A short story about 140 Stinson St.

By Bill Callaway

My father, William John Callaway, bought this house sometime prior to WW1. According to the 1911 Census for Hamilton he was then living on Wilson St. but his enlistment papers for the Canadian Over-seas Expeditionary Force in May 1916 showed his address as 140 Stinson St.. The picture on the left is what the house looked like at that time.

He needed a large house because, although still single, he was responsible for his elderly mother and his 3 sisters, and a brother. They had all emigrated from England to Hamilton in 1907.

Below is the Callaway family having afternoon tea in the side garden at 140 Stinson St. in 1918.

The building next to our house, on the corner of Blythe Ave., was Rowland’s Grocery Store where you could buy mello roll ice cream for 5 cents, in addition to all the regular grocery items for ordinary consumption.

The picture below is of the Boys’ Home at 145 Stinson Street just across from us. By the 1920s students from there were integrated with the regular Stinson School population. The Boys’ Home ceased operation in 1948 when the Children’s Aid Society developed the policy of placing children in foster homes.

My father married in 1925 and my sister and I were born in 1926 & 1929. I lived in that house until I graduated from McMaster University in 1951.

In the late 1930s, probably just before WW2, my father decided to make some drastic changes to the exterior of the house. The photos below show it in its remodeled state – around 1940 on the left and circa 1970 on the right.

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<td width=”385″> <a href=”http://www.stinsoncommunity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/140-Stinson-4.jpg”><img class=”alignnone wp-image-1472″ src=”http://www.stinsoncommunity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/140-Stinson-4.jpg” alt=”140 Stinson 4″ width=”599″ height=”771″ /></a></td>
<td width=”471″> <a href=”http://www.stinsoncommunity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/140-Stinson-5.jpg”><img class=”alignnone wp-image-1473″ src=”http://www.stinsoncommunity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/140-Stinson-5.jpg” alt=”140 Stinson 5″ width=”836″ height=”806″ /></a></td>
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My father and mother continued to live in this house until they died in 1963 and 1966 respectively. But my sister and her husband, daughter and son were living there in the 60s and stayed there until moving to Florida in November 1970.

Many years later, on a return visit to Hamilton for the 50th reunion of the Class of 1951 at McMaster, I was able to have a close look at my old house, courtesy of the owner in 2001, Mark Tharme. What a thrill to see the place in such good shape!

The walnut woodwork was still beautifully kept. How well I remember that front staircase coming up to the second floor from the front hall. And there was a rear staircase too, leading down to the kitchen.

I wonder what 140 Stinson St. looks like today.

Bill Callaway moved from Hamilton to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1965 with his wife and 4 daughters and he is now long-retired and living in Qualicum Beach, BC. He can be reached at <a href=”mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a> .

A short story about 140 Stinson St.

Author: StinsonCommunity

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