Beasley is a neighbourhood in the Lower City area of

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

, Canada. The Beasley neighbourhood is bounded in the north by the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

tracks just north of Barton Street, James Street (west), Main Street (south) and Wellington Street (east).

History

Beasley is one of the oldest and one of the first four neighbourhoods of Hamilton, the other three being

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

, Durand and Corktown. It is named after Richard Beasley, (1761-1842), a soldier, political figure, farmer, and businessman in

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

who was one of Hamilton's first settlers. He came to Canada from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in 1777, occupied Burlington Heights (now the site of Dundurn and Harvey Parks) in 1790 , and was granted land by the Crown in 1799. A local entrepreneur, Beasley's business ventures included fur trading, land acquisition and establishment of a grill mill in Ancaster. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of

from 1791 to 1804 and was appointed colonel of the 2nd regiment of the York militia in 1809. Financial difficulties forced Beasley to sell lands at Burlington Heights, but they were purchased in 1832 by Sir

Allan Napier MacNab Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet (19 February 1798 – 8 August 1862) was a Canadian political leader who served as joint Premier of the Province of Canada from 1854 to 1856. Early life He was born in Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) to All ...

, who built

Dundurn Castle Dundurn Castle is a historic neoclassical mansion on York Boulevard in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The house took three years and $175,000 to build, and was completed in 1835. The forty-room castle featured the latest conveniences of gas lighti ...

on the foundations of Beasley's brick home. Beasley Park in the neighbourhood is also named after him.

Festivals

Hamilton was also home to an annual Mustard Festival from 1998 to 2010. Hamilton is home to the largest miller of dry

mustard Mustard may refer to: Food and plants * Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment * Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment ** Mustard seed, seeds of the mustard p ...

in the world. It was held annually at Ferguson Station, Ferguson Avenue at Hamilton's International Village and was a summertime food & beverage festival that featured some of the top Blues and Jazz acts in the region.

Public transportation

The

Hamilton Street Railway The Hamilton Street Railway commonly known as the HSR is a public transport agency in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The name is a legacy of the company's early period, when public transit in Hamilton was primarily served by streetc ...

(abbreviated as HSR) operates all

public transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

vehicles in the city of Hamilton, Ontario. Below are the HSR Bus Routes found in the Beasley neighbourhood: *1/1A King *2 Barton *3 Cannon *10 Beeline Express (interlined with 55/55A/58)

Attractions

* Beasley Park *Beasley Park Community Centre *Seventy-Seven Night Club *The Baltimore House, a music venue and nightclub *The Underground, Steel City Music Venue *

Theatre Aquarius Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, Dofasco Centre for the Performing Arts, downtown *Summertime Mustard Festival at the Ferguson Station (historic site)- defunct

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

train station. *International Village (shopping district) *Wellington Park

Historical buildings

Royal Connaught Hotel The Royal Connaught Hotel is a 13-storey building in downtown Hamilton, Ontario. It was built by Harry Frost of Buffalo, New York in 1914, who also started up and owned the Frost Fence Company in Hamilton. It is located at the corner of King Str ...

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

*The Hamilton Courthouse, with the

United Empire Loyalists United Empire Loyalists (or simply Loyalists) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec, and Governor General of The Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America duri ...

statu
Statue info. at myhamilton.ca
*Ramada Plaza (hotel) *The Cannon Knitting Mill - defunct Chipman-Holton Knitting Company mill, currently poised for redevelopment *Ferguson Station (historic site)- defunct

train station, site of the summertime Mustard Festival *

Hamilton General Hospital The Hamilton General Hospital (HGH) is a major teaching hospital in Downtown Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, located at the intersection of Barton Street East and Victoria Avenue North. It is operated by Hamilton Health Sciences and is formally affili ...

*Hamilton Downtown Mosque *

Stewart Memorial Church The Stewart Memorial Church is Hamilton, Ontario, Canada’s oldest Black congregation. It was established in the 1830s as St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopalian Church, and moved to its current site on John Street in 1879 after its original l ...

(originally St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church. 1961 became a

Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...

Hall. North of Wilson on John Street)

References

*MapArt

Golden Horseshoe The Golden Horseshoe is a secondary region of Southern Ontario, Canada, which lies at the western end of Lake Ontario, with outer boundaries stretching south to Lake Erie and north to Lake Scugog, Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. The r ...

Atlas - Page 647 - Grids F12, G12, F13, G13

Local media/ web links

Our Beasley WebsiteThe Beasley Badger
{{authority control Neighbourhoods in Hamilton, Ontario