Hamilton’s history belongs in a museum
Hamilton has a long and colourful history but it doesn’t have a dedicated place to display it.
For 172 years, the city has been a rollercoaster of amazing firsts, fascinating characters, bizarre crimes, industrial might and labour strife.
But where do you go to reflect on that history and see memorabilia from bygone days?
There’s a big city of Hamilton warehouse on Burlington St., with more than 8,000 local artifacts. But it’s nearly full and not open to the public.
The Hamilton Public Library has thousands of pieces of local artifacts in storage in its Local History and Archives section. But very little of it is ever displayed.
There are local museums devoted to celebrating more narrow subjects such as Sir Allan MacNab; the Battle of Stoney Creek; infrastructure engineering; Black history; coffee; and vintage flying machines, among others.
You’ll find bits of Hamilton in almost all the museums. But there is no central location devoted exclusively to the city’s history. There is no place to take a visiting relative, or a class of schoolchildren to learn about the story of Hamilton.
In recent months, an effort to correct a similar situation in Toronto has been gaining steam. In early February, Toronto city council voted 35 to three to turn Old City Hall on Queen St. W., into a museum of Toronto, along with a large public library, wedding chapel, museum gift shop, restaurant and rental space.
A staff report recommended that 25,000 square feet be used for exhibit space and predicted the museum would attract 225,000 visitors a year.
The building currently houses courtrooms and holding cells for the provincial courts. But in 2021, a new court building will open, making Old City Hall available.
A feasibility study found the building would be appropriate for a museum, but retrofitting the inside and heritage restoration work on the building that opened in 1899 could cost a whopping $190 million.
It’s so far unclear where the funding would come from. But Toronto councillor Josh Matlow, who brought forward the idea, believes a combination of government support, private donations and fundraising could pull the money together. City staff are studying funding options.
Hamilton used to have a kind of civic museum at Dundurn Castle until the mid 1960s.
It was called Hamilton’s Attic, and featured a hodgepodge of items such as the city’s first fire engine, numerous paintings and photographs as well as a two-headed calf and a stuffed bird collection donated by a prominent local ornithologist. A centennial project trans- formed the museum into a celebration of Sir Allan MacNab, the former premier of the province of Canada who built the sprawling mansion and died penniless.
Years later, Special Collections at the Hamilton Public Library — now called Local History and Archives — emerged to partly fill the void by collecting historical items and to a small extent displaying them.
Margaret Houghton, who retired as archivist at the library section in July 2016, made a special effort to bring in local nostalgia items.
She worked with “pickers,” who would keep an eye on flea markets, antique shows and auctions for interesting Hamilton items. “A Hamilton Civic Museum should have happened decades ago,” Houghton said. “But the problem has been money and finding a location.”
The lack of a civic museum has meant significant items have either ended up in private hands or found their way to landfill, she said.
One of the most enthusiastic local collectors is Glen Faulman, who works as a Stelco steelworker and is part-owner of This Ain’t Hollywood bar on James St. N.
His Hamilton nostalgia collection of more than 200 items includes a hand-operated 1862 Wanzer Sewing Machine that was made at a factory at James and Vine Sts., and a 19th-century brass cash register made at Hamilton Brass Manufacturing, also on James St. N.
“I collect it to try to preserve Hamilton history,” he said.
Hamilton and Toronto are unique in Ontario by not having civic museums.
Virtually every sizable community in the province has one, including Ottawa, Guelph, St. Catharines, Brockville, Oakville and Woodstock.
Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger said a Hamilton civic museum “is a worthy idea — absolutely. But it has just been overtaken by other priorities.”
He noted a lot of heritage resources in recent years have been spent on repairs and maintenance to Auchmar on Hamilton Mountain as well as to the Battle of Stoney Creek Lion Monument parkette.
“There are other things that are on the priority list ahead of that but it is certainly something to start talking about.”
Hamilton councillor Chad Collins says he is putting together a motion to have staff study the feasibility of a Hamilton museum as part of an ongoing strategic plan to “guide the development, sustainability, relevance, value, and ongoing operations of the Hamilton Civic Museums.”
The motion will also ask staff to cost out the potential capital and operating costs and provide input on the suggestion.