Best Historical Place Museum Hamilton Near Me

4worldlovers: Click (or tap) the pins to see the museum at that location.


This decorative map depicts the city of Hamilton showing un-named streets and some geographic detail. The map is bounded by Ancaster to the west, Dundas to the north west, Lake Ontario to the north east, and Stoney Creek to the south east. Pins identify the location of Hamilton’s nine museums, the names and neighbourhoods may be found in the content below.


For the addresses of each of the museums, please go to the Contact Page.


Review the Frequently Asked Questions, contact us, or visit hamilton.ca for more details about events, bookings, and purchasing tickets.


Fieldcote is a cultural heritage centre that collects and exhibits local history and promotes fine arts in Ancaster. The Tudor-revival house is set in three hectares (7 acres) of park and woodlands featuring walking trails, public art and award-winning gardens.


The wrecks of the Hamilton and Scourge are a designated Historic Site of Canada. Designed as merchant schooners, both vessels were converted into American warships when the War of 1812 began and each played a role in the capture of Fort George on May 27, 1813. While stationed off Port Dalhousie, they capsized and sank with a loss of over 50 lives during a sudden squall in the early morning of August 8, 1813. Discovered 90 metres below the surface of Lake Ontario in 1973, these remarkably preserved wrecks are outstanding archaeological records of shipbuilding and naval warfare of their time. The ships are in remarkably good condition, despite their initial sinking and despite some decay brought about by the passage of years at lake bottom. 2008 sonar image shows the wreck of the Scourge resting on the bottom of Lake Ontario. The ship’s bow is to the left.


This National Historic Site is home to the 2020 art installation Eagles Among Us. Created by Indigenous artist David General, it is dedicated to peace and reconciliation after the war. Battlefield Park and the Gage house occupy land traditionally used by Indigenous peoples. In the early 19th century, the Gage family farmhouse was a community hub for farmers, itinerant preachers and Indigenous peoples who came to meet and trade at James Gage’s store. A monument built in 1913 commemorates a War of 1812 battle on the site. It was commissioned by the Women’s Wentworth Historical Society, one of the first all-women’s historical societies in Canada.


Located in downtown Hamilton, the house known as Whitehern was home to three generations of the McQuesten family. In 1959, the three surviving members of the family bequeathed the home to the City together with its original contents. The house and gardens opened as a museum in 1971. The McQuesten family’s history includes several distinguished members who were responsible for the development of industry in Hamilton and for parks, highways, bridges, and landmarks throughout the Golden Horseshoe and Niagara and other parts of Ontario.


The Hamilton Museum of Steam & Technology is located in the 1859 Hamilton Waterworks. Constructed with limestone and dolomite quarried in Stoney Creek, the building still houses the two massive rotative beam engines which originally pumped water from Lake Ontario to a reservoir above the city. The Museum preserves and interprets the original waterworks complex and through it the social and mechanical life of Canada’s early industrial revolution. The Hamilton Waterworks has been designated a Canadian Civil and Power Engineering Landmark.

The Hamilton Military Museum preserves and shares the military history of Hamilton and area through exhibits, programs and events. The building that houses it was originally constructed as a gate house for Dundurn Castle by Sir Allan MacNab in the late 1830s. It was first known as Battery Lodge as it is located on the site of a War of 1812 artillery emplacement.

Housed in an 1875 farmhouse in Gage Park, the Hamilton Children’s Museum invites young visitors to stretch their imagination as they touch, build and experiment in a friendly, child-focused setting. Home to interactive, hands-on galleries, the museum encourages learning through self-directed play and offers a range of engaging programs and experiences to children and their families.

4worldlovers:
We tell the stories of work and working life in Canada and beyond. Our multi-disciplinary events offer a contemporary perspective on issues that affect society, work and communities.


WAHC relies on the generous contributions of our volunteers and sponsors/donors to do all of what we do. Are you interested in history, labour, and art? Join us! We couldn’t do it without you.

4worldlovers: In 1972, the Hamilton Conservation Authority purchased 120 acres of land in the Dundas Valley from Mr. Charles Hill. This property was for many years part of an estate known as “The Hermitage”. The stone house and outbuildings, which now only exist in ruins, were built by Mr. George Gordon Browne Leith, when he bought the property in 1855. He and his wife lived there for many years; later followed by their daughter Mrs. Alma Dick-Lauder.

An earlier house was built by the Revered George Sheed, the first resident Presbyterian minister in Ancaster. Reverend Sheed bought the property in 1830 and built a frame home on the low ground to the east of the present ruin, near the stream. In Leith’s time this building was in the middle of the orchard, and was used for storing apples until some time after 1900. Mr. Sheed died in 1832, and was buried in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church’s cemetery in Ancaster.

In 1833, the land was sold to an Englishman, Otto Ives. He came to Canada from Greece with a Greek wife. There is a legend that the Ives’ coachman, William Black, fell in love with Mrs. Ives’ niece, who had accompanied her to Canada. He asked Ives for permission to marry, but was emphatically refused. The next morning, Black did not appear with the carriage and was later found hanging from the stable rafters. A suicide could not be buried in a churchyard, so he was buried at the crossroads where Lover’s Lane joins Sulphur Springs Road. On moonlit night, some say that he can be heard crying for his lost love.

George Leith, who bought “The Hermitage” in 1855, was the second son of a Scottish baronet, Major-General Sir George Alexander Leith. As the second son, Leith could not inherit the title or the property in Scotland. He was given a pension and sent to Canada. The money was sufficient to enable him to get settled, but he would not have been financially independent for the rest of his life.

George Leith’s home was one of many built by well-to-do British immigrants in Ancaster, but surpassed them all. The building stone was quarried locally and the red bricks came from Dundas. The limestone sills came from the Credit Valley.

The attendant buildings were numerous, and their foundations can still be seen. The separate building to the north was a two-room laundry with a cistern in the floor. The long building directly behind the main house extended back about 85 feet. It contained a carriage house, a workroom and wood storage. The L-shaped wing next to it was the children’s nursery. To the west of the main house was a stable. The kitchen was in the west wing on the same side. In 1861 there were 13 people living in the house, five of whom were servants. On the ground floor of the main house was a drawing room, library, dining room and an enormous entrance hall. By today’s standards, the furnishings were opulent and many were brought from Scotland. There were paintings by Raeburn, Archer and Hogarth and many valuable first editions in the library. One of the most precious possessions was a set of china given to Mr. Leith’s father by the King of Burma, when he was governor at Penang.

At this time, the land had to supply most food requirements for the large household. By 1861, the farm was well developed. Of a total of 250 acres, 150 were cleared and cultivated. Leith built a house, a barn and granary down the lane for his tenant farmer. This house is now privately owned. The gatehouse was also built at the time. Known as The Lodge, it was, for many years, the home of Mrs. Penelope Hutchinson, a granddaughter of George Leith.