Historic Hamilton: Hamilton Municipal Airport
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Historic Hamilton: Hamilton Municipal Airport Historic Hamilton will be a series of caches that serve to bring cachers to historic places in and around the City of Hamilton. These caches can be placed by anyone, and are not limited to one CO. If you know of a historic place that you would like to bring people to, feel free to add it to the series!
A quick 2 stage multi that requires you to do some simple math. It was my intention make this one a traditional but I didn't feel comfortable with the amount of muggles surrounding the park. Final is a micro container that contains only a log. Please bring your own writing instrument to sign the log and beware of muggles at the FINAL. Stage 1 will bring you to a historical plaque. Please note the 4th word in the last paragraph. It has 8 characters. Assign each one of the 8 letters a number. For example, a=1, z=26, etc.) Add up all of these numbers, and divide by 100. You will get X.XX Add X.XX to the following North and West coordinates to get the FINAL: 43 13.936, 079 46.546 On June 6th, 1929, the Hamilton Municipal Airport was opened in what is now the Roxborough Park survey. The premier of Ontario, G. Howard Ferguson opened up the airport at 5 pm. The Aero Club flew under a government mandate, therefore, the Airport was available to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for flight training. The 19th bomber squadron was formed in Hamilton in 1935, and were renumbered 119(B) in 1937. They flew DH-60 Moths at the Municipal Airport until 1939, when they were sent to the coast. This squadron spent the war doing coastal reconnaisance in Bolingbroke and Hudson bombers. Many people flew in for the occasion. These included the Vice-President for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. The biggest visitors on the day however were two Goodyear blimps. The Puritan, and the Mayflower came from Akron, Ohio. The public could ride on these blimps for a view of the city from the air. The Hamilton Municipal Airport pioneered Airmail service when it opened on June 6th, 1929. Parcels were flown in to local businesses, and greetings and letters were sent out from the airport on an aircraft of the CPR Express. The airport was also the first municipal airport in Eastern Canada to have paved runways with night lighting. The Hamilton Aereoclub was the first in Canada to teach night flying at this airport. Here is a picture of the airport in 1939. In the early 1950s, there was talk of using the airport land in order to make a mall, or a housing project. In the end, it was decided the housing project would be the most suitable use. This housing project would cost $5,000,000 and there would 496 units. There was a contest held by Parkdale businesses to name the project. C.F. Woodward, of 177 Glennie Avenue, was the winner. He suggested the name of the new survey be Roxborough Park Housing Project. He was awarded a TV for winning the contest. The former airport land was carved into 40x100 lots, and it was decided that these homes would be rental homes. None of these homes could be bought. Rents were between $58 (Cottage) and $68 (2 Storey-6 Room) a month, and prospective tenants had to be married, have at least two children, and could not earn more than $6000 a year in income. Applicants these homes applied to the City Welfare Department, and were chosen from the Department of Welfare registry. The old hangar of the airport was left standing while the project was completed because it was used to store lumber. On December 17th, 1952, the first house in this new Project was completed. The location of it was 20 Sumach Street. Another big cost that the Federal, Provincial, Municipal had to endure was the cost of bringing running water to the area. According to former Hillcrest student, Dan Harris, there was not much running water in the area in 1945. From Hillcrest Middle School to Parkdale, only the school and people living on Reid Avenue had running water. This was because the airport was located on Reid Avenue. Children used to take a bath by swimming in the Red Hill Creek. This project was lauded by some, and looked down upon by others. The City of Scarborough was modelled after this East Hamilton housing project, that was located on the old Hamilton Civic Airport property. In 1930, there was a very exciting fly-by of the British dirigible R-100. Congratulations to akela31 on the FTF!
Additional Hints
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4 Srrg Hc, Orgjrra Gerr & Srapr