Hamilton, Ontario – My Top 5 Picks

Hamilton, Ontario – My Top 6 Picks

235 Locke Street North – Castle Doune – Regency Style – Hamilton Book 1

Sir Allan MacNab hired Robert Wetherell to design his Regency residence between 1835 and 1840. Castle Doune, once called St. Mary’s Lodge, was a Gate Lodge for the superintendent of Dundurn. The house was enlarged in 1908 with the turret and rounded bay on the southern half. The chimney and windows are features of Dundurn Castle.

90 Stinson Street – Fearman House – 1863 – Gothic style – Hamilton Book 3

Frederick William Fearman was the son of a shoemaker who emigrated from England in 1833 with his parents at the age of eight. He started his business with a store selling smoked and salted meats on Hughson Street between King and King William, moved to a MacNab Street North location near the farmers’ market, and eventually expanded to become W. Fearman Packing Company Limited, with a large factory at Rebecca Street and Ferguson Avenue on the Grand Trunk Railway line.  The company slaughtered, hung, salted, smoked and canned pork, beef, veal and lamb for shipment around the world. Fearman built his mansion, “Ivey Lodge”, at 90 Stinson Street in 1863.  It is three-story, limestone block with a Mansard-roofed tower as its front entrance; it has bay and arched windows, dormers, verge board trim, and a green metal roof. Fearman used his influence to help establish Hamilton as a major center in Canada’s early days.  He was a philanthropist who fought for the city’s first waterworks in 1855 and led the fight to buy Dundurn Castle and park to save it from land developers.  Fearman served on the Board of Education, city council, the library board, and was a member of the Hamilton Association for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art.  Fearman died at age 81 in 1906.

Hunter Street West – Hamilton Central Public School – Classical Style – Hamilton Book 2

It was built to accommodate 1,000 students, was the largest graded school in Upper Canada and was the only public school in Hamilton when it opened in 1853. The building’s original finely proportioned Classical style was extensively remodeled in 1890 with a steeply pitched roof, round-arched windows and a higher central tower to conform to late Victorian tastes.