MADE IN HAMILTON
19TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL

SITE 29
HAMILTON GAS LIGHT COMPANY, 1850

Hamilton entered the modern era when a number of local businessmen formed the Hamilton Gas Light Company (HGLC) in 1850. In their first ten years of business, they laid a pipe network through downtown to provide fuel for the city's 220 new streetlights. Gas light replaced the traditional candles and kerosene in over 600 Hamilton households. It was, of course, mainly the city's well-to-do who could afford to read by gas light.

The company's new gas works was located in the block bounded by Cannon, Mulberry, Bay and Park Streets. The HGLC manufactured its gas from coal. At first, coal arriving at bayfront wharves was carted up to the plant. Later, it was hauled up along a rail spur.

Hamilton boosters championed new services like gas light as a way of making the Victorian city more livable. Today, this office building is all that remains of the once extensive complex of buildings and storage facilities.

The HGLC lost its monopoly over the local gas supply in 1904 when the Ontario Pipeline Company began piping natural gas into the city from the Haldimand Natural Gas Fields. The HGLC was bought out by its rival in 1913, but the local natural gas supply was limited. The new company opened a large new plant in Hamilton's east end in 1923 under the name Hamilton By-Product Coke Ovens.