OK Thomas, you're cut off!
Just kidding. It's nice to see someone who knows their history, depressing though it may be.
Yes, it's the Castle - Amisfield, that is. Most people have probably never noticed it before because it's almost completely obscured by the strip mall at Duke and James.
Here are a few others courtesy of Henley's Hamilton (
http://henleyshamilton1.wordpress.com/2013/02/):
Notice the frontage and the massive stone wall running along James. According to Brian Henley, the City had considered buying the Castle and the property and making it the location of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Didn't happen...
Those beautiful grounds destroyed for, you guessed it, a gas station. Are we mad?
Here it is circa 1980 with the strip mall going up.
I visited the Castle years ago - maybe 15 - to view an apartment. Like so many of Hamilton's once-great estates, Amisfield was turned into a block of flats. Unlike some of the other conversions however, this one was poor. The apartments I saw were nasty - one of them looked like a crack den...whatever that is.
Here's one last 'aerial' (ca early 1860s) likely taken from the escarpment. Amisfield is dead-centre. There are a couple other identifiable buildings in this shot - can you name them?