Brightside General History Chronology
1799
8 July, Lot 6 BF Land Transfer - Crown to Richard Beasley Patent
1804
30 August, Land transfer - Crown to John Lottridge Patent
1892
Electrification of the HSR Street rail belt line just on the other side of Barton
1906-1910
Speculative expansion of real estate during Hamilton’s second great industrial boom
1906-1915
192 Land surveys registered in Hamilton
1910
Jan and Feb, Land transfers Nancy E. Lottridge and Arthur D. Bates to Wm. D. Flatt
6 May, Flatt Registers Plan 453 for Brightside, Gilkison Street later renamed Burlington Street
June, Stelco founded
1911
Brightside properties advertised from $150 to $250 per lot
Census: 86 people in 19 Brightside households registered on census, 2/3 of whom are British -or Ontario-born; Hamilton population: 81,969 with one-half of Hamilton household heads being homeowners
1912
20 Feb, Lot 359 [site of the Brightside Hotel (aka House) unknown date of building] W.D. Flatt sells to Henry C. Gilham
1912-3
Recession
1914-18
Canada at War, WWI
1915
WWI Munitions production of artillery shells
1916-1927
Prohibition in Ontario; the sale of light beer allowed in 1923
1917
29 Aug, Lot 359 [site of the Brightside Hotel] Gilham sells to Dominico Martini
1921
Census; 846 people in Brightside, roughly 50% from Russian or Austrian origins, 22% from British and Ontario-origins, 20% of Italian origins; Hamilton population: 114,151
1927
Ontario Temperance Act’s prohibition overturned by Liquor Control Act
1930
Hamilton hosts First British Empire Games; Prince of Wales school built
1935
Brightside Hotel established
1938
Canada Housing Act
1938-9
Queen Elizabeth Way connects Toronto to Niagara
1939-45
Canada at War, WWII
1930s
Lots 300-339 (along the NW side of Birmingham St.) sold to Stelco; 29 other lots sold mostly to City or Royal Trust
1940s
46 Lots (mostly North of Sheffield) sold to City then transferred to Royal Trust
1940
1 Oct Brightside Hotel sold to Wm B.P. Graham
1942
LCBO letter to Brightside Hotel – prohibits its cashing workers cheques [viz April 1940 Circular]
1943
Brightside Hotel Dining room privileges leased
1945
Brightside Hotel renovated
Steel Company of Canada, USW 1005 Unionizes
Brightside Community flourishing
1946
Stelco Strike lasts 81 days July-Oct; Bocce players keep lookout for strikebreakers at Brightside’s Manchester gate
1947
Faludi Master Plan for Hamilton designates entire area north of CNR and east of Wellington reserved for light and heavy industry; Brightside house values drop
1948
Brightside Hotel, hours beer sold: M-F 12 noon-6:30 pm; 8pm-midnight; Sat 8pm – 11:30 pm
1950
March, Brightside Hotel renovated
1950s
87 Brightside Lots bought up by Stelco, the City, or Royal Trust
Stelco expansion, modernization, and massive program of inlet infilling and shoreline hardening
1955
Plymouth St. closed for Steel Company expansion
1956
Royal Trust Company sells properties North of Sheffield St. to Stelco for $1 each
May LCBO notes that the Steel Co purchased “all of the property and houses around the Brightside [Hotel]. What will happen next is not known.”
1958
April Brightside Hotel gets a Hi Fidelity (HiFi) record player
Oct, Brightside Hotel’s five upstairs rooms being rented to a family, $75 per month
Burlington Skyway opens in October
1959
St. Lawrence Seaway opens, improvements made to Hamilton Harbour by Harbour Commission
May, LCBO notes that the Brightside Hotel Coffee Bar is rented out; contains a coin-operated music machine [which needs permission] and a coin operated pinball machine [which ‘must be removed’] – both removed within a month
1960s
96 Brightside Lots bought up by the City and Royal Trust
1963
Hamilton Area Transportation Plan proposes changing Burlington St. at Stelco’s Wilcox St. gate
1964
Hamilton Urban Renewal study
Sept to Oct, Stan McNeill’s 9-part Hamilton Spectator series on transportation
1966
Jan, Burlington Street Industrial Area Preliminary study – endorsed 31 Oct 1966
1967-8
Most of remaining Brightside North of Burlington St. demolished; parking lots created where houses once stood
1968
Gilbert and Salzman sell Brightside Hotel to the City
1973
Birmingham, Plymouth, Lancaster, Industrial [formerly Sheffield] Streets closed
1977
Brightside Reunion, 800 people attend to celebrate the old neighbourhood
1978
Manchester St. Closed
1982-3
Brightside Reunion Committee plan the 1983 Brightside Reunion and write the Brightside Reunion: “Brightside Was When” book that was distributed to Branches of the Hamilton Public Library
1983
6 May, Brightside Reunion 1,100 people celebrate at St. Elizabeth Hall
2016
Stephen Lechniak begins his Brightside Memories FaceBook page as a place for Brightsiders to share their photographs, personal stories, and recollections
Bouchier and Cruikshank’s The People and the Bay devotes a few short paragraphs to Brightside in its social and environmental history of Hamilton Harbour
Kristofferson and Orpana’s Showdown: Making Modern Unions provide an extended treatment of Brightside in its history of the 1946 Stelco Strike
2017
Brightside Neighbourhood Project with its community archive and Profane Map of Brightside launched with Simon Orpana, Matt McInnes, and Rob Kristofferson working with people from the neighbourhood
2019-2020
Oct to Feb, Notes from the Brightside Neighbourhood Project Exhibit at Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre (WAHC) with funding from McMaster University’s Centre for Community Engaged Narrative Arts (CCENA)
2019
Notes from the Brightside Neighbourhood Project Catalogue published from the WAHC exhibit
2020
Bouchier and Cruikshank publish the chapter “Look on the Brightside – 1910 to Present” in Reclaiming Hamilton, with 104 detailed research notes
2021
June, Hamilton announces the naming of Brightside Park (formerly known as Stadium Precinct Park) to be developed on the former Dominion Glass factory site
June, McMaster University’s President’s Award for Community-Engaged Research (PACER) given to Brightside Neighbourhood Project
July, Brightside chosen for the Hamilton 175 virtual museum project
November, this web site launched
