Two abandoned heritage buildings collapsed on Nov. 11 after years of neglect leading to them falling into disrepair.
The buildings, located at 24 and 28 King St. E, across from Gore Park in the downtown core, damaged another neighbouring heritage building which needed to be demolished later in the week.
The collapse’s reason is unknown at time of writing, but Ward 2 Coun. Cameron Kroetsch suggested that the buildings “collapsed due to neglect by its owners.” While an investigation is underway, the city flagged the buildings for necessary maintenance over a year and a half ago.
Hamilton is full of heritage buildings, the ones actively being used as museums such as Dundurn Castle and Whitehern are still in good shape, but many locations around the city are beginning to fall apart like the buildings that collapsed so recently.
Century Manor
Century Manor is the last structure remaining of the Hamilton Asylum for the Insane, and it has been abandoned since it was briefly used as a museum in the 90’s. Since then the structure has been neglected, boarded up, and has become a popular spot for ‘urban exploration’. After Ontario Infrastructure took over ownership of the land in 2020, local advocates came together and formed ‘Friends of Century Manor’ aimed at saving the structure, which they claimed was at risk of black mold, rotting supports and peeling lead-based paint.
Tivoli Theater
The Historic theater in downtown Hamilton was partially demolished over a decade ago in order for a condo development to go up on the land, but the theater portion itself was kept. However the condo was never built, and ownership of the land swapped hands multiple times, meanwhile the condition of the concert hall was not made a priority. The newest owner of the property submitted a 200-page document outlining why they should be able to demolish the rest of the theater, citing water damage and a collapsing roof among other concerns. This document was submitted along with another 2-tower proposal for the sight that conveniently did not include the theater. The demolition was rejected by a city subcommittee, and the owner was ordered to “stop the decay.”
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