "the picturesque stone town of the 1850s soon was over-trumped by the robust, High Victorian city of
the 1890s, which, in turn, was swallowed up by the expanded, modernized city of the twentieth century...Hamilton would appear at
first glance to have lost its 1850s stone heritage; closer inspection reveals a remarkable resource which, although reduced and
scattered, includes some of the most exceptional stone buildings ever built in southwestern Ontario."

In this tour, I search for the remains of this lost stone heritage. All of these buildings are located in central Hamilton, sometimes hidden
among highrise apartment buildings or in Victorian neighbourhoods.



Burlington Terrace, c. 1850s


Slainte Irish Pub, Corktown


Sandyford Place, 1858. The finest stone rowhouse in Canada west of Montreal and one of only a few surviving rowhouses built for the wealthy.
It was nearly demolished for an apartment building


Whitehern, a classical revival mansion built c. 1850 and home to three generations of the McQuesten family






Inside Whitehern


A stone row on James Street South. Stone rows like this once lined many Hamilton streets




Commercial buildings near Gore Park






Christ's Church Cathedral, 1835, cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara.


Inside Christ's Church:


Bay Street South Terrace, 1857




Park and Herkimer, c. 1860




MacNab Street Presbyterian Church, c. 1850s


Manse, c. 1860








James Street Baptist Church, 1878-82




This is Amisfield, once a stately castle on James Street South

Photo from Hamilton Public Library Special Collections hosted at http://www.raisethehammer.org/index.asp?id=516.

Today, Amisfield is completely surrounded:
"marred, obliterated and degraded, Rastrick's masterpiece stands in ignominy and shame."
from Victorian Architecture in Hamilton (1967) by Alexander Gordon McKay


Fearman House, 1863


Try saying "Pheasant Plucker" three times fast. This building is lonely today but at one time was surrounded by other stone buildings


Commercial on John Street South


Roach House, 1854, oringinally the home of George Roach, mayor and director of the Bank of Hamilton


Hess Village


Bishophurst, 1877, currently the home of CHCH Television


This building is being renovated into a luxury restaurant and bar with rooftop patio


St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, 1854-7, featuring 180 foot stone spire




Originally the Sun Life Assurance Building, 1899, later the upper floors were added and it became the Federal Building




Commercial warehouse, c. 1856. This building houses Coppley, Noyes and Randall, men's suit manufacturers


The Inglewood, c. 1850


Thomas Building, c. 1850s, slated for demolition. I believe the aluminum to the left covers the rest of the stone facade


Duke Street semi-detached house, c. 1840s


Ballahinich, 1853




Rock Castle, c. 1848


Hereford House, 1853


Somehow this lone house survives in a sea of commie blocks




Church of the Ascension, 1850








Central Public School, 1853, first large graded public school in British North America




The Stable houses at Dundurn Castle


Custom House, 1858, one of Canada's oldest surviving public buildings

[kwoldtimer]

Just got back from Scotland and some of these, esp. the stone spire of St Paul's, the wall at Whitehaven and the Sandyford townhouses would look totally at home over there. Ontario's Scottish heritage is literally set in stone! Thanks for the great shots.