Brian Roulston
Hello everyone, since 2015, I’ve been lucky to be among the many great volunteers and writers at the North End Breezes. It’s been fun researching and reading about our North End and the city in which we live, Hamilton, Ontario.
Hamilton’s Great Western Railway Maintenance Facility.
By Brian Roulston In the previous issue, we learned about Great Western Railway's beginnings, accomplishments, and eventual demise. In this final installment, we'll learn about GWR's Hamilton Manufacturing and Repair Facility, practically a village unto itself, with...
Hamilton: The Great Western Railway of Canada
Submitted by Brian Roulston In the early 1830s, Canadians still bitter from the War of 1812, watched as the Americans slowly built, expanded, and benefited from their rail infrastructure while Canada lagged behind, using horses and buggies or canoes. Britain's rail...
Hamilton: Birthplace of the First Locomotive Built in Canada
Daniel Charles Gunn was a visionary, a man ahead of his time. He envisioned Hamilton as the industrial hub of Canada, if not the world. Gunn is best known for building the country's first locomotive here in Hamilton in 1856. Daniel Charles Gunn was born on January 31,...
The Man Who Planned Hamilton
Louis Gentilcore, one of Canada's earliest historical geographers between 1787 and 1795, once wrote, "No other surveyor in Upper Canada surveyed and subdivided so much territory." He was referring to Augusta Jones, who originally planned our city. Jones was a farmer,...
It was once part of Hamilton’s History: The Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Plant
by Brian Roulston Housework is an unavoidable part of everyday life. When we think about cleaning the house, we often envision loading the washer and dryer, emptying the dishwasher, taking out the garbage, and, of course, vacuuming the carpet or the floor. Hamilton...
Highway 6: The Old Plank Road to Port Dover
by Brian Roulston Today, Port Dover is a favorite summer-time destination among Hamiltonians looking to escape the heat and get away from the big city. One can spend a few hours or an afternoon enjoying the beach, the sunshine, and the cool breezes off Lake Erie....
A Mennonite Trail to Highway 8: A Brief History
By Brian Roulston The early Mennonites were the first to use an indigenous trail that stretched from Niagara Falls to Dundas, which became King’s Highway 8, and stretched to Goderich, on Lake Huron. We know it as Queenston Avenue in Stoney Creek and Main Street in...
A Lot Has Changed Since Then…
by Brian Roulston The village of Hamilton, in the beginning, was shaded by large trees, some of which were hundreds of years old with several small ravines, bogs, streams and dense vegetation. The wind, frogs croaking, crickets chirping, birds singing; maybe the...
Letters to Santa
By Brian Roulston It’s that time of year again when Santa and all the elves at the North Pole are hard at work making toys, cleaning the sleigh and checking Rudolph’s nose. Reading and writing letters from children all around the world is one of Santa’s most sizeable...
Steamboats on the Bay and the Great Lakes. Part 1
By Brian Roulston Once hundreds of steamboats navigated the inland seas from the St. Lawrence Canal to the western beaches of Lake Superior. Without those floating workhorses of the nineteenth century, it would not have been possible to carry such large quantities of...
