Photos of Chatham, Ontario

flar · #1 Posted **Mar 12, 2007, 4:30 PM**

Chatham, Ontario (population 43,690), the centre of Chatham-Kent (formerly Kent County).

Thames River

Rowhouses are fairly rare in this part of Ontario

Plenty of beautiful old homes

Ursuline College, aka "The Pines"

psychosomatic · #2 Posted **Mar 12, 2007, 4:42 PM**

very nice little town. i've never been to chatham. where how far is it from hamilton?

flar · #3 Posted **Mar 12, 2007, 4:51 PM**

It's nearly 3 hours south west of Hamilton, I was visiting my hometown (which is near Chatham) over the weekend.

clynnog · #4 Posted **Mar 12, 2007, 6:06 PM**

I never realized that Chatham was so nice looking. I always imagined it to be like Windsor (running for cover now) with its desolate nature and reliance on Daytrois.

I guess all your snow has gone. Here in Ottawa, things are still pretty snow covered.

the dude · #5 Posted **Mar 12, 2007, 6:12 PM**

why did i think chatham was a dump? as a hamiltonian i should know better than to judge a town without seeing it first. looks pretty damned good.

arnold · #6 Posted **Mar 12, 2007, 7:14 PM**

nice photos of a fairly under-represented city.

i have to admit that my opinion of the city was kind of based what i saw while passing through on the train to windsor... which was pretty crappy. the VIA station out on the fringes of town is an absolute joke and pressed up against a refinery or something of the sort. it's pretty bleak.

but it looks like chatham is actually pretty charming and has a lot of really nice old building stock left... which is something that its southern neighbour (windsor) certainly can't say.

flar · #7 Posted **Mar 12, 2007, 7:32 PM**

I think Chatham has improved in recent years, though it's still not growing. There are some really dumpy residential and industrial areas though.

EDIT: And yes, winters are pretty harmless in this area, they only had one significant snowfall this year.

raisethehammer · #8 Posted **Mar 12, 2007, 8:21 PM**

wow...friggin sweet.
I LOVE that first hotel. Hamilton needs one like that.
Love the theatres and the proper main street 1-lane each way with parking and lots of trees.
Can anyone say 'Barton Street's potential'??

Blitz · #9 Posted **Mar 12, 2007, 9:08 PM**

It has a well-preserved downtown core, the rest of the city could use some work but it's hanging in there.

MolsonExport · #10 Posted **Mar 12, 2007, 10:34 PM**

Looks like London divided by ST. Mary's and mutiplied by Stratford.

samne · #11 Posted **Mar 13, 2007, 2:16 AM**

Great tour Flar.

Chatham falls into the Midwest portion of S. Ontario.

Does anyone else see the tranformation from about London going west? Sort of like Ohio towards Michigan?

flar · #12 Posted **Mar 14, 2007, 12:20 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by samne

Great tour Flar.

Chatham falls into the Midwest portion of S. Ontario.

Does anyone else see the tranformation from about London going west? Sort of like Ohio towards Michigan?

They usually call it southwestern Ontario. There is definitely a difference west of London, in the people and in the way the towns and cities look.

rousseau · #13 Posted **Mar 14, 2007, 12:54 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by flar

They usually call it southwestern Ontario. There is definitely a difference west of London, in the people and in the way the towns and cities look.

Can you expand on this? I'd like to know more.

softee · #14 Posted **Mar 13, 2007, 7:26 AM**

Those old houses are absolutely beautiful.

Mister F · #15 Posted **Mar 13, 2007, 3:33 PM**

Why didn't MTO build a 401 interchange at Charing Cross Rd? You'd think the most direct route to downtown would be the first to get an interchange.

zerokarma · #16 Posted **Mar 13, 2007, 5:40 PM**

Nice pics

flar · #17 Posted **Mar 14, 2007, 1:53 AM**

^^Well, there's a strong American influence, partly because Detroit media dominates, but also because of social ties with Americans. Workers in Wallaceburg, for instance, remain part of the UAW rather than the CAW. You can see an American flag even in the pictures above. The people are maybe a little more conservative in some ways--there's a very rural attitude. A lot of farmers, and hunting and fishing is popular. Probably a stronger sense of individualism and emphasis on individual responsibility than many other parts of Canada--more like Alberta in this regard. The way of life is slow paced and almost everyone hates Toronto (Torontonian is a derogatory term, especially when it's mispronounced). In terms of the built environment, there is no real architectural vernacular like you'd find in cities east of London. Less ornate downtown buildings (Chatham is a bit exceptional here, check out Sarnia for example) and other than the mansions, most of the houses are wooden (usually with vinyl or aluminium siding now). The towns are generally younger too, many didn't grow much until after 1900. If a town in these parts isn't built on agriculture, it's a blue collar industrial town.

rousseau · #18 Posted **Mar 14, 2007, 3:50 PM**

Wow, everything you've said makes the area seem unattractive. I've only been through a couple of times, and my biggest impressions were that the terrain is flatter than Holland, and that the streets in Windsor conform so much to the grid that there are virtually no curved stretches or idiosyncracies in the layout.

flar · #19 Posted **Mar 14, 2007, 6:42 PM**

^^one of the reasons that region is stagnant. And it's really, really flat. There's a nice beach at Mitchell's Bay on Lake St. Clair though.

Blitz · #20 Posted **Mar 15, 2007, 3:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by samne

Does anyone else see the tranformation from about London going west? Sort of like Ohio towards Michigan?

This is very true...the Windsor-Chatham-Sarnia area is quite different than the London-Stratford-Kitchener area (although both areas fall within the southwestern Ontario region). Basically everything that flar said is true but I don't see how that makes the area unattractive, it makes the area unique as it's part of one country but the dominance from another country is very evident.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosseau

I've only been through a couple of times, and my biggest impressions were that the terrain is flatter than Holland, and that the streets in Windsor conform so much to the grid that there are virtually no curved stretches or idiosyncracies in the layout.

The terrain is really flat but that helps make it the richest agricultural land in Canada, they grow crops there that can't be grown anywhere else. In southern Essex County, there are rows of hundreds enormous greenhouses that you can't see from the 401.

Windsor's obsession with its grid contributes to its midwestern feel since many midwest cities ars set up the same way. Even the large new subdivisions being built in the city conform to the grid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brighter Hell

Why didn't MTO build a 401 interchange at Charing Cross Rd? You'd think the most direct route to downtown would be the first to get an interchange.

This is because the provincial govt has a history of ignoring the region (as any true resident of the area will tell you). It's what contributes to our hatred of Toronto.