A century ago this week, Westdale got its name
Have you ever wondered where the name for the village of Westdale came from?
It rolls off the lips so easily and sounds so appropriate, that you might think it fell out of the sky.
But there was actually quite an effort behind naming the section of land that had been known as the McKittrick properties.
In 1923, there was a popular Name the Neighbourhood Contest" in Hamilton that offered a $200 prize, the equivalent of $3,300 today.
And 100 years ago, this week - on March 29 - the winning entry by Anglican Rev. Canon Percival Lawson Spencer was announced at the Royal Connaught Hotel in front of a crowd of more than 6,100 people.
Some of the other name contenders included Westhome, Bridgeton, Woodlands Park, Surrey Park, Vimy Ridge and Bridgeview.
But there was something about Westdale" that won over the judges. And Spencer was elated that his submission was chosen.
I have named ten babies of my own as well as others, so why shouldn't I be the logical one to name the McKittrick baby?" he joked to a Spectator reporter.
He was inspired to come up with the name, he said, after taking a walk through the survey.
The picturesque appearance of the farther hills gives the level space a charm not easily surpassed elsewhere. Health and happiness should be the experience of the occupants of the homes in Westdale."
The naming contest was just one of several publicity stunts that included hiring a stunt pilot to fly aerial manoeuvres over the Westdale property.
Another promotion involved searching for gold. Five certificates for $10 or $25 in gold were buried at various locations on the Westdale lands. Clues were offered about where they were hidden but only two were found.
Then, 23 years later, a homeowner on Barclay Street stumbled upon one while doing some digging to enlarge his back veranda. He went to the folks who had administered the contest to collect his gold. But they ended up giving him $10 in cash instead.
McMaster University history professor John Weaver says the development push in Westdale can be traced to Hamilton's topography. By 1910, the escarpment to the south, Burlington Bay on the north, and a wide ravine in the west had turned land development eastward," he wrote in his article. From Land Assembly to Social Maturity. The Suburban Life of Westdale (Hamilton), Ontario, 1911-1951."
But through time, that eastward growth was putting workers too far away from their jobs in industry on the Bayfront.
It was time to cross the ravine, which impeded western expansion, with a bridge. In 1911, a Toronto contractor named J.J. McKittrick bought 100 acres he first called Hamilton Gardens." Other investors followed, bringing together a total of 800 acres of property. They pooled resources to build the bridge.
But it was a tough road of boom, bust and boom to realize the dream of building one of the first master planned communities in Canada. Six years after Westdale was officially named, the stock market crashed wreaking havoc for investors, builders and people who wanted to live there. At one point in the 1920s the project went into bankruptcy.
It took until the early 1950s - and the post-war boom - for the full complement of 1,700 homes to be built in the neighbourhood in west Hamilton.
Weaver says Westdale is notable for achieving its goal of becoming a self-sufficient, walkable community. Its concentric streets circling the village core make it unique in the city.
The Westdale Theatre, built in 1935, was the first theatre in Hamilton built specially to present sound motion pictures.
Westdale High school has become an iconic landmark. And, of course, McMaster University, which opened in 1930, brought prosperity and sometimes commotion to the area. Children living in Westdale could have all their education needs met from kindergarten to getting a PhD. They never had to leave.
Weaver says Westdale's architecture, streets and layout are a classic example of image making. The original developers tried to emulate the feel of an English country estate.
But more than that, its planners also wanted Westdale to be a white-collar suburb for white people who were Anglo-Saxon and Protestant, a pushback against immigration from southern and eastern Europe that was taking place at the time to fill factory jobs.
And, sadly, they also put in place restrictive covenants that included requirements that none of the lands described ... shall be used, occupied by or let or sold to Negroes, Asiatics, Bulgarians, Austrians, Russians, Serbs, Rumanians, Turks, Armenians, whether British subjects or not, or foreign-born Italians, Greeks or Jews."
In the 1970s, Weaver interviewed a Westdale builder from the 1920s who said that while there were loopholes in the rules, there were fears about rocking the boat.
You didn't mess around with the property developers because if they knew that you were going to sell to one of the forbidden groups, they would cut you off at the knees. You would not get another service lot from them," Weaver said in an interview.
It took until after the Second World War for the courts to finally halt the racist practice.