Ainslie Wood is a residential neighbourhood in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is centered on Alexander Park and located near McMaster University. It is bordered to the north by Main Street, Cootes Drive and Dundas, to the south and east by Highway 403, and to the west by Dundas and Ancaster.
Etymology
In 1838, George Howlett Ainslie moved onto a sixty-acre farm near Ancaster. It was south of what is now Main Street West and west of Longwood Road. This greenspace became a popular recreation area for Hamilton residents and gained the name Ainslie Wood, which eventually was applied to the entire area between Hamilton and Ancaster.
History
The land south of what is now Cootes Paradise was inhabited by a series of native societies. In the early 17th century, European explorers and missionaries visited western Lake Ontario, encountering a population of native people, who were referred to as the Neutral Nation, from their neutrality in conflicts between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Huron.
In the mid-17th century, the Iroquois defeated the Neutrals and the Hurons. Ojibway from north Ontario moved south and displaced the Iroquois. Later, Europeans displaced the Ojibway.
Early Settlers
Early European pioneers in Ainslie Wood included the Ainslie, Binkley, Bowman, Buttrum, Cline, Ewen, Forsyth, Radford, Stroud and Horning families.
Early farmhouses were located at today's 54 Sanders Boulevard (built in 1847 by the Binkley family, still standing), 19 Lower Horning Road (built by the Ofield family, still standing), 51 Lower Horning Road and 1686 Main Street West (Binkley family, now a huge student residence with some ground-floor storefronts).
Much of the area of north Ainslie Wood was taken up with the Binkley family farm. This multigenerational farm stretched north of Main Street roughly from McMaster University to the Ancaster Creek Valley and into University Gardens in Dundas. Indeed, the junction of the Dundas and Ancaster roads (today the intersection of Main St, Wilson St, and Osler St) was popularly known as "Binkley's Corner." Marks and Mathelena, the original Binkleys to arrive in the Hamilton area, are buried in the Marks Binkley Cemetery at the end of Lakelet Drive. Marks and Mathelena Binkley were originally Palatine Germans, often referred to as "Pennsylvania Dutch," in reference to the low German language spoken by religious non-conformists who hailed from Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. "Binkley" is an Anglicization of their original Swiss-Italian name, which was "Binggeli." Their ancestors had moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, an Amish and Mennonite settlement. The Binkley family prospered in Ainslie Wood and raised hundreds of grand- and great-grandchildren, and the name has appeared on schools, churches, road signs, and cemeteries throughout Ainslie Wood.
George Bamberger started Ainslie Wood's first non-farming business—a hotel/tavern called the Halfway House (so named because it was halfway between Hamilton, Dundas and Ancaster), located on land on Main Street West today used by Canadian Martyrs' School. Trains that crossed the Bamberger property were required, by a contract with the Bamberger family, to stop at the Halfway House for a minimum of five minutes, so that passengers could buy beer. The Halfway House's bartender would give the train operators a free beer each at the four-minute mark, to delay their leaving and provide the thirsty passengers more time to spend money. When the train did get going, passengers could, in season, reach out a train window and pick ripe cherries from the branches as they passed through the Bamberger's orchards.
The area of Colombia International College and Camelot Towers and Highway 403 was, from the earliest days of European settlement, a popular picnicking spot. There were gardens with picnic tables, shade trees, swings, tame raccoons and caged parrots. As it was on forested land owned by the Ainslie Family, the spot was known as Ainslie Wood – a name which would later be applied to the whole community. In the early days, however, the area now known as Ainslie Wood was most often called "the Gore of Ancaster." (A gore is a triangle-shaped piece of land.) Until the 20th century, Ainslie Wood was governed as a part of Ancaster.
During the 19th century, a tannery processed cow-skins into leather at the corner of Main Street and Osler Drive. It was demolished in 1880. Apartment buildings now occupy the site.
Main Street West (then called the Hamilton and Brantford Road) was covered with wooden planks in the early 19th century, covered with stones in 1846 and paved by the 1860s.
