Historically Speaking

Historically Speaking Join Alex and Leanne on their adventures to historic locations all over Ontario!

Old scene of a winch truck and crew of men raising the flagpole in Hamilton's Gore Park at the intersection of King & Hu...
09/06/2026

Old scene of a winch truck and crew of men raising the flagpole in Hamilton's Gore Park at the intersection of King & Hughson streets.

Note the covered entrances to the underground washrooms as well as all the awnings along the storefronts.

King Street shoppers always looked up to The Spectator for the weather forecasts when the newspaper plant was located in...
09/05/2026

King Street shoppers always looked up to The Spectator for the weather forecasts when the newspaper plant was located in the downtown core of the city.

The newspaper was famous for its huge billboard, which was installed on the roof of the building in 1956.

The landmark came down in 1976 with the paper's move to Frid Street.

The North End neighbourhood was well known for its sports teams, and that extended down into the school system, with the...
09/04/2026

The North End neighbourhood was well known for its sports teams, and that extended down into the school system, with the St. Lawrence girls team winning various softball championships over the years.

Shown here, the girls team pose after winning their division in 1941.

09/04/2026

The “names” inscribed on the 9/11 Memorial include 10 Mothers “and her unborn child.”

🌹🦋Patricia Ann Cimaroli Massari-25, found out she was pregnant on the morning of the attacks. She was on the phone with her husband, Louis, until her last moments, “Two things were taken from me on that day. I was looking forward to being a father.”

🌹🌹🦋Sylvia San Pio Resta-26, 7 months pregnant, 1 week from starting maternity leave. Her husband, John, & their baby died alongside her in the North Tower. Her mother-in-law stated, “We lost 3 people on that day.”

🌹🦋Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas-38, 3 months pregnant, died aboard UA Flight 93, in PA when passengers heroically fought against hijackers. Left VM: “Jack, pick up honey, ok, I just want to let you know there is a little problem on the plane. I just love you more than anything, know that, please tell my family I love them too, goodbye honey.”

🌹🦋Vanessa Lang Langer-29 was 4 months pregnant-worked in the South Tower. Family members said her husband, Tim, “endured pain that no one human being was ever meant to bear,” eventually “drank himself to death.”

🌹🦋Dianne T. Signer-32, died 5 days before her wedding, was 3 months along. Her mother said, “I’m so happy the baby is mentioned at the memorial because that baby will always be in my heart.”

🌹🦋Renée A. May-39 died before her wedding & the birth of her child. She was a part of the flight crew AA Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.

🌹🦋Deanna Lynn Galante-33, 7 months pregnant, about to start maternity leave. Her husband, Anthony, said, “She was so excited. The night before, we were watching the baby move around.”

🌹🦋Rahma Salie-28, 7 months pregnant. She died alongside her husband aboard AA Flight 11, which crashed into Tower One of the WTC.

🌹🦋Jennifer L. Howley-34, was 5 months pregnant, died in South Tower. She worked on the 92nd floor for AON Corp. Her & her husband, Brian were expecting their first child in
1/2002.

🌹🦋Helen Crossin Kittle-34, was 5 months pregnant, computer specialist who worked on the 103rd floor of the North Tower.

Let us reflect upon these lives, forever changed🙏🏽

In this 1950s photograph, the Pigott Building dominates the streetscape between King and Main streets.The photo contrast...
09/03/2026

In this 1950s photograph, the Pigott Building dominates the streetscape between King and Main streets.

The photo contrasts the old, in this case the Birks Building, with the new, the Bank of Nova Scotia building next door. The spire of St. Paul's Church is in the background.

09/02/2026

On September 11, 2001, 35-year-old Brooklyn firefighter Gary Box rushed toward the World Trade Center and was never seen again, leaving his family with years of unanswered questions and no remains to lay to rest.
Gary hadn’t spoken to his father that morning, and as the days turned into weeks, the absence of any physical trace of him only deepened the family’s grief. His name was added to the list of the fallen, but there was no photograph, no final image, nothing to anchor those final moments.
Nearly eight years later, in 2009, Gary’s sister Christine visited the Tribute Center in Manhattan. When a staff member asked if she was looking for anyone, she mentioned her brother’s name. The employee guided her to a photograph taken inside the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, labeled as Gary Box. But the man in the picture wasn’t Gary — it was firefighter Brian Bilcher, one of Gary’s colleagues who also passed away that day.
The mislabeling struck the family hard. Gary’s father, determined to find a genuine photograph of his son in his final minutes, began searching tirelessly. He combed through the National 9/11 Museum’s archives, scrolled through hundreds of images uploaded by the public, and spent long nights examining photo after photo of that terrible morning. One night, after more than five hours of searching with no success, he went to bed completely drained.
The next morning brought the moment they’d been hoping for. As he was sitting down for breakfast, his wife Helen called him urgently from the living room. On the screen was a photo she had come across — a firefighter running through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, passing rows of abandoned cars as he moved toward the burning Towers.
This time, there was no doubt.
It was Gary.
A single image, frozen in time, capturing him doing what he was trained to do and what he chose to do — running toward danger to save others. For his family, it became the piece of truth they had been searching for since the day he disappeared.

Opened in 1913 as the Lyric Theatre, it became the Century in 1940 when 20th Century Theatres purchased the property, an...
09/02/2026

Opened in 1913 as the Lyric Theatre, it became the Century in 1940 when 20th Century Theatres purchased the property, and with major renovations, it became the first movie house in Canada to install year-round air conditioning.

The building was demolished in 2010.

The McMaster University campus has undergone sweeping changes since this aerial photograph was taken in 1947.There were ...
09/01/2026

The McMaster University campus has undergone sweeping changes since this aerial photograph was taken in 1947.

There were few buildings on the campus at that time, King Street goes part way through the campus and the Sunken Garden, a popular tourist spot, can be seen to the left in an area now occupied by the McMaster Medical Centre.

Taken in about 1922, this photo was shot from the ferry looking up the hill toward the Wabasso (LaSalle) Pavilion.The ph...
08/31/2026

Taken in about 1922, this photo was shot from the ferry looking up the hill toward the Wabasso (LaSalle) Pavilion.

The photograph shows passengers lined up for the ferry, perhaps taking them to Hamilton or to points beyond.

In 1903, a modest little amusement park began beside the canal. It was called, simply, the Canal Amusement Park. It was ...
08/30/2026

In 1903, a modest little amusement park began beside the canal. It was called, simply, the Canal Amusement Park. It was a small venue with a bath house, snack bars and a Crazy House.

When plans were announced for an expansion, a bylaw was enacted banning any exhibition of waxworks, circus, menagerie, riding or any other such show usually exhibited by showmen.

Despite the bylaw, the park did expand and flourish. The park was soon called Burlington Beach Amusement Park. In 1912 it got an Eli Ferris Wheel and in 1914 a genuine Herschell Little Beauty carousel.

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Fennell Avenue
Hamilton, ON

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