Binkley Neighbours

Ken and Glen, taking Restore Cootes on a history hike today in Lot M.

Nothing like living history as Ken and Glen, who are neighbours on Binkley Crescent above McMaster's Lot M parking, took Restore Cootes on a very informative hike through the property between their homes and the parking lot on this beautiful autumn morning.

Binkley's Pond, looking south-westerly from what is now McMaster Parking.
Image from "West Hamilton: A village and a Church" by David N. Jardine

Do we know where Binkley's Pond was? Now we do. It most definitely was fed by the springs still bringing water to the surface on the southern hills sloping toward the parking lots. The pond was partially man-made by using some earthwork to hold the spring water from the streams forming to the south of the wetland/now parking. Later, when the Royal Botanical Gardens owned the land, the pond was diminished in size as the spring fed streams were allowed to return to a more natural flow, snaking northward into Coldspring/Ancaster creek, but as Glen recalls, there was still enough of a pond to skate on in the winter, even with the changes.

We also learned a lot about the Binkley pioneer family's many farm holdings, which shared water resources based both on the Dundas side of Binkley Hollow (i.e. west and north of lot M) and the Hamilton side (i.e. south of Lot M), and Glen helped us to see the former roadways leading from the original Binkley Farm (on Sanders Blvd) above the parking lots and behind the houses on Binkley Cresent.

Ken and Glen join many others from the community and the campus with an interest in seeing McMaster rehabilitate the natural environment in what is now Lot M. It was great of them to share the time and history with us today as we piece together the story of this former wetland.

An update on progress regarding Lot M is coming soon. There's some good news, and (potentially) not-so-good news as well...stay tuned!

Comments

Binkley's Pond, gone for parking

Jacob Binkley (1806-67), great grandson of Marx [Binkley], built the handsome stone house that still stands at 54 Sanders Blvd at the head of a ravine. The house was completed in 1847 and named Lakelet Vale, as it had a little spring-fed lake at the rear. Binkley's Pond, as it was known, was used for skating, fishing, and good times. It is now the Zone 6 parking lot at McMaster University on the west side of Cootes Drive. Loreen Jerome, The Way We Were "The House that Jacob Built" Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association of Resident Homeowners Inc. (AWWCA) http://www.awwca.ca/articles/ Skater's on Binkley's Pond circa 1917, now a McMaster parking lot

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