Auchmar (Hamilton, Ontario)
Encyclopedia
Isaac Buchanan
Isaac Buchanan was a businessman and political figure in Canada West. He was also an international merchant, first president of the Hamilton Club, founder of Hamilton and Toronto boards of trade - forerunners to modern chambers of commerce - and founder of the regiment that later became the Royal...
, who founded both the Hamilton and the Toronto Board of Trade
Toronto Board of Trade
The Toronto Board of Trade is Toronto's chamber of commerce, the largest local chamber of commerce in Canada, representing more than 10,000 business and individual members with about 500,000 employees across Canada and annual revenues of more than $200 billion .It is a non-profit organization with...
.
Auchmar House is the centrepiece of Clairmont Park, the estate of the Honourable Isaac Buchanan (1810-1883), one of Hamilton's most influential citizens. It was built between 1852 and 1854 and is located at the northeast corner of Fennell Avenue
Fennell Avenue (Hamilton, Ontario)
Fennell Avenue, is an Upper City arterial road in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It starts of just West Garth Street on the West mountain and is a two-way street throughout that extends eastward and ends at Mountain Brow Boulevard, a road that wraps around the edge of the Niagara Escarpment on...
and West 5th
West 5th Street (Hamilton, Ontario)
West 5th Street is an Upper City arterial road in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It starts off in the north at James Mountain Road, a mountain-access road, and extends southward past Rymal Road where it ends just south of Christopher Drive...
. The manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
, its several remaining outbuildings, and stone orchard wall occupy about 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) of land which include most of the original estate features and landscaped grounds. However, the tiny Gatekeeper's Lodge, which resembles Auchmar House architecturally, became detached from the remainder of Clairmont Park. (It is located on the mountain brow at 71 Clarement Drive.) Auchmar House and the remaining contiguous portion of the Buchanan estate is a unique, heritage asset owned by the citizens of Hamilton and is recognized by the Ontario Heritage Trust
Ontario Heritage Trust
The Ontario Heritage Trust is a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture, responsible for protecting, preserving and promoting the built, natural and cultural heritage of Canada's most populous province. It was initially known as the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board...
as having significant historical value. Auchmar House is recognized as an outstanding example of the domestic Gothic Revival and with its surrounding acreage, is a very rare example of a mid-Victorian estate in Ontario which survives in relatively intact condition. Isaac Buchanan sat as a member of the Parliament of United Canada for Toronto between 1841 and 1843, and for Hamilton between 1857 and 1865, and served as President of the Council in the Macdonald-Tache ministry between March and June of 1865. He became a writer of some note on the subjects of currency and trade and is generally credited as being a formative influence on John A. Macdonald's National Policy. Buchanan was an international merchant, first president of the Hamilton Club, founder of Hamilton and Toronto boards of trade
Toronto Board of Trade
The Toronto Board of Trade is Toronto's chamber of commerce, the largest local chamber of commerce in Canada, representing more than 10,000 business and individual members with about 500,000 employees across Canada and annual revenues of more than $200 billion .It is a non-profit organization with...
(forerunners to modern chambers of commerce)and founder of the Thirteenth Battalion, a regiment which would later become the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.