Zooming in on the city’s heritage
For the past several years, shutterbug Jim Charlton, 72, has been pointing his Nikon into nooks and crannies trying to capture remnants of Hamilton’s heritage before they slip into the dustbin of history
IF YOU SEE A MAN traipsing through the back alleys of downtown Hamilton inexplicably snapping photos of rotting roof gables or paint-blistered pillars, don’t be alarmed.
He’s doing it for posterity.
His name Jim Charlton. He’s a 72-year-old retired printer, who has been on a one-man mission to collect photos of items of historical interest before they are gone.
He looks for breaks in modern cladding that reveal some kind of architectural artifact from long ago. Many interesting gems on historic buildings — such as artful metal, wood or tile work — have been covered over by more recent owners. But sometimes the shell gives way, offering a glimpse into a bygone era.
“I remember I was driving by the old Windsor Hotel on King William Street, which was boarded up along the sidewalk at the time, and one of the panels had fallen off,” he says.
“I did a 180 back and I could see these two pillars on the building that I never knew were there.
Only the word ‘Lithographers’ remained but the sign draws attention to “King William being a hub of printing activity. There were two or three printers in the immediate area back in the 1800s,” Jim Charlton points out.
The facade had been torn down and you could see these beautiful ornate brass pillars just sitting there. They had been covered up for 100 years or more.”
He snapped several photos before going home to upload them on his Facebook page, Historic Hamilton Architecture. He also has a second page called Tymeline Photography.
HIS SADDEST EXPERIENCE, though, was watching a demolition crew take down All Saints Church on Queen Street in 2016. The building, constructed in the 1870s, had been severely damaged by an earthquake.
“I went out there pretty well every day for a month while they tore it down. I have the whole thing on film.”
Charlton’s photo trips through Hamilton are reminiscent of a concept in France called ecomusee, says Wayne Terryberry, co-ordinator of the outdoor recreation program at McMaster University.
“Basically, an ecomusee is a museum without walls. The key idea is that we live in a museum. The buildings, the streets and parks all have stories to tell.”
Ecomusee walks are very popular in France, Terryberry says, and in the 1990s he organized some in Hamilton.
“I think it is a wonderful that he (Charlton) is doing this. He is finding historical artifacts from the past which can tell a story. That’s what archeologists do at a dig. They try to construct stories from the items they find.”
A good example of ecomusee in action was Charlton’s discovery of a lithographer’s sign on a brick wall a few storeys above King William, on the north side of the street. The actual name of the company was obliterated — only the word ‘Lithographers’ remained — but the sign draws attention to “King William being a hub of printing activity,” Charlton said.
“There were two or three printers in the immediate area back in the 1800s,” he said.
As part of that printing district, The Hamilton Times newspaper was published at King William and Hughson streets more than a century ago. The Spectator used to have a back entrance onto King William Street until 1976, when the newspaper moved to its current Frid Street location.
Another example of an artifact telling a story is a century-old brick sign at Ottawa and Barton streets, which says “East End Markets Ltd.”
Charlton’s research discovered that the sign was left over from a time when there were big plans to develop a major market at the site, plans that were never realized.
Often, he says, it takes a very close look to reveal something interesting. For example, the pillars at the Windsor Hotel had intricate artwork of leaves at the top that had been severely tarnished by time and bad paint jobs. And a couple of pillars at the former Cannon Knitting Mills building, constructed in the 1850s, featured figures of birds. Again, not in very good shape.
Charlton says one of the reasons he is so interested in photographing the artifacts is they usually aren’t long for this world or they get covered over. A photo will be all that remains.
That’s what happened to the Lithographers sign on King William.
After the four-storey Templar Flats building at 30-39 King William was constructed in 2016, the sign could no longer be seen from the street.