James
St N
Welcome to James St North!
Murray
St
1
W
2
Colb
ourn
e
Mulb
Barton St
St
erry
St
Robert S
t
3
4
Cannon
St
Vine St
York B
lv
Wilso
d
Jackson Square
Mall
n St
Rebe
cca S
t
5
King
Willia
m St
This neighbourhood is diverse with a high population
of Italians, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and most recently a growing arts community. This prayer guide
will lead you to pray in five different locations on the
street, each location representing a facet this community. We hope that you walk this street, observe it and
pray for it, that you will grow to love it.
role in bringing development to the street, pray
that beauty would continue to drive transformation on this street.
Directions:
Cross over James here and continue to head south
until you come to the last location on our walk –
the Lister Block, located 1 1/2 blocks south of York
Blvd/Wilson St.
5
Lister Block
Built in 1923, the Lister Block building on the corner of James and King William Street was the first
indoor commercial mall in Canada. It began to go
into decline in the 1950s and in 1995 it was closed
up completely. For over a decade the building lay
derelict, an emblem of downtown decay, until recent and extensive renovation of this building took
place. The building was opened to the public the
spring of 2012 and has become home to city employees and the Hamilton Tourism office.
The renovation of this historic building displays an
invested interest in maintaining and restoring Hamilton’s downtown core. Pray that people will continue to see the value and significance of this
neighbourhood and would invest in it accordingly.
Pray that the areas around James St N would improve and that with a rise in business on this street
and the increase in activity would cause crime to
decrease.
James St N is going through significant change. The
buildings are being repaired and cared for and the
street is regularly filled with artists and art lovers.
People are starting to see the value of this
neighbourhood, but where there is change there is
always tension. Pray that the improvements that
come would be for everyone in the neighbourhood
and that James St N would have the capacity to
embrace its past whilst also moving into the future.
Thank you for praying for this community. We
hope you will return to it again.
Start your walk near the James St N and Murray
intersection. There’s a small garden in front of
LIUNA station, known as Immigration Square, take
a wander into it.
1
LIUNA Station
Built in 1930 by Canadian National Railway (CNR),
this railway station was active until 1993, when it
eventually closed down. While today it serves as a
banqueting hall, it was once an important gateway
for immigrants to Canada in the post-Second World
War period. When the federal government loosened its immigration policies in the postwar period, Hamilton experienced a sudden influx of Italian and German immigrants. Many would have
arrived in Canada by boat, taken a train to Hamilton, and entered the city for the first time through
this railway station. Immigrants from Greece, Yugoslavia and Portugal followed the same route in the
1960s. Many immigrants from Portugal and Italy
chose to settle in the James St N community.
If you are standing facing the station, look to your
left. Facing into immigration square is a statue of a
family having just arrived in Hamilton. It is called
“Courage, Hopes & Dreams” and is built in honour
of those who have immigrated to this city. If you
look across the bridge you should be able to see
city housing. Many newly arrived immigrant families live here, although today they would tend to
come from Africa and Asia.
Statistics say that 25% of Hamilton’s inhabitants
were born outside of Canada. Pray for these courageous people who have given up everything familiar to them in order to pursue hopes and dreams.
Pray that new arrivals would settle well and that
they would be welcomed in this place.
Directions:
Turn left down James St, heading South. Continue
until you come to Barton. Cross over James and
stand in front of the Jamesville Mission Services.
2
Mission Services – Jamesville
In the midst of a neighbourhood undergoing gentrification and watching condos go up, Mission Services serves as a reminder of the neighbourhood’s
past and present fight against poverty. For years
the James St N neighbourhood has been home to
various social services, shelters, youth assistance
programs and women’s shelters. On James and
within a 10 minute walk east or west you can find
at least 8 buildings run by organizations whose purpose is to serve marginalized individuals who are
struggling with homelessness, spiritual deprivation
and addiction.
Pray for the men, women and children who find
themselves homeless or in vulnerable situations,
that they would find safety, protection and would
experience love in places such as Mission Services.
Pray for those working amongst this community –
for wisdom, grace and love to abound.
Pray for healthy relationships between organizations like Mission Services and the businesses
around them; that the influence of both would
leave a positive impact on the other and there
would be grace for working together. Pray that
businesses that profit from taking advantage of the
poor and marginalized would lose their hold in the
area and be forced to close their doors.
Directions: Cross over Barton and continue to head
south. Stop at the corner of James and Mulberry,
opposite the Armouries.
3
Mulberry Street Coffeehouse
There are several coffee shops on this stretch of
road. Some, such as Ola’s (across the road and back
a little towards Barton), have been around for
years and serve as a reminder of the Portuguese
influence in the neighbourhood. Others have only
entered the neighbourhood in the past few years.
The Mulberry Street Coffeehouse is one of these.
A former laundromat, this coffee shop on the cor-
ner of James and Mulberry was one of several establishments which caught the vision for the gentrification and transformation of James St. North
into the arts sector it is today. Having preserved
the old laundromat’s tin ceilings and tiled floors,
the Mulberry’s walls now display the work of local
artists, with exhibitions taking place once a month
during the Art Crawl, as well as hosting performances by local bands and book launches.
Like many of the new businesses on James St
North, this coffeehouse celebrates the street’s past
while looking forward to the future. Pray that the
Mulberry and other businesses like it in the area
will bring positive change that celebrates and partners with businesses that have been on the street
for decades. Pray that these would be places where
community is built and talented people are championed.
Directions:
Continue walking South until you reach Cannon.
Stop on the corner.
4
Hamilton Artists Inc.
“Hamilton is a culturally diverse city navigating the
shifting dynamics of global change within a historically industrial economy,” says the website of Hamilton Artists Inc. It is in this environment that this
artist run centre, established in 1975, seeks to
serve as an incubator for local artists.
This is but one of numerous galleries on James St
North. Many small businesses also double as venues for displaying art, as well as musical and theatrical performances. Eight years ago a handful of
people, many of whom were gallery owners,
started something that would showcase local art –
Art Crawl. The idea caught and has stayed, with
every second Friday of the month turning several
blocks of James St N into a showcase for art galleries, designer crafts, media art, music and theatre.
Pray for the artistic community of James St N; pray
that creativity and beauty would flourish in this
environment. The Art Crawl has played a significant
(Continued on back)