Hamilton, Ontario - City Hotel, 1850s

City Hotel was at 55 James Street North and had been built in 1845. By the early 1850s it was the best hotel in Hamilton. The proprietor was Thomas Davidson and he boasted that his “bar was furnished with wines, spirits and every description of liquors of the most recherché class, and a choice assortment of cigars, of various brands” also that “a large and commodious stable was on the premises.”..Mr. Davidson later opened the Royal Hotel [more on that shortly] before leaving Hamilton for Cuba where he died in December of 1857 of a malignant fever. The Spectator noted that he was known and admired but that the late terrible times bore hard upon his proud and honest heart and it is to be feared he sank under the pressure...At the beginning of 1857 Hamilton’s commercial and financial activities began to slide into recession and the latter years of the 1850s saw many people lose a lot of money and many a young man fled their debts....043-32022194825325