By Brian Roulston

I’m sure many Breezes readers have fond memories of shopping and hanging out at the corner of Ottawa and Barton Street.at what was once Canada’s largest shopping mall in the latter half of the 20th Century. Who could forget all the colourful and unique types of nuts in the display cases at Jim’s NutShack, the excitement of a movie night at the Odeon Theatre, the old Bi-Way store where you could buy just about anything for a few bucks, and the bustling atmosphere of the old farmers market in the parking lot? 

How about the feel of the breeze on your skin on a hot summer day and the soothing, therapeutic sounds of water flowing in the fountain, its pond filled with goldfish? These were all part of the charm of the old Centre Mall.

Before this shopping mall, the property had been one of the continent’s finest thoroughbred racetracks and equestrian showplaces, but it fell into hard times and disrepair over the years. Multi-millionaire EP Taylor, under Canadian Equity & Development, had bought the track in 1952. He had considered upgrading the facility, but Woodbine was under construction then and he felt there wasn’t room for another horse racing facility of the same calibre and it was too close to Fort.Erie Racetrack. 

The area had grown quickly since the war, and E.P. Taylor decided to build a new, fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall instead. However, due to the cost of enclosing the mall, this phase would come later, much later, and it wouldn’t be Hamilton’s first fully enclosed mall; that honour went to Jackson Square in 1970.  The original plan proposed a medical and professional office building, a kiddie park, and a car wash, which were never built.

The first sod was turned by acting Mayor Jack Mac-Donald on June 23, 1954. Construction began on Monday, March 21, 1955. Austin Company Limited of Toronto was tapped to build the main structure. Hamilton Ornamental Iron Works Ltd, on Gage Ave, fabricated the original steel stairs and miscellaneous ironwork. Canadian Westinghouse Supply Company Limited of Hamilton proudly produced the lighting inside and outside the original structure, including the parking lot lights.  

On October 27, 1955, a pleasant fall day with a temperature of 14°C. the new $18.5 million Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre opening marked a historic event in Hamilton. Mayor Lloyd D. Jackson cut the ribbon; the original 31 stores were open for business.  It was a day filled with excitement and energy, reminiscent of a Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert. 75,000 people flocked to the Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre, which covered 71 acres. Like Walt Disney World, a trolley whisked shoppers from their cars throughout the shopping area.

People came from Toronto, Niagara Falls, Brantford, and anywhere between. Traffic was predicted to be heavy, and the Hamilton Police Dept assigned officers to direct traffic on Barton and Ottawa. However, they had no idea how bad traffic would be. Traffic had slowed to a snail’s pace several times during the day. 

L.E. Coffman, the manager of Simpson-Sears, the mall’s first tenant, claimed that 30,000 to 40,000 people had passed through the two-story stand-alone store, complete with its auto center. The crowd was so dense at times that there was barely room to move. That evening, the Center Mall was transformed into a Hollywood-like spectacle. Giant searchlights cast their beams across the evening sky, adding excitement and glamour to the historic evening. E.P. Taylor, chairman of the board and directors of The Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre Limited, and Angus McClaskey, president of the company, were happy with the turnout and the smooth progress of the opening day. 

In June 1956, the Farmer’s market came to the north end of the mall, and there were 60 stores and retail outlets, such as a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada, Kresge’s, Laura Secord Candy, Grand & Toy; Tip Top Tailor, Kent’s Drugs, Caplan’s TV, Furniture, and Appliances. Two major grocery stores occupied the property, Loblaws and Hamilton’s seventh Dominion Store, with 17 checkout counters, the most of its stores in Canada. 

Ground was broken for another large department store that year; Henry Morgan & Company of Montreal constructed a huge two-story building affectionately known as Morgan’s by Hamiltonians. Morgan’s would eventually close, and the Hudson Bay Company would take over in the fall of 1960. The store would later be rebranded as simply The Bay. The Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre now spanned approximately 600,000 square feet of leasable space, and parking for another 5,000 automobiles was added.

In June 1965, the Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre’s 10-year anniversary celebration was marked by the announcement of a $1 million renewal project. The project included the addition of the iconic arches for which the mall was noted, water fountains and a pond, new lighting, and landscaping throughout the property. 

A freestanding cinema known as the National General Cinemas Centre Twin opened in January 1969 with four cinemas. A Canadian Tire Store was added to the theatre’s west side. 

In 1970 Jackson Square was built and Eastgate Mall was finished in 1973, both indoor malls. The new owners of Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre, Cadillac Fairview, renamed the property ‘Centre Mall’ in 1974, and a $2 million project was completed, a catch-up project to keep up with newer, competing malls. This project included construction of a new enclosed north wing, and a 7-bay food court. By this time, the mall had significantly expanded, boasting 700,000 sq. feet of leasable retail space, a substantial increase from its previous size, and housed 120 stores.

In 1983, Victor Copps and several area dignitaries kicked off the next era of the Centre Mall with the official grand opening of 44 new stores, including a new K-Mart store, in a $10.5 million renovation project. This project transformed the former National General Cinemas Centre Twin, now called the Cineplex-Odeon Cinema, into a state-of-the-art 2400-seat, 8-screen multiplex. The renovation included gutting the old Canadian Tire and the adjacent cinemas. Upon completion, the new theatre became the largest in Canada at that time.

At the turn of the new millennium, the last of the major chain stores had left, leaving mom-and-pop stores occupying the shopping center. The mall started to look tired and dated, and the closure of the Cineplex in 2001 was a significant blow to the once-vibrant mall.

When Center Mall opened in the 1950s, Hamiltonians were employed by large corporations such as Firestone, Procter & Gamble, International Harvester, Studebaker, Hoover, Westinghouse, Consumers Glass, and the steel plants and their related industries and they had money to spend. As these companies began to disappear from the Hamilton scene over the years, Centre Mall began to feel the financial pinch.

However, Centre Mall was not alone; shopping malls across North America struggled due to the rise of online shopping and changing consumer preferences favouring malls with themes over traditional shopping. Additionally, the oversaturation of malls in many towns and cities led to fierce competition. Shopping malls shuttered major anchor stores similar to Centre Mall’s Sears, Dominion Store, and the Bay, leaving large vacant buildings that were difficult, if not impossible, to fill. 

In 2003, Centre Mall and Eastgate Mall were acquired by the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), a crown corporation in partnership with Osmington Inc. which owned significant office buildings in Toronto and Winnipeg.  Osmington was a subsidiary of Redcliff Realty Management Incorporated, who manages the mall. They planned a $100 million upgrade to Centre Mall. CPPIB and Osmington, in the same year, also bought out malls in Thunder Bay, Cornwall, and Sudbury, and by 2010, owned malls in London, Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Australia.

In 2005, Centre Mall celebrated its 50th anniversary with a 1950s theme, complete with Rock’ n’ Roll music, Elvis impersonators, and other era events. There was cake and giveaways, and many of Hamilton’s most prominent dignitaries and Redcliff Realty members were on hand to celebrate the historic event. 

In 2006 it was announced that the old Centre Mall would be torn down and replaced with Big Box stores. Ward 4 Councillor Sam Merulla told the Hamilton Spectator on September 27, 2007, “This is the biggest inner city redevelopment project in the history of the East End.” 

 

The Centre on Barton’s name was officially revealed on September 9, 2009, with a celebration under a big-top tent, which included giveaways such as free shopping bags, stainless steel water bottles, and mugs. At the time, 23 stores were opened, while others were still under construction. The new Centre on Barton, billed as “The new face of shopping,” now included 750,000 sq. ft of retail space, roughly 85% of the size of Limeridge Mall.

Today, Walmart, Metro Grocery, Marshall’s, The Beer Store, Staples, Dollarama, Shoppers Drug Mart, Canadian Tire, several restaurants such as The Mandarin and Sunset Grill, and many other retail stores and businesses call The Centre On Barton Home.

The old Hamilton Jockey Club memory still lives on, with larger-than-life images adorning the walls of the food pavilion. The Center on Barton is perfectly poised to meet the needs of Hamilton shoppers in the 21st Century.