MADE IN HAMILTON
19TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL

SITE 22
THE HEAD OF THE LAKE

The town's first wharves and warehouses were erected near the foot of James Street as early as the 1820s. They were built by local merchants and landowners eager to service the increasing trade in agricultural produce that passed through Hamilton.

The volume of lake traffic generated by the city's commerce encouraged boat-builders, marine foundries, and other related industries to locate on the bayfront. Artisans and merchants realized that the city's location made it an ideal site for manufacturing.

The harbour's centre of activity shifted west when the Great Western Railway docks and grain elevator opened in 1854. The focus of industrial development shifted after 1900 as large new factories located on infilled sections of Hamilton's east end bayfront. The Hamilton Harbour Commission was formed in 1912 to oversee this development.

Boating on the Bay in the 1930s :

“We used to go down to Askew's Boathouse and rent a boat. We'd get way out into the middle of the Bay and start chasing each other, and rowing and paddling. We'd all jump into the one and dump it over. Out in the middle of the bay, over the boat would go. Of course, we'd all get underneath and take one deep breath and, heave, flip it over. And climb back in, start all over again." Charles Bulmer

A booklet entitled The People and the Bay: A Popular History of Hamilton Harbour offers an historical tour of Hamilton harbour that can be done by boat. It is available at the Ontario Workers' Arts and Heritage Centre as part of their Workers’ City tour series.