Albert Seaman's Paintings, Drawings and Essays

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Hanna Street, Brampton

Watercolour on Arches 140 lb CP paper.  Image size 16" (40.6 cm) by 12" (30.5 cm) © 1989

In some respects Hanna Street made a brave attempt at being a front street, with its mixture of stores and residential establishments. But it was still inescapably the back side of Main Street North.  The Walker and Miles map of 1877 shows the street name spelled "Hannah". It also shows another street of the same name running north from Vodden, one block east of Hurontario Street. The map identifies the section in the foreground of the picture as "Lane", together with its right-angled continuation behind the lots on the Queen Street arm of the Main-Queen corner.  At the time the map was made, there were lots on both the east and west sides of Hannah Street. The Etobicoke river then dived beneath lot 12 on the east side, to re-emerge on the surface behind lot 4 on the south side of Queen Street West. The east side structures have long since disappeared, the area having been expropriated to make way for the Queen's Square parking lot which in turn, was taken over for further development in the early 2000s.

The old Dominion Building dominated the centre of downtown Brampton from the time of its construction in 1888 until the area underwent major re-development in the 1970s. The red brick walls at the side and rear of the structure still reflect a comfortable glow onto the adjacent buildings. Even in winter, which this scene represents, the southern entrance to Hanna Street is bathed in the warmth of cast-back light from the old bricks.

In accordance with the 1980’s penchant for smothering great areas of buildings with dark brown paint and siding, the Hanna Street facade became a somewhat sombre progression from earlier times. That made the white stucco finish of number 5 in the foreground all the more outstanding. Indeed, with its green trim and traditional style of windows, this building maintained a firm link with Brampton's developing past.

In common with many places to which electrical service has been added after construction of the buildings, Hanna Street became festooned with a variety of external conduit, cables and insulators performing useful, if not exactly ornamental functions.  Improvements of more recent times are generally characterized by large amounts of concrete blocks and glass. The results have been highly functional but largely out of harmony with their environs. But eclecticism has always been a feature of Brampton's architecture, so the results should be neither surprising nor unendurable.

A noteworthy feature of this little backwater is the density of traffic restriction signs with their variety of "thou-shalt-not" messages, demanding obedience and frequently not receiving it.                       

Picture status - In a private collection.