MADE IN HAMILTON
19TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL

SITE 15
CUSTOM HOUSE, 1860
ONTARIO WORKERS ARTS & HERITAGE CENTRE

The Ontario Workers Arts & Heritage Centre is located in Hamilton's former Custom House, now a National Historic Site. The Custom House was built to handle the trade flowing through the Port of Hamilton and along the new Great Western Railway line. In 1858, teams of highly skilled stone-cutters, stonemasons, carpenters and other craftsworkers, along with plenty of day labourers, began work on a building the Hamilton Spectator called "an ornament to the city and a credit to the commerce of Canada." Construction was completed two years later and the Customs Department moved into this finely crafted two-storey Renaissance Revival structure. Customs workers dealt every day with dozens of sailors, longshoremen, railwaymen, and teamsters delivering and picking up goods subject to duties.

In 1887 the Customs Department moved to a new building in the centre of the city. Over the next 25 years the building was used variously as a school, a home, the North End Branch of the local YWCA, and an immigrant shelter.

The building was converted to factory use in 1912. When a fire destroyed the  three-storey vinegar factory next door that year, its owner bought the Custom House to carry on production. By then the building was in a sorry state - a leaking roof, broken windows, gas and water torn out. In 1915, the Woodhouse Invigorator Company and the American Computing Company rented space in the building, apparently to manufacture their products. The Ontario Yarn Company moved in two years later, changing its name to the Empire Wool Stock Company in 1918. The men and women working here turned out woolen yarn for the city's many knitting mills. This company operated in Hamilton until the 1950s, when it closed along with most of the rest of the city's textile industry.

A fire ripped through the second floor of the building in 1920, destroying the roof and attic. In the rebuilding, a third floor was added inside the original walls.

The Reio family opened the Naples Macaroni Factory here in 1956. The workers in the factory were mostly women from the Italian community living in the neighbourhood. The company also packed olives in the basement, and rented space on the first floor to a doughnut manufacturer.

The Health Department closed the factory in 1979. The building, battered by years of factory use, sat empty and decaying. It was purchased for use as a martial arts academy in the 1980s. This use was short-lived but the first phase of the building's restoration was completed with the assistance of government funding.

The Ontario Workers Arts & Heritage Centre (OWAHC) bought the building in 1995 and undertook extensive renovations that restored it to its former glory. The successful and ongoing revitalization of Hamilton's 1860 Custom House serves as a positive example of heritage preservation in the community. Inside, OWAHC mounts exhibits that portray the history and culture of working people.

In 1872, the Nine-Hours League in Hamilton organized a parade through city streets that passed by the front door of the Custom House. One of the marchers was Alexander Wingfield, a Scottish-born railway-shop worker and poet well known in the city for his verse and songs. He penned a tribute to the marchers entitled "The Nine-Hour Pioneers". A few years later he got a job in the Custom House.

A historic plaque further outlining the history of the Custom House is mounted to the left of the building's front entrance. Inside is a small display about the building's history, including archeological findings.