The Hamilton Video Archives: History of the Downtown Core

[Dr Awesomesauce]

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.