An Orange Air Quality Warning has been initiated for the City of Hamilton by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks beginning July 15, 2026. This alert will remain in effect until a cancellation notice is issued.
Stay safe, Hamilton. www.hpl.ca/hours
Due to online maintenance, Members can not access HPL's catalogue, online services and resources on Sunday, July 19 from 5am-10am. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
The Medical Officer of Health for the City of Hamilton has initiated a Heat Warning beginning today, Monday, July 13. Heat Warnings stay in effect until they are cancelled or escalated to an Extended Heat Warning. All HPL Library locations are Cool Places. Stay hydrated, Hamilton. www.hpl.ca/hours
Due to poor air quality, the Bookmobile visit at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is cancelled today, Wednesday, July 15. The Rosedale visit is shortened to 5-5:30pm (instead of 5-6:30pm). Regular service is expected to return next week. Thank you for your understanding.
As of July 1st, partner library Members can no longer borrow HPL Express items via Overdrive. More to Borrow partner libraries will be offering Lucky Express (Skip the line) titles to their cardholders only. This will help manage wait times for popular titles. Lucky Express is a collection of in demand titles with a seven-day loan period, available with no wait.
Our partners will still be able to borrow titles from the rest of our collection.
www.hpl.ca/more-to-borrow
The What's Happening Guide has been retired and replaced with different communications channels and tactics. You can find the new Summer Reading Flyer here. Watch for future communications updates.
Sunday hours return to Central Library. Beginning July 5, Central is open Noon to 5pm. Dundas, Red Hill, Terryberry, Turner Park, Valley Park and Waterdown branches are also open Sundays, 1 to 5pm. hpl.ca/hours
After Hours Study Hall is not available in July and August. Hours will resume Tuesday, September 8. www.hpl.ca/study-halls
One of the problems facing the council in considering the possibility of building a new City Hall was where to put it. Many sites were suggested. The most prominent was Faludi’s Civic Centre, which suggested the City Hall be built on the block east of the Court House. The annex on stilts, proposed by Mayor Lloyd D. Jackson, proposed an annex over the market to be linked with the city hall proper by an elevated walkway "which was later to go down in history as the ill-fated "bridge of sighs". Another of Mayor Jackson's ideas was to expropriate the Lister Building. As they moved towards expropriation it was explained that steps were being taken to "freeze the price" of the five storey office building (56). Not surprisingly the tenants of the Lister Building were less than thrilled at the prospect. "The Chief Magistrate lashed out at the tenants, stating publicly that "[c]ivic business is more important than private business". The Mayor felt the annex should be close to city hall: "[n]o further away than across the street, even if to obtain [the] same, some tenants in the present buildings are inconvenienced. This is civic business; [it] is most important and should have top priority" (57). The idea was brought to an abrupt halt, to the relief of the tenants, when council voted 12 - 9 against expropriation (56). Other suggestions included renting space from Coppley, Noyes and Randall or in the Empire Building, or relocating to the site of the old Y.M.C.A. or old Central Collegiate (56).
1950 arrived with a prophecy that "it is becoming apparent that our City Hall controversy is to go on interminably until all of this generation is dead and buried" (57). The annex on stilts enjoyed a brief renaissance but the Civic Centre proposal for the Prince's Square area was the increasingly popular choice. On the other most popular site, the old H.C.C.I. grounds, Alderman MacDonald envisaged "...a city hall in the style of the U.N. secretariat, nine stories high at its loftiest height and costing between $1,250,000 and $1,500,000". The newspapers described the debate following these proposals as "whimsical" (58). In October of 1950 a special committee recommended the hall be built either on the H.C.C.I. grounds or on Prince's Square. In 1951 the City Planning commissioner recommended that an American expert be imported to determine the best site. Mayor Jackson's response to this was "eye-wash" (58). In 1952 various other sites were proposed by the Mayor including York Street west of Macnab, west of the Hamilton Public Library on Main Street to the lumberyard, south on Jackson to Hunter in the John Street area or north of the new Hydro building at John and Rebecca.
