1880's Hamilton: 1885

In 1885, when No. 1 Police Station was located in the City Hall on James Street North, newspaper reporters would drop in regularly to see if anything newsworthy had recently taken place.

During a blustery November night, a reporter on the overnight shift made his way into the small police office, and found the lone officer on duty in a reflective mood.

The reporter’s account of the conversation appeared the next day edition of the Great Family Journal as follows:

On towards 12 o’clock last night, a policeman lay back in No. 1 station, and wiled his hour of rest away with idle talk and fitful snatches of sleep. He had got into a reminiscent mood when a Spectator reporter dropped in, and was gazing mournfully at the heavy beam that runs across the station’s ceiling.

“ ‘I bet none of you fellows know how that beam came there,’ he said, and without giving anyone else a chance to speak, he continued: ‘When I was a boy, a partition ran along there, the full length of the building. There was one on the other side to correspond. Butchers’ stalls were on the other side, and the one right in the corner was occupied by Mr. Lawry., father of Thomas Lawry.

“ ‘The present main hall was a sort of arcade, and the officers of the civic departments were upstairs. They were reached by a stairway running from the southwest corner to where the main window is now at the west end of the building. The steps got so rickety that they had to come down at last, and new ones were built inside. This started the changes from which at that time came about gradually.

“ ‘You can recollect when the police magistrate held court where the waterworks and health offices now are, and the tower was built, Then the court house was built, high court was held in it, and the police court was removed to its proper place on King William street, and there were many more changes made here. How old is this building? Guess it must be pretty well onto 60 years by this time. By George, sir, I tell you what, there have been a lot of changes in Hamilton since the old days,’ and he lapsed once more into silence and resumed his snooze.”¹

“The City Hall. A Policeman’s Reminiscences of It Was in His Youth”

Hamilton Spectator. July 20, 1886.