[Jon Dalton]

I was looking through the urbanist stuff at central library today and picked up "Reviving Main Street" - an account of the Heritage Canada Foundation's efforts at doing just that in the mid-1980's. By chance I opened the book right on this page:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj194/jondalton/kingstreet.jpg

We all know the story, but nothing delivers it so right-in-the-face as before/after shots with the exact same composition.

When I was done lamenting the sheer brutality the 1970's wreaked on one of our prime commercial blocks, I studied the bottom picture closely and realized - it's got worse. No more People's Jewellers, Woolworths (closed 1990), Right House (closed 1983), Kresge's (closed 1994).

Have we hit rock bottom yet?

[matt602]

Not at all. You're forgetting that even today, nearly every one of the buildings in both of those shots still exists. They may be hidden behind ugly cladding or house undesirable stores, but we do still have them. I would definitely say King St. now looks better than it did in the 2nd shot.

I actually have been paying attention to how many original buildings there are along King East and James North, and it's quite a large number. Every single building along King from John-James on both sides can be considered an "original" building with exception to the HSBC building, the Gore Building and the Scarfone Hawkings building.

Also on James North, every building on the East side between King William and Rebecca is of heritage stock, including the 1924 Lister Block and late 1800's Thomas building. We just don't notice these buildings because they're commonly abandoned, partially demolished or were covered up with ugly crap. If the stone facade of the Thomas building were not mostly covered, there would be an incredibly dramatic street wall on that side of James.

I think the important thing that is missing is the street life, but even that could be a lot worse.

[omro]

This is a big ask, but could any of the more photographically talented members of the forum take a "today" photo for comparison purposes?

[matt602]

Yah I think I can get that shot. I'll do the other streets I was talking about in my last post as well, and hopefully some "before" shots can be found.

[Jon Dalton]

I suppose there are two measures of decline, the condition or existence of the buildings and the quality of establishments therein. Since the 80's there has been an increase in public funding used to maintain building stock for adaptive reuse, meanwhile private business continued it's sharp decline. Not a balanced equation.

[Jon Dalton]

This is a big ask, but could any of the more photographically talented members of the forum take a "today" photo for comparison purposes?

Now that there's some daylight left after work, I can go down and grab a quickie shot. Unless Matt gets to it first, we'll see. There are some improvements, notably that blank facade to the left is now gone.

[omro]

Cool guys :)

[thistleclub]

I suppose there are two measures of decline, the condition or existence of the buildings and the quality of establishments therein. Since the 80's there has been an increase in public funding used to maintain building stock for adaptive reuse, meanwhile private business continued it's sharp decline. Not a balanced equation.

Even if public funding had subsidized downtown department stores or created a recession-proof dome over the downtown, the equation would have been imbalanced and businesses would have relocated or gone out of business eventually, leaving a legacy of pity politics. Places like Peoples would have relocated eventually. And in fact they did -- true to the pattern of many downtown businesses, they moved west as the decades wore on. First they moved to James North across from Jackson Square, then to the Eaton Centre near Rebecca, and are now in the heart of Jackson Square. Like it or not, commercial zones evolve. Market forces are sometimes at the root of it: Sam the Record Man moved into the Peoples space but eventually went bankrupt. Or further east -- by the early '70s, operators of movie theatres the size of Hamilton Place noticed that they had ungainly overhead and couldn't compete with smaller houses.

Or business models change but not for the better.

Here's Wikipedia on Woolworth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._Woolworth_Company#Decline): "The growth and expansion of the company contributed to its downfall... On October 15, 1993, Woolworths embarked on a restructuring plan that included closing half of its 800-plus general merchandise stores in the United States and converting its Canadian stores to a closeout division named The Bargain! Shop. Woolco and Woolworth survived in Canada until 1994, when the majority of its stores there were sold to Wal-Mart. Stores that were not purchased by Wal-Mart were converted to The Bargain! Shop stores." So at least there's no Wal-Mart or another huge bargain store. Or more of the same: Kresge's was succeeded by K-Mart. Zellers couldn't even survive in suburban Aldershot with a parking lot the size of two city blocks. Yeah, it's a shame dowtown couldn't get some of that action.

Some of the 1970s construction downtown: Jackson Square, AGH, Hamilton Place, CFL Hall of Fame, Convention Centre, BDC Building (née IBM), Landmark Building (née Century 21), Continental Bank of Canada HPL Central, Farmers' Market, Police HQ. None of it exudes Victorian charm, but some of it has been useful.

And of course the vacancies left by failed businesses leave room for grassroot businesses and startups like restaurants, art galleries and co-ops. If downtown was a time capsule of gabardine slacks and Trilby hats, I don't know if we'd be able to enjoy it in the same way we do today.

[matt602]

The BDC building was IBM at one point? Wow. I never knew that.

Anyway, here's King East between James and Hughson, North side.

before:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj194/jondalton/kingstreet.jpg

now:

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k201/sugarton/Downtown%20Hamilton/king-james-2009.jpg

The biggest change here is the building in the "now" photo with "Crystal Shoes" on the bottom floor. Note the addition of windows. It's a shame that 2/3 of the Herbert Mill's building is covered in that crappy metal cladding. You can see what it looked like in the first photo, and you can see that it still looks like that on the Western 1/3 of the building now.

If you guys can find "before" versions, here are the other streets I also got pics of today:

- King St. E between Hughson and John, North side.
- King St. E between John and Catharine, North side.
- James St. N between King William and Rebecca, East side.
- James St. N between Rebecca and Wilson, East side.

I can get any others requested as well.

[omro]

Great pic Matt, it really is interesting to see the changes.

One thing that jumps out at me has nothing to do with the buildings, but the roads.

The sidewalks look wider in the older photos and the traffic looks like there were three lanes instead of today's four. Or am I just imagining that?

[matt602]

No, I see it too. It's 3 lanes in the second "before" photo versus 4 presently, although the 4th lane is parking, bus stops, turning lane for James now that it's 2-way.

[adam]

The whole narrowing sidewalks/widening roads thing is unbelievable..

[bigguy1231]

If you look at the photo's they actually got the 4th lane from the sidewalk that use to skirt Gore park. The sidewalk on the commercial side of the road has remained basically the same.

[omro]

Hopefully the sidewalks will be widened again when there's less traffic flowing through Downtown after the stunning success of the LRT :-)

BTW, to pick up on something that HMagazine mentioned in the Jackson Sq thread about signage. In the UK, there are some towns and villages that are adopting by-laws to restrict the size and style of shop signage. The shops are required to have a more unified look, which improves the look of the High Street.

[highwater]

There would be no point having a similar law here. Enforcement would be non-existent as per usual. Welcome to Hamilton.

[omro]

by-law enforcement would surely be a revenue earner :haha:

[Jon Dalton]

Hopefully the sidewalks will be widened again when there's less traffic flowing through Downtown after the stunning success of the LRT :-)

BTW, to pick up on something that HMagazine mentioned in the Jackson Sq thread about signage. In the UK, there are some towns and villages that are adopting by-laws to restrict the size and style of shop signage. The shops are required to have a more unified look, which improves the look of the High Street.

It is unbelievable, given the issues facing Hamilton's downtown core for the last 30 years, that the signs on the north side of King St. are still legal. A major deterrent to the revival of downtown retail is the sketchy businesses that are the mainstay of this stretch of King, and the clientele they attract. Yet we allow signs covering the entire facade of builidings to draw further attention to this unfortunate state of affairs.