All HPL Branches are closed on Friday, May 29, for Staff Professional Development Day. Bookmobile is off the road and Extended Access service is not available. Regular service hours resume on Saturday, May 30.
Visit our Virtual Branch at hpl.ca for our online resources and collections.
Please note that filming will take place nearby on the following dates.
May 18 – Filming Preparation (All Day)
May 19 – Filming (7am – 4pm), Concession Street (between Upper Wentworth and East 21st)
The accessible washroom at Greensville Branch is not working. We aim to get it fixed quickly.
All HPL Branches are closed on Sunday, May 17. Bookmobile is off the road. Extended Access service is not available.
Regular service hours resume on Tuesday, May 19. Visit hpl.ca for our Virtual Branch.
All HPL Branches are closed on Monday, May 18. Bookmobile is off the road. Extended Access and Study Hall services are not available. Regular service hours resume on Tuesday, May 19.
Due to Driver availability, Bookmobile has the following schedule modifications for the month of May. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Wednesday, May 13:
Thursday, May 14:
Monday, May 18: All Bookmobile sites closed
Due to software maintenance, HPL library's catalogue, online services and library accounts will not be available between 8am and 7pm on Monday, May 18. Thank you for your patience.
Renovations are currently underway for the 2nd floor Central Children's Area. Programs are still being offered as scheduled and there is a temporary pop-up Children’s Area on the northeast side of the 2nd floor (near the Piano Room), including access to collections and train tables. Construction is expected to be completed by late Spring. Thank you for your patience during this time.
As of Monday, March 2, Sherwood Branch's 2nd floor is closed due to renovations. Makerspace, Children and Teen's collection are temporarily available on the 1st floor. All programs will be held in the basement program room. Renovations are expected to be completed in late Spring. Thank you for your patience.
During the 1880's tobogganing was a great craze in Hamilton. There were two large wooden slides built during this time. The Victoria Toboggan and Snowshoe Club built a slide near the head of Victoria Avenue South, at the base of the escarpment. The Hamilton Toboggan and Snowshoe Club operated their slide due south of the corner of Aberdeen Avenue and Locke Street South, also at the base of the escarpment. The clubs were so popular that they had to limit their membership to 100 people each even though many more were eager to join.During the winter carnival of 1887 the slides were opened to the public. A Hamilton Spectator reporter was on hand to describe the scene:
“Everybody enjoyed themselves from the old folks who just went to the foot of the slope and looked at the illuminations, and nearly got cross-eyed trying to distinguish some familiar face in the loaded toboggans that flashed past them every moment and vanished into the gloom, to the pretty country cousin who enjoyed for the first time the novel and somewhat thrilling sensation of sliding down the straight and narrow way under the guidance and direction of her experienced city cousins and especially her big brother.
The cheerful, ubiquitous and restless small boy was on hand very numerously, and, as he had to give place to the big folks on the toboggans, he had to solace himself by sitting on the edge of the slide and snorting sudden grisly blasts through the blithesome kazoo in the ears of the panic-stricken novices who were being initiated into the seductive pleasures of the slide, and, who, sitting in the toboggan with straining nerves and dilated eyes, seemed only to want that gruesome sound in their ears to confirm their previous impression that they were making a descent into Hades."
Hamilton Spectator, February 2, 1887
