$8 million will turn tired tavern on Parkdale into 60 tiny perfect pads
George and Mary’s is sold and being renovated for those in need
Every now and then, a fellow named Mike Schymkiw sends me an email about something he’s noticed around town. Here’s the latest: “For the first time in probably six decades, there is no bank on Parkdale Avenue.
“CIBC at Parkdale and Melvin has ceased operation and ‘moved’ to a new location. At one time the street had four major banks … a very sad day for Parkdale.”
He’s right, it is sad. Parkdale used to be a street with lots going on.
However, no white flag yet. Today, $8 million worth of good news, directly across the street from that paperedover CIBC.
On the northeast corner of Parkdale and Melvin, deep in Hamilton’s east end and not far from the factories, a white-brick showpiece of a place opened in 1969. It was called George & Mary’s Tavern and Banquet Centre.
George and Mary Rusich are still around. Mary, 89, is at a nursing home in Upper Stoney Creek. George, 92, is in the family house not far away, and missing Mary a lot — especially since being told weeks ago that he can’t drive himself over for a visit anymore. We find him in bed. “Nothing wrong with me,” he says, “just old.”
But it helps to talk about the glory days at George & Mary’s.
“One of the biggest places in Hamilton,” he says.
Could seat 1,200. Weddings, stags, fundraisers, coin shows, battle-of-thebands nights. And the bar — which George somehow managed to always keep open an hour later than anywhere else around — was packed with guys getting off the afternoon shift at Firestone, Dofasco, National Steel Car.
If he thought it would bring in customers, George did it. Strippers, check. Karaoke, you bet.
Then he added a lodging wing to the building and became a landlord. Years passed, the factories faded, Parkdale was on a slide. And it all became too much for George to manage. He shut down the banquet hall a dozen years ago, and the bar three years ago.
Decay set in at the place that once made George so proud. And, reluctantly, he’s let it go.
The old banquet hall complex is now the latest project for Indwell, a nonprofit outfit that creates affordable housing. This group is on a tear, and opened two substantial projects this year alone. They have 11 buildings in Hamilton.
Because of Indwell, about 300 people in this city who needed a hand up now have affordable and compact-butclean places to live.
Indwell paid $1.65 million for George & Mary’s, that mortgage money coming mostly from the Hamilton Community Foundation. When the project is done, it will be a total investment of at least $8 million.
About $5.5 million is provincial and federal affordable-housing dollars. Indwell, a Christian-based body that helps citizens of every stripe, finds the rest through donations, loans, car washes, whatever it takes.
Graham Cubitt is director of projects and development. On this day, he’s leading a dozen young people through the ruins of George & Mary’s. They work in Indwell’s other facilities, all shiny and clean, and he wants them to see the ‘before’ picture here.
Especially the rooms upstairs, where tenants had been living until very recently. Paper respirators are handed out. It smells here. There is garbage, dirt, rotting food, bed bugs.
“Everyone has different standards,” Cubitt says. “But we would have to say, ‘We can’t let you live like this. We want to help improve your sense of self worth.’”
When Indwell is finished, there will be 60 units here, at about $500 a month, 250 square feet each. Yes, that’s small, but each will be equipped with a full-size refrigerator, a real washroom and quality lighting — not the bleak, shadowy kind.
And once those tenants from the margins have moved in, Indwell stands ready to help keep their lives on track.
Parkdale Avenue loses another bank, but gains a house of hope.