Historic Hamilton: Concession Street
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 owner. If you know of a historic place in the City of Hamilton to which you would like to bring people, feel free to add it to the series!
Cache is a micro size camo painted pill bottle that contains only a log paper. Please bring your own writing instrument to sign and replace as found.
Originally known as Stone Road and changed to Concession Street in 1909. As well, the Hamilton mountain was a separate community from the Lower city Hamilton and known as "Mount Hamilton" but by 1891, properties north of Concession Street were annexed by the city of Hamilton and were serviced with water, sewers and sidewalks. Note: Aberdeen Avenue in the Lower City was originally known as Concession Street.
Concession Street is the oldest settlement area on the Hamilton mountain. It was once an African American neighbourhood settled by slaves escaping the U.S. via the underground railroad. This part of Hamilton Mountain was then known as "Little Africa". Canada in general and Hamilton in particular received these refugees with great sympathy and understanding. They were illiterate and took up education in the "Mission", a union church and school building, erected in 1860. The Union Mission was situated on the south-side of Concession between Twenty-Second and Twenty Third Streets. The adults would sit in with the children and spell out words and hoped that they might some day be able to read the Bible. They also liked to display pictures of Queen Victoria alongside that of Abraham Lincoln. They also took on new surnames to avoid being identified and recaptured. Many of the families there favoured the name "Johnson" as well as "Atkins", "Murdoch" and "Green". Over the years these families abandoned the homes they had established, to be seen no more on the hilltop. They didn't like the long cold winters and eventually returned to the United States. Today it is a predominantly white neighbourhood.
During the 19th century it did not occur to inhabitants of Hamilton that the mountain top would become thickly populated. Concession Street had been a deer run, then a cow path, at last evolved into a stoned road and had a toll-gate placed on it. All other roads on the mountain were left in a state of nature, where wagons sank to the hubs in the sticky mud for which Barton Township was famous.
From the year 1910, (interrupted by the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914), a great building boom was enjoyed on the mountain area, when many farms were cut into lots and many streets opened. Immigration flowed and the newcomers were chiefly from the Britisn Isles. They were industrious workingmen who soon built comfortable homes for themselves. When the city water came to the mountain, followed by sewers, there was no restraint on the building program. Since then the growth has been phenomenal.
In 1949, Mayor Sam Lawrence went on record as favouring a separate mountain ward. The city's focus was now to grow south with the eastern boundary, at the time, now established at Red Hill Creek.
Congratulations webmel for finding it first!