It happened first in Hamilton

Sixty years ago, they served the first Christmas dinner at the Salvation Army’s new men’s centre at York and Bay. In addition to the roast turkey and apple pie, that party of December 1950 featured something truly exciting – television entertainment.

The building is still there, an oblong block of bricks on a street the city is trying to bring back to life. That effort is not aided by the halfway house for hard-to-manage offenders that the feds run on the leased third floor of the Sally Ann. Many wish it would move far away.

As for the Sally Ann itself, no one wants it leaving town. We all know that if we drop something in those Christmas kettles, this city will be a better, kinder place.

But did we know that the Sally Ann’s start in Canada was in Hamilton?

We do now, with the release of the third and final volume of the book First Here – What Happened When In Hamilton.

It’s available at all local bookstores. And, as usual, it’s edited by She Who Knows All, Margaret Houghton, archivist with the Hamilton Public Library’s Local History & Archives.

Seventeen contributors have come up with 53 stories, and Houghton wrote half of them. Readers will learn about Cootes Paradise, first wildlife sanctuary in Ontario; Northways, first store in Hamilton to offer women’s ready-to-wear clothing; Benjamin Dunnett, Hamilton’s first postman, who delivered this city’s mail all by himself.

As for the Sally Ann, Houghton locates a report that says the first Salvationist in Canada landed in Hamilton: “It was a humble cabinetmaker, James Jermy, who in 1881 knelt while walking on Main Street and read aloud two chapters from his Bible. The crowd which gathered and joined him later in his public prayer witnessed the Salvation Army’s invasion of Canada.”

Thirty years later, the Sally Ann bought a former broom factory downtown and began turning it into lodging for men: “The new metropole will be thoroughly modern and sanitary and will have all equipment of baths and the latest fumigation equipment.” (The metropole lasted 40 years, before it was torn down to make way for the Sally Ann’s present facility for men, across from Copps Coliseum.)

The book points out that the early days here “were hard for the Army. One departing female officer stated: ‘I never worked in such a hard station as Hamilton. The devil has got a good hold here, and his influence is strong’.”

The latest First Here collection also tells of Hamilton’s first bookstore. The proprietor was George Barnes. He had a large estate, now known as Barnesdale, bounded by Sherman, Gage, Main and King. He grew grapes on his property and shipped them to his winery in St. Catharines.

There’s nothing like a good novel while sipping a fine glass of vino. So in 1845 Barnes opened his book store on King East. It was a great success, and he later moved the store onto James North, right across from the old city hall.

May we now say a belated farewell to another city bookseller.

His name was Henry Black, and he died Oct. 26, age 80.