With a cold front moving in, I wanted to take advantage of a nice afternoon and go for a photo walk. But what to shoot? Without clearly knowing, I just started to walk in downtown Hamilton Ont. until I came across this beautiful building.
The Tuckett Mansion
Location: Corner Of King St. and Queen St.
Built in 1896 for George Elias Tuckett, founder of Tuckett Tobacco and the 27th mayor of Hamilton. This mansion was purchased by The Scottish Rite Club of Hamilton in 1920. It is considered the "Grand Orient" of the club and is home to their supreme council. Anyone in Canada that wants to be initiated into the 32nd or 33rd degrees of Scottish rite freemasonry, have to enter this building for the rituals.
After wandering around this gorgeous building, I decided it would be an afternoon of historical architecture.
I walked a couple of blocks to 56 Hess St.
Built in 1852 by Robert McElroy, a farmer who owned a large farm that is now part of downtown. With Second Empire architecture, it is a great example of a pre-Confederation building in Hamilton.
Currently the house is in ruff shape. Half of it is used by a bar and the other half is beginning to collapse after decades of neglect. The city, architects and heritage organizations are attempting to draft a plan to save the historic building. But in the last 6 months of that taking place, the building has gotten much worse. With water damage going from the roof to the basement forming on the exterior. Hopefully a plan is devised very soon!
From here I walked south on Hess St. to Hunter St. and turned east, to see Central School
Built in 1853 as the largest graded school in Upper Canada (1000 students) and as the first school in the city of Hamilton, it is still open to this day. Nearly 175 years of students passing through its doors!
Originally built in a classical design, it was remodeled in 1890 to more of a Victorian style of architecture. Including the added features of a steeply pitched roof, round-arched windows and a heightened central tower. In 1934 the clock was installed in the tower.
Only one block away sits MacNab Presbyterian Church.
Built in 1856 by Scottish stonemasons (From the lodge who bought the first location in this post) using stone quarried from the Hamilton Escarpment, this church sits almost completely unaltered from that time. The only changes that had been made were during the first and second world wars, several secondary buildings were built and some upgrades to the interior facilities were made.
This ended up being a great to spend the afternoon and I cannot wait to go on another history walk, let me know if you would like to see more of them!
