Victoria Day Closure
All HPL branches are closed Monday, May 20 for the Victoria Day Holiday. Bookmobile Service and Study Halls are unavailable. Regular service hours resume Tuesday, May 21.
Barton Branch - Accessible washroom out of order.
Accessible washroom at Barton Branch is currently out of order.
Central Library - Fire Training Drill
An unscheduled fire drill will take place in May during regular service hours at Central Library. Thank you for your understanding in advance.
Dundas and Turner Park Branches - Period Promise Campaign
Menstruation product donations can be dropped off at Dundas and Turner Park branches until May 31. For more information, please visit www.uwhh.ca/periodpromise.
History of Gore Park
Council voted to tear down the buildings and start over, hiring a registered landscape architect to oversee the job. The Chief Administrative Officer defended his as “a money-saving thing". Council started from scratch and hired the Toronto firm of Moorhead, Fleming, Corban and McCarthy in January 1984 for $54,000 to redesign the park. Their plan called for lots of grass, flowers and trees with a small fountain. On February 29, 1984 council unanimously endorsed the plan with a proviso that the location of the fountain be reviewed (55). The Victorian fountain proposed was re-designed as a polished granite block one-metre square with water bubbling up through the middle. One alderman said that it would "turn into a urinal for the winos who hang around the park" and another said, "(t)his isn't a fountain, it's a big hunk of stone". Nevertheless, the fountain was approved the same day that the estimated losses incurred in the Gore Park fiasco were announced - $715,000 (56).
In November of 1984 the renovations to the park and adjoining roadway were completed at a cost of $2.5 million. Three months later a whole section of the interlocking bricks had heaved up and was, in the words of one alderman, "a hell of a mess" (57) Consultants were hired at a cost of $5,000 to determine what went wrong with the bricks. Their report concluded the "undersized interlocking bricks were used, sub-drains were never installed, contract drawings failed to show needed work, road design was inadequate, road slope was inadequate, inferior materials were used for a road base and the road was opened before it was ready to bear traffic” (58). The cost for re-doing it correctly so that the problem would not reoccur was $87,500 (59), Instead of following the advice of the consultants, council voted to take on a cheaper half-price plan to fix the damage. Their share would be $7,000, which had escalated in one week to $15,000.
The arrival of the 21st century has led to more changes for the Gore. The Gore is no longer a transit hub for the city with the arrival of the Macnab Transit Terminal in 2011. Recent renovations to the Gore have led to a more pedestrian-friendly look for Hamilton's first park.