Motor Cars Ended An Era Along Beach

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The Beach Strip
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By Robert J. Hanley
The Hamilton Spectator
Saturday April 29, 1959
At a time when science, invention and urbanity threaten quiet reflection with the fate of lost art, it is a warm experience to come upon people who like to glance backwards. And when you're talking of the old Beach, it's nice to find those who will puff on pipes, stroll along the old familiar paths and pretend for a while that new noxious gases are old sweet scents, that honking cars are passing geese, that ore boats are yawls, that Neon signs are Chinese lanterns and that discarded candy bar wrappers are roadside wildflowers.
Unblemished Resort
Real old timers remember the Beach as an unblemished resort whose virgin freshness was gradually lost in the coming of the Radial, the motor car, the encroaching city, the smoky Industry, the speedway and the year around resident. Homesteaders who go a long way back, tell of teams of oxen in the 40s, bush, boardwalks, market gardens, the old scow ferry, early roadways, early trains, sails and sunlight on shimmering water, the Yacht Club at the Piers, Dynes Hotel, the Ocean House and Elsinore, the Radial cars, Chinese lanterns, middies and bathing shoes, frame houses with ornate cornices, the log cabin, the octagon house, storms, fires, pumps, honeymen, storied steamboats and bascule bridges.
Three Days Late
This isn't a history of the sandstrip, which has been done so completely and so well on so many occasions, but it is a report on reflections of old timers like Royston Kime whose great grandfather could easily have been the first settler. He drove team of oxen up from the east coast in 1843 but arrived three days later than John Dynes. Mr. Dynes, the great duck shooter, raised a hotel and gave it his name. The Corey family called theirs The Sportsman's Arms.
It was crown property and as new settlers came there were cattle, orchards and vegetable gardens. The city grew, but until the coming of the scow ferry at the new canal the roadway was little more than the old Indian trail of the days of the grasshopper war between two tribes.
Three Pleasure Places
The history of the Beach in memory of living veterans there, begins around the time of the railway's coming the Hamilton and North Western-
when the three large places of entertainment were Martin's Pleasure Gardens, Dyne's Hotel and the Baudry Hotel, where the Ocean House was later built. It was near the canal, about where the bowling alleys are now operated.
After the railroad, which later became part of the Grand Trunk System, thousands of Hamiltonians crowded the beach on week-ends and holidays, catching the train at the old station at King Street and Ferguson Avenue.
Most senior city residents will recall the old Royal Hamilton Yacht Club on the bay side at the Piers, and the Ocean House Hotel, which drew gay and overdressed throngs by boat, train and "hack," before the turn of the century. Both were destroyed In spectacular fires and their going was a blow to Beach residents and the old families whose fine big frame summer homes were spreading across the sandstrip.
Plunged Into Canal
When they speak of the tragedy of these two great fires, they recall a night in the 80s when an engineer forgot to blow his whistle, the swing bridge wasn't closed and engineer and firemen died as the engine plunged Into the channel.
One generation reflects upon the old boardwalk along the lakeside to the canal and the broadwalk out to the plank piers. It was a summer day's walk to the Piers to see the Toronto boats come in, the girls carrying sun parasols.
Still another generation recalls baseball at the canal and regattas of the old Yacht Club which sometimes attracted as many as 20,000 persons from Hamilton. And there was baseball at Dynes, too, with the scoundrels as lustily cheered favourites. There was Elslnore, the rest home sponsored by Senator W. E. Sanford and to which the old Mazeppa landed passengers, and Perry's Hotel at the canal.
From the last days of the Beach as a summer resort, the Radial cars loom largest in memory. The way they wheezed and panted as they loaded at the terminal, the women with children and bundles, the smoking compartments, the sailor straws, raw silk shirts and "ice cream" pants.
It was a swift service, the heavy cars hurtled along and there was a roar from the wheels as you crossed the rust-coloured waters of Coal Oil inlet and the patches of bull rushes. Once around Windermere. the whole atmosphere seemed to change and the holidayer drew his first long draughts of the cool, clean air.
The place was always full of anecdotes, stories, memories the engagement of a lifesaver who couldn't swim; the man who put dynamite In his cord wood to find out who was stealing it; the Oquityerknocklnus Club's pyjama parade: the church bazaars and garden parties.
Many of the fancy old frame summer homes remain in their original states, many of them pre-dating the unsuccessful attempt of the City of Hamilton to annex the Beach In 1907. It was the late Magistrate George Frederick Jelfs who helped beat the attempt.
In the last days of summer residence. Errol Boyd, former Hamiltonian newspaperman, was among the yachting enthusiasts. He was at the Herald, for a time, and moved over to the Spectator until his appointment to the public relations staff of the Post Office department at Ottawa.
Errol was asked to send along some of his memories and he wired the following recollections this week:
Remember fields across to the south east, stretching to the Mountain? The scent of clover on the south wind In June, and the scent of melons from the north shore in August. The perfume of poplars In the rain; canaries nests in the cropped bushes by the lakeshore tracks.
Murray Deas from Winona and his travelling emporium, meat, vegetables and fruit, whose arrival (or absence) made all tbe difference to the Sunday dinner?
The Beach Road shining in pools after rain, or clouded in dust In dry July?
The "load" which moved the family to the beach, starting in early morning and arriving late in the afternoon?
The sound of stringed music blown in the western breeze on a June night from the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club at the Piers, while you listened (as small boys did) from the deck of a moored catboat, a mile away.
The Malloch's Chinook, at anchor off Station 18 - the boats at anchor on a holiday weekend at the canal - tbe Hendrie's yacht, the Noyes yawl, the Opossum, and the Black Selma moored somewhere off Station 12.
The lake agleam with sail when the yacht races were held during August. Contenders with ballon jibs bellying, mainsails at right angles, spinnakers on the decks sweeping in to the finishing point?
Harry Greening and his first marvel speed boat Messrs. Pook and Clumb with Rainbow, contending around the bar - nearly 25 m.p.h.
Old Mr.Thomas and his vegtable garden. Also his "army" of beach kids. Remember your number?
Postmaster John Hughes, the Hughes fire, the dead horses in the ruins?
The riveting at Station 14 when they built the water tank. The sound of the pile driver at the piers. Slag exploding in the bay at the "smelting works." The sound of train whistles over the bay?
Constable Hazel and his easy chairs at the Lakeview and at Dynes.
The lilacs in early June at the Sanford's and further down the beach beside the walk.
Remember the Wanetta - the Duffield's launch, the Warren of the Biggars. Commodore Lenox's boat, the McPhie boys' yawl. Dr. Leitch's yawl. Dr, Cumming' sloop, the Boyds' Cygnet?

And how about the evening walks to the piers, all dressed up. When the boys and girls went to see the Toronto boat come in?
Remember the homes of Major Biggar, the Nibletts, George Park, Mrs. Malloch, Sir John Gibson, Eli Vanallen, the Clokes, the Crawfords, the Tidswells, the Fosters, the Macalpines, the Steedmang, Wanzers and Stewarts. Dr. McLaughlin. Dr Cummings, the Cahills, the Childs, the Armstrongs, the Waddells, the Alexanders, the Morrisons, the Graftons, the Duffields or on the lake side the Biggars, the Harris' the Counsells, and the Lucas, the Swansons and the Walshs, the Logies, Walder Parke, the Jamiesons, the Tiger Club boys, William Mills, the Mcphies. the McKinstrys, Mrs Willard, the Morwicks, the Roys - the Montagues.
And there were so many other prominent names - Smith, Carscallan, Kent, Woods, Galbralth, Moodie, Bell, Finch, McLaren, Hunt, Stroud, Greening, Cloke, Carroll, Glassco, and Crerar among them.
So end Mr. Boyd's reflections. As for Mr. Klme, he regrets the slashing down of bayside trees in the teens, which might have held back the recent high water floods. And he regrets also that about the same time the poplar bushes which ran along the railway tracks on the lakeside were pulled up after protests of some cottage owners.
"But destruction of these bushes, which helped preserve the shore line." says Mr. Klme, "neither ended immodesty nor the encroachment of the lake."
 

David O'Reilly

Registered User
Dec 15, 2012
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hello, this is my first time loging on.

the radial line that was on the beach was the Hamilton radial Electric railroad (HRER). it ran from the south side of the Burlington Canal to its own station in Hamilton at James and Gore Streets in 1896. in 1898 it was extended over the canal to burlington and to Oakville in 1903.
http://hamiltontransithistory.alotspace.com/HRER.html

the Hamilton and Northwestern (H&NW) began operating on the beach in 1875.
http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/industrial/hamiltonnw.htm


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