Houses of hydro
Historic substations offer glimpse into Hamilton as the ‘Electric City’
From an architectural point of view, the buildings had a clear objective.
They were supposed to blend into neighbourhoods, to discreetly be part of the city’s electrical grid.
Welcome to the world of hydro substations. They are houses where people don’t live; buildings lacking in interior design or furnishings. You probably won’t find a stove to cook dinner, but you could definitely fry something with all the wiring and electrical equipment.
There are dozens of them across the city, usually camouflaged to look like houses or other buildings. They are charged with the responsibility of transforming high voltages into lower dosages that can be used by homes and businesses around them.
Electrical infrastructure is the subject of a fascinating photographic exhibition at the Cotton Factory on Sherman Avenue North that finds noteworthy architecture and historical relevance in hydro substations.
It’s a collaboration between architect Chris Harrison, photographer Francis Fougere and architectural historian Megan Hobson.
While substations were meant to be low-profile, designers over the years — especially before the 1950s — couldn’t resist adding some architectural flourishes to spice things up.
But more interesting, the “Power of Design: The Rich Architectural Legacy of The Electric City” show opens a door into an understanding of how the early adoption of hydro electricity back in the late 1890s forever shaped the destiny of the city.
Hamilton became known as the “Electric City,” for trailblazing a power distribution system that fostered industrialization through the early decades of the 1900s. A bunch of entrepreneurs known as the “five Johns” — John Dickenson, John Morison Gibson, John Moodie, Sir John Patterson and John Sutherland — formed the Cataract Power Company.
In 1898, using long distance transmission technology developed by Nikola Tesla, the company managed to bring power a distance 56 kilometres to Hamilton from a hydroelectric power generating station at Decew Falls on the Welland Canal.
It meant that Hamilton had the cheapest and most reliable supply of electricity in the country. The development, along with a multimodal transportation network and safe drinking water, helped transform the city into an industrial powerhouse.
The population swelled because of jobs that were created, leading to an expansion of housing that would also be served by hydro electricity. That was managed at first by Cataract, but in 1911 a competing, municipally owned hydro electric system formed that would eventually take over Cataract assets in 1930.
Through it all, a network of substations evolved. And today, the legacy is spread throughout
the city.
The exhibition points out that while more recently built hydro buildings tend to be utilitarian with little in the way of design significance, many substations from several decades ago were uniquely styled by prominent local architects.
Fougere says one of his favourites is a beautiful stone building across from McMaster University at Main Street West and Stroud. It was designed by the firm of Hutton and Souter in the collegiate Gothic style of buildings on campus.
Another substation of interest is at King and Spadina. The George T. Evans design features Romanesque revival arched windows that have unfortunately been bricked in since he took photos of the building.
At 284 Sherman Ave. N., a former classical revival styled substation by McDonnell and Lenz has been beautifully preserved and put into reuse by Budget Iron and Metal.
The most well-known example of a hydro building being repurposed is the Staircase Cafe and Theatre on Dundurn Street. It was built in 1914 as a first substation in the city and transformed into an arts space in the late 1990s.
Over at 117 Market St., a 1955 substation has been converted into an energy and power utilities lab for Mohawk College engineering technology students.
“With these buildings, if you look closely, there are clues about what they are or were,” says Hobson, who works as an architectural heritage consultant.
Fougere says, “They were made to look like the place next door. But you could tell something was up. There was sometimes a transformer out the back or a lot of fencing around the property,” he says.
It’s an architectural story that changes through time. There were distinct styles reflected in different buildings. In the beginning, the Cataract Power Company wanted to make a big splash. Its massive Victoria Avenue North plant, that is still standing, was built to impress and convince industries to switch over to hydro electricity as a power source.
The Hamilton Hydro main office on John Street North, now run by Alectra Utilities, has a distinctive art deco look.
In addition to appreciating the architecture, another point of the exhibition is to remind people about benefits of hydro electricity. Hobson notes that compared to other energy sources such as fossil fuels, it is a much more environmentally friendly alternative.
“Hydro electricity has been an important part of Hamilton’s development and I think it is something to be proud of,” she says.
July 27 column update
Over the weekend of Sept. 11, a group of volunteers led by two retired police officers searched a site in Acton for evidence that the body of 10-year-old Marianne Schuett was discarded there 54 years ago.
Linda Gillis Davidson, who previously worked as an inspector with the RCMP, says two cadaver dogs pointed to a patch of ground near a quarry off Highway 25 and 22 Side Road and an archeologist meticulously collected soil samples. No bones were found but Gillis Davidson says the highlytrained dogs definitely picked up the scent of decomposed human remains.
There could be DNA from Schuett, whose body was never found after she was abducted April 1967 in the nearby village of Kilbride, or someone else. Gillis Davidson says the samples will be passed on to a lab in London for analysis and she hopes for results over the next several weeks that will be compared to DNA from Schuett family members.
No one has ever been charged in the case, although Halton Police believe they know who was responsible. The man, whose name has not been revealed, committed suicide before he could be arrested in 1991.