The awnings of James Street North
Far from being anachronisms, awnings are a ‘presentation, a salute to the street’ itself
RANDY KAY
Hamilton has more missing and broken awnings than working ones.
On older commercial streets you can still find rusty mechanical skeletons of awning arms, or you can guess that hidden behind a strip of weathered plywood lurk more awnings from the past.
Historical images of the city show commercial life extending its reach in a series of colourful awnings, almost uninterrupted down full blocks of the street.
A generous intrusion into public space, fabric awnings stretch outward with open arms to connect storefront to street, a colourful, sheltering bridge.
Robert Keleti, owner of Hamilton Jewellers at 148 James Street North, is a believer.
The store has been in the same location, in the same family, since 1938. He’s seen awnings come, and of late, go.
Keleti says awnings add “a European flavour” to the street.
“Lots of older Europeans, they thank me for the awning. The younger ones, they don’t notice,” he says.
Each working morning he rolls out the awning, each night he scrolls it back in. He describes this as a “presentation, a salute to the street” itself.
One time he left the awning open overnight and someone slashed the fabric with a knife.
“It was a beautiful striped awning, red and beige stripes,” he recalls. Of course, he replaced it, and with a nod to the changing street esthetics, he went with basic black.
Liz Simpson, an owner at Needlework, 174 James North, has a working awning that gets used mostly on sunny days.
“It helps keep the store cool inside,” she says.
When Needlework redid their signage, the awning was a feature they wanted to keep.
“It really helps make it feel like we have a storefront on a living street.”
At 173 James North, Julia Shea, director of operations at Centre3 can’t recall the last time their awning was opened.
Even closed, it looks like a beauty, broad blue and white stripes, accented with fine red stripes. It’s actually two awnings spanning the full frontage, about 28 feet.
The remnant of a birds nest can be seen underneath, in the joint of a retractable arm.
Shea says it is still functional, but it does get dirty “and that’s an issue.”
Katarina Poletto, owner of a recent arrival Dolled-Up Deserts, 142 James North, is enthusiastic about awnings. She’s never seen the awning above her store unfurled. It’s there, waiting, but the hardware to operate it is broken.
“I would love to have an awning that works, especially during COVID, people could be sheltered outside.”
Poletto says an awning would help alleviate the heat and glare from the late afternoon sunlight.
Grey Harbour Tattoo, 172 James North, recently installed new signage and had an awning removed to make more space. Owner Rob Vino says the awning was broken.
“It wouldn’t come all the way out.” Further north on James at 219, Lighthouse Fish Market owner Nelcy Miranda is standing amid bushels of colourful produce in crates while customers browse and people stroll by.
The shade cast by the wide red awning here serves her bottom-line by protecting produce from spoilage in the morning sunlight.
As Miranda unrolls the awning, she imbues it with qualities: “traditional, welcoming, stylish. Awnings make shopping outdoors convenient.”
Is the sun going down on awnings? Or are we at the dawning of a new age?
Nobody better to ask than Rick Brusy, the “chief cook and bottle washer,” at Brusy Awnings on Hughson North.
His Hamilton street cred? His third-generation family business provided awnings for the original Eaton’s store on James North.
Brusy says that despite the pandemic, residential and commercial business hasn’t slowed down.
“More awnings are going up on James Street, Kenilworth and along Barton,” he says, “We are giving two or three quotes a week” with restaurants driving much of the commercial sales.
Jason Thorne, City of Hamilton’s general manager of planning and economic development, likes what awnings can do for a street in terms of shelter, but also the colour and visual interest they add.
Previously considered encroachments, awnings required a formal agreement with the city.
Recent policy changes removed legal fees to make it easier for businesses to add retractable awnings, street furniture, planters and fruit stands on, or over, the sidewalk.
Businesses may even qualify for a matching city grant for facade improvements.
Back in Hamilton Jewellers, Keleti places a black and white print on the long glass counter in the narrow shop.
It’s a photo he took from the store looking west across James Street in the mid-1960s.
Regal Cleaning, Rainbow Textile Bargain Shop, Service Grocery advertising “Pickled Pigs Feet” in the window, all with awnings that, like the stores, have long vanished from the street. But as people like Keleti and Miranda continue to perform their daily rituals, there’s a living example to emulate.