Claremont Lodge

71 Claremont Drive Hamilton , Ontario
Central Ontario

BUILDING HISTORY:

This Picturesque Gothic cottage was erected as the gatehouse to the estate of Upper Canada merchant and politician Isaac Buchanan (1810–1883), originally named Clairmont Park.  Bill King, author of Buchanan of Auchmar, surmises that Claremont Lodge was erected along with other outbuildings during the two years that it took to build the Gothic Revival manor house, between 1852 and 1854. The gatehouse was situated at the formal entrance to the estate, on the escarpment brow near the access road to the lower city (James Mountain Road).  In 1862, the villa was renamed ‘Auchmar’, after the Buchanan estate on Loch Lomond, Scotland.  The remaining 8 acres of Buchanan’s property, now owned by the City of Hamilton and located at 88 Fennell Avenue, includes the manor house, some of its original outbuildings and a remnant of the stone orchard wall.  The gatekeeper’s lodge remained the home of the stablemaster and his family until the 1940s when the estate was still owned by the Youngs.  In 1945, they sold Auchmar to the Hungarian order of nuns, Sisters of Social Service.  Around 1947, the gatehouse and stable were severed from Auchmar when some lands to the north of the orchard wall were sold and the Clairmont Heights Survey was then laid out with lots for the construction of single-family houses.  Hence, the gatehouse and stable acquired a separate lot at the south-east corner of Claremont Drive and Arcade Crescent.  It was located adjacent to a brow lot with a substantial residence, transformed in the 1930s by its owner James Morrow into a replica of a Norman chateau (63 Claremont Drive).    

The current owner of 63 Claremont Drive purchased the gatehouse and stable property in the 1980s, with the intent of incorporating the cottage as a garden feature.  However, after commissioning an engineering study, which concluded that the building was structurally unsound, he offered 71 Claremont Drive to the City of Hamilton, with the proviso that the gatehouse be relocated.  Unfortunately, his offer was turned down and the building has since been allowed to progressively deteriorate.  Preservation advocates are now making the case that serious attention needs to be paid to the plight of this building and the possibility of relocating it to the Auchmar estate, where it could restored and interpreted as part of a significant cultural heritage landscape.  

The Auchmar estate is now designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, protected by an Ontario Heritage Foundation Easement and recognized as a National Historic Site.  The historical significance of both Auchmar and its former gatehouse are acknowledged by a provincial plaque erected in front of Claremont Lodge but this recognition provides no measure of protection from demolition or vandalism for the historic gatehouse.  However, the property’s listing on the municipal Heritage Register in 2009 does provide interim protection from demolition. 

DETAILS OF THREAT:

Demolition by neglect or intent. 

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP:
Contact Councillor John-Paul Danko and file a complaint about a Property Standards violation by calling 905 546 2782 or sending an email to mle@hamilton.ca.