Grafton’s Fire – February 12, 1917
The Blaze was discovered during the evening of February 12, 1917. The fire fighters were on scene extremely quickly as the Central Station was just two blocks away.
It was an extremely cold night. when daylight arrived, the Grafton’s department store on the east side of James Street North, between King and King William street, was totally encased with ice.
The scene on the morning of February 13 1917 was a delight photographers, both amateur and professional. Several examples follow.
Photos courtesy PreVIEW, Local History and Archives, Hamilton Public Library.
February 12, 2013 at 8:39 am
Hi Brian, I am encourage people to photograph buildings in the downtown core that deserve heritage protection. It is my hope that this will not only create a record visual record of those buildings but will create a greater awareness of our past in the community. I am encouraging people to use the list of heritage noteworthy buildings listed on Joeycoleman.ca May 18th, 2011 blog posting. It would be great if you could create a visual record of those buildings as they were in their prime. Ideally, we could have a then and now collection of photos. I would like to talk to you more about this project. Could you contact me? Sorry, for posting to you blog but I could not find a email contact for you.
February 12, 2013 at 12:24 pm
jbhenley@cogeco.ca