THE CUSTOM HOUSE


Designed by Frederick J. Rastrick and F.P. Rubridge, the Custom House is an excellent example of Italianate architecture in Canada. With its rusticated base and smooth upper storey, the building drew its inspiration from the Renaissance palaces of Rome and Florence. The classical detailing and stonework are exceptionally fine. The Italianate influence was popular for commercial architecture in Canada from the 1840s until the 1870s.
The Custom House is a designated National Historic Site and through the Ontario Heritage Foundation, has been recognized as a heritage easement site. The building went through many different uses after it stopped functioning as a Custom House; below is a brief chronology of the Custom House.
1855 – 1860: A Finely Crafted Building
1855
The Legislature authorized the construction of a new Custom House in Hamilton to handle the trade flowing through the Port of Hamilton and along the new Great Railway line.
1858

1860
Construction was completed and the Customs Department moved into an elegant two-story structure.1860 – 1887: Public Servants at the Hub of Commerce
1860

1872

1887 – 1893: The Patter of Little Feet
1887

1893
The Hamilton YWCA rented the building to open the North End Branch. Girls can take classes in cooking, sewing, and housekeeping from the upper-class women on the YWCA Board. Starting in 1903, they could join a penny savings bank. The next year, the YWCA moved out and relocated farther along the street in the former Hamilton Street Railway offices.
1860 – 1908: The Custom House as a Home
1860
The man who had been hired as caretaker and messenger at the opening of the Custom House was able to move into the building with his family. The son of one of these custodians later remembered having to help out by emptying wastepaper baskets and shovelling snow. When the Customs Department left the building, this family also moved out.
1887
When the School Board took over the Building, the janitor of the Murray Street School (located right behind the Custom House) was given a place to live in the building. He stayed for twenty years.
1908
The Associated Charities of Hamilton took over the Custom House to provide accommodation for the homeless, especially recent British immigrants. One man who was born in the building later recalled that his parents lived there for a year. Years later, men who had been riding the rails clambered up from the railway tracks to bed down for the night in the basement of the Custom House.
1912 – 1979: Factory Bells
1912

1915
The Woodhouse Invigorator Company and the American Computing Company rented space in the building, apparently to manufacture their products.
1917
The Ontario Yarn Company moved in. The next year it changed its name to the Empire Wool Stock Company. The men and women working here turned out woolen yarn for the city's many knitting mills.
1920
A fire broke out on the second floor of the building and destroyed the roof and attic. In the rebuilding, a third floor was added inside the original walls.
1950s

1956

1979

1988 – 1996: Rebirth of the Custom House
1988

1992

1995

1996

2001
The Ontario Workers Arts and Heritage Centre is re-named the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre, reflecting its widening scope and mandate.