Posted Feb 12, 2020, 9:50 PM
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Ham-burgher
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Hamilton
Posts: 6,650
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This Spec piece notes the original hotel building will now be restored. No details on the new bits yet.
Restored Hanrahan’s part of Barton renaissance
More people are realizing that treating old buildings as disposable is bad for the environment
by Sarah Sheehan
Hamilton Spectator
February 12, 2020
A yellow waste chute pokes out of a third-storey window on Catharine at Barton. There's work underway at the former Hamilton Strip, but perhaps not the kind you'd expect.
When the Strip closed, late last summer, it was commonly understood that the old Hanrahan's Hotel would be demolished. Developer John Barton Investments Inc. saw the property as a teardown, and local news media focused on the closing of the city's last strip club. Nearby residents braced themselves for the coming construction.
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Cross to the north side of Barton, look past the cheap main-floor cladding and faded pink signage, and the club's former self comes into view: the fine establishment of hotelier Thomas A. Hanrahan. Reporters were saying the hotel was Edwardian — circa 1908 — but the city's heritage mapping tool gave the date as 1890. Which was it?
I met with Paul Wilson for his column. In the spring, when the city was preparing to approve JBII's plans for the site, I had started looking into Hanrahan's and its Victorian predecessor, the Mechanics' Hotel, but he was the first person to show any interest in the history. We walked around the building, admiring the brickwork. The print headline asked, "Should we demo this dive?"
Wilson was not optimistic. But family members Laura Hanrahan and Peter Duffus got in touch with their stories, and I spent time at the archives, finding material on their Hamilton forebears and Billie Holiday — just one of the greats to play the old tavern. In November, I addressed the Municipal Heritage Committee and published my first opinion piece in this paper. I became the woman who wanted to save the strip club.
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Konrad Sit is a University of Toronto business grad; his family has owned the former Hanrahan's since the late 1980s. By the time we spoke, JBII's earlier plans were already on hold: the project had seen what he called a "staffing changeup." This winter, inspired by Bill Curran's concept drawing, a friend of Sit's signed on as the new tenant. The hotel will be restored, not demolished.
"I think this is the best use of the property," Sit told me, adding that he sees the new space as an opportunity "to gather all the things that are great about Hamilton."
Curran agrees. "We're thrilled to see the legendary Hanrahan's Hotel set for adaptive reuse," he said, noting that the building's scale made it "catalytic" for Barton East. Thier + Curran is no stranger to former strip clubs, having converted what used to be Maxim's, on the Gore, into Mills Hardware. As the firm behind the refurbished homes of Steeltown Garage, Mosaic, and now Meanwhile Wine Bar, "We know Barton is happening, and we're really excited to contribute at Hanrahan's. It's a good news story," he said. "This development will reinforce the extension of James Street onto Barton."
full article here
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