One is the history of a bowling alley another the dream of a museum
Paul Wilson
The Hamilton Spectator
August 29, 1996
I have three addresses for you today. They're all on the Boulevard, at the north end of that long sand spit that keeps the lake from crashing into our infamous harbour. Each address has a story, not yet complete.
1150 Beach Boulevard - You could have bought this one. This summer the city put a list in the paper of properties for sale for taxes owing. Here the minimum bid was $103,763.09, equal to the taxes owing.
No one nibbled.
Bruce Schneider owns Green Gables Antiques. He's been on the Strip since the '60s.
Need a pink bathtub? Old bottles? Rare junk? See Bruce. Need a merry-go-round horse from the old Beach Strip amusement park? Sorry, not for sale.
Bruce points across the road to No. 1150 - an empty lot, just this side of the canal.
But he remembers when there was a bowling alley and restaurant there. A huge man named John W Miller owned it. But in the early 70s, zoning and tax structures changed on the Strip. The midway closed. A year later, so did the bowling alley. And not long after that, it burned down.
The alley had operated under many names. In the final years, it was Burlington Canal Bowling Lanes. Decades earlier, it was the Pier Bowl, beside the Pier Dance Pavilion. There couples danced by the water and strolled along soft-lit promenades.
Bruce points out a final link to those times. In front ' of No. 1150, there are two crumbling concrete light standards from the Pier glory days. The others were _ hauled off long ago. For some reason, this pair survived.
Beside Green Gables is Beach Marine. Owner Real 'Gendreau makes and rents canoes. He remembers when they tore the alley down. He retrieved a couple of Fleetwood-brand bowling pins.
In the late '80s, Real paid a visit to the family of John Miller in Stoney Creek. Real wanted to buy the land where the alley had been to store canoes.
But the family told him they had already made arrangements with the city to hand over title to the property for taxes owing.
No word on the Millers' whereabouts today.
"And now," says Real, "I see that ad in the paper, the city trying to sell that empty piece of land for more than $100,000 after sitting on it for all that time.
"Down here, you'd want a nice house on the lot for that much."
• ••
1155 Beach Boulevard - This is the lighthouse keeper's dwelling, built of brick in 1857. It is one-and-a-half storeys, with parapet-end walls.
Through this decade, it's been empty, a place for the lift bridge crew to store its rolls of White Swan and other essentials.
The last occupant was Peter Coletti, Hamilton's final keeper of the light. I visited him there a couple of times. He had stuffed the place with antique engines, cameras, crossbows and, in honour of a lady he met in Guelph, a beautiful king-size pine waterbed.
• ••
1159 Beach Boulevard - This is the lighthouse. A renowned Scottish mason named John Brown built it in 1858. Its stone walls are as thick as your mother is tall.
It too is deserted. They say it would be risky to try the stairs now. I climbed them once with Pete, his rocky voice bouncing around all the way to the top.
• ••
I tell you about the lighthouse and the dwelling because this summer, with no fanfare or debate, council designated those properties under the Ontario Heritage Act.
For now, that doesn't mean a thing. The buildings belong to the federal government, though it could be persuaded to turn them over.
But what would the city do with them?
Reg Wheeler sees a museum, "a significant monument to the water transportation that helped make Hamilton great."
Reg, a council member for 25 years, is on the city's heritage committee.
This fall, he says, it will form a special committee to consider options for the historic light station - the only one on the Canadian side of the lake that still has its original lightkeeper's residence.
Reg, 77, has lived on the Beach Strip since the Second World War. He's never been up the 79 creaky lighthouse steps. I hope he gets the chance.
Paul Wilson
The Hamilton Spectator
August 29, 1996
I have three addresses for you today. They're all on the Boulevard, at the north end of that long sand spit that keeps the lake from crashing into our infamous harbour. Each address has a story, not yet complete.
1150 Beach Boulevard - You could have bought this one. This summer the city put a list in the paper of properties for sale for taxes owing. Here the minimum bid was $103,763.09, equal to the taxes owing.
No one nibbled.
Bruce Schneider owns Green Gables Antiques. He's been on the Strip since the '60s.
Need a pink bathtub? Old bottles? Rare junk? See Bruce. Need a merry-go-round horse from the old Beach Strip amusement park? Sorry, not for sale.
Bruce points across the road to No. 1150 - an empty lot, just this side of the canal.
But he remembers when there was a bowling alley and restaurant there. A huge man named John W Miller owned it. But in the early 70s, zoning and tax structures changed on the Strip. The midway closed. A year later, so did the bowling alley. And not long after that, it burned down.
The alley had operated under many names. In the final years, it was Burlington Canal Bowling Lanes. Decades earlier, it was the Pier Bowl, beside the Pier Dance Pavilion. There couples danced by the water and strolled along soft-lit promenades.
Bruce points out a final link to those times. In front ' of No. 1150, there are two crumbling concrete light standards from the Pier glory days. The others were _ hauled off long ago. For some reason, this pair survived.
Beside Green Gables is Beach Marine. Owner Real 'Gendreau makes and rents canoes. He remembers when they tore the alley down. He retrieved a couple of Fleetwood-brand bowling pins.
In the late '80s, Real paid a visit to the family of John Miller in Stoney Creek. Real wanted to buy the land where the alley had been to store canoes.
But the family told him they had already made arrangements with the city to hand over title to the property for taxes owing.
No word on the Millers' whereabouts today.
"And now," says Real, "I see that ad in the paper, the city trying to sell that empty piece of land for more than $100,000 after sitting on it for all that time.
"Down here, you'd want a nice house on the lot for that much."
• ••
1155 Beach Boulevard - This is the lighthouse keeper's dwelling, built of brick in 1857. It is one-and-a-half storeys, with parapet-end walls.
Through this decade, it's been empty, a place for the lift bridge crew to store its rolls of White Swan and other essentials.
The last occupant was Peter Coletti, Hamilton's final keeper of the light. I visited him there a couple of times. He had stuffed the place with antique engines, cameras, crossbows and, in honour of a lady he met in Guelph, a beautiful king-size pine waterbed.
• ••
1159 Beach Boulevard - This is the lighthouse. A renowned Scottish mason named John Brown built it in 1858. Its stone walls are as thick as your mother is tall.
It too is deserted. They say it would be risky to try the stairs now. I climbed them once with Pete, his rocky voice bouncing around all the way to the top.
• ••
I tell you about the lighthouse and the dwelling because this summer, with no fanfare or debate, council designated those properties under the Ontario Heritage Act.
For now, that doesn't mean a thing. The buildings belong to the federal government, though it could be persuaded to turn them over.
But what would the city do with them?
Reg Wheeler sees a museum, "a significant monument to the water transportation that helped make Hamilton great."
Reg, a council member for 25 years, is on the city's heritage committee.
This fall, he says, it will form a special committee to consider options for the historic light station - the only one on the Canadian side of the lake that still has its original lightkeeper's residence.
Reg, 77, has lived on the Beach Strip since the Second World War. He's never been up the 79 creaky lighthouse steps. I hope he gets the chance.