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Hamilton GO Centre (Fellheimer & Wagner, 1933)
"The new Hunter street station was built adjacent to the original TH&B Hamilton station. The original design for the new Hunter Street station consisted of a 10-story office tower with wings for the passenger facilities, and two platforms for passenger trains. However, as the Great Depression took its toll on the TH&B, the plans were reduced in size. The office tower was reduced to 7 stories (although it was built with the ability for the remaining three stories to be added at a later date), and the number of platforms was reduced to one.... The reduced size of the station resulted in an outcry from the city council, and it was only after the facade of the building was changed to more expensive stone, that the council approved the smaller structure in November 1932."
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I have photos of the original Hunter st. plans, and they were much more ambitious than the extra stories imply.
This is the original rendering for the station, it reminds me a bit of Commerce Court in Toronto. There are 2 platforms in the station now, on 1 island, as opposed to the planned 2 islands. The station was meant to have a much larger plaza & driveway - notice how much Hunter St. curved in the above picture as compared to how it curves now, at the time Hunter St. was straight. When the plans changed it turned out to be a parking lot. Although, this was converted into a plaza when the station was rebuilt in 1996. Most of the project was focused on the grade separation of the TH&B's tracks; before then all of their tracks east of Park St. were at-grade, crossing 2 major streets and a junction with CN's Ferguson Ave. tracks, all surrounded by homes. The viaduct was built, however, with the caveat that most of the underpasses were changed from vehicle passes to just pedestrian passes. They also just
removed a street in the process.
It's funny you mention the size of the CN station, when the GTR depot on Stuart Street was due to be replaced, CN wanted to replace it with this;
(Everything from the book Unbuilt Hamilton - a fantastic read)
Everyone complained, of course. The Herald said that residents "hoped for something a little more pretentious", and as a result we got the beautiful station/banquet hall we have today.