The Gore – Hughson to John Streets
The following is from the Old Muser’s column, Saturday Musings, which appeared on August 30, 1902. In this excerpt, he talks of the Gore Extension effort of 1898 to lengthen Gore Park from Hughson street east to James. The flag pole the Old Muser refers to is the “oil derrick-like” structure clearly seen in the first postcard, less clearly seen, but still there in the second.
Don’t you remember what a time the City Council had some three or four years ago when the question was being discussed to extend the park from Hughson to John street? The cab men were against the change because they would have to find some other place for a cab stand; the military wanted it left open for the occasional drills, and many of the societies argued that to plant grass and flowers there would deprive them of the only place they had to form their occasional processions. The council was betwixt the devil and the deep sea, for many of the advocates for the park extension were threatened with the terrors of the ballot box when they would present themselves for aldermanic honours. To the credit of the members of the council, it was decided to change the unsightly cab stand into grass and flowers, and today the man who would dare to suggest that it should return to what it formerly was would be strung up high on the skeleton flagstaff that ornaments the centre of the park
Postcards courtesy Janet http://www.hamiltonpostcards.com
