Across from McMaster University is Bowman Street.
The street is located on land that use to belong to George Howlett Ainslie. He settled in Hamilton in 1838 and his farm stretched from Longwood in the east to Ancaster in the west; between Main Street to the north and the Mountain to the south.
Walking south on Bowman, the Mountain looks almost untouched and suggests what the escapement must have looked like to the original settlers. Today, most of the Mountain is scared by roads and highways. It is easy to forget how much of a barrier it was for travellers.
The giant trees on Bowman also remind me of the trees that once stood between my grandfather’s house on Elgin Street and the railway yards.
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