Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRitsman
Really?? When, and where was it? Do you have any pictures?
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On March 25, 1986 the mall management informed Alderman Shirley Collins that the underused skating rink on the second floor of the office building that had been constructed during the second phase would be shut down by May 3. The city, recognizing the need for ice rinks downtown and public facilities in the square, urged the citizens of Hamilton to use the skating rink in droves and demanded that Yale Properties not make a final decision until they had held discussions with city planners.
To combat the announcement from a civilian perspective, a skating instructor started a petition to keep the rink open on March 31, 1986 that, within a day, garnered a hundred signatures. Finally, on April 9, the president of Jackson Square announced that the skating rink would turn into a seasonal facility that would open in November and run until March, a decision that still resulted in the loss of the attendants' careers.
A few months later on July 18, 1986, The Spectator reported that the mall's first restaurant would close permanently by the end of August. Murray's Restaurant, which had been a local favourite for over a decade, was no longer able to sustain itself under the high rents and early closure times. "We have to do business between 9 o'clock in the morning and 4:30 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon…Rent was $6,000 a month," said Alfred Wyss, vice-president of Murray's.
Soon after the announcement, Dooney's Restaurant ceased business as well. Suddenly, with an ice rink that lay dormant for most of the year and two seemingly successful and greatly admired restaurants gone, the public was once again forced to examine the super-block's promise for an improved Hamilton and its ability to remain the heart of the city's lifeblood.
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By the end of the 1980s, the world of retail was in a volatile state. The entrance of fast-fashion stores into the North American market saturated smaller local and regional brands, causing most of them to close, consolidate or update their marketing profile. At the same time, department stores were losing their grasp on the market as American big-box stores entered Canada and shoppers turned to high-fashion merchants for their clothing purchases.
With Limeridge Mall opening on the Hamilton escarpment in 1981, Jackson Square faced fierce competition from a wheelchair accessible, freeparking, two-storey complex that was host to three successful department stores and various high-end stores paying cheaper rents. It was not long until shoppers, seeing a clear contrast between the two commercial shopping centres, criticized Jackson Square's outdated look, expensive parking, cavernous feel, and barren rooftop plaza.
A final sting came on April 27, 1989, when Yale Properties announced that it would close the skating rink and replace it with a daycare centre for the office workers, an idea that never came to full fruition.
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I have only ever seen ONE image of it, and that was a long time ago,.. who knows where the image is now..
also this study appears to show the only surviving pictures of the ORIGINAL jackson square plans which were supposed to have gardans and a planatarium, which all got scrapped.
http://www.academia.edu/16885107/The_Sto...se_of_an_Urban_Heritage_Renewal_Movement
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