Memories of Downtown Kirkland Lake

Kirkland Lake was the “Hub of the North” – a town with great shopping and entertainment. Sid Hamden remembers what it was like to grow up in a busy mining town during the 1930s.

Sid Hamden and his wife Myrta Hamden are sitting on a couch facing each other and take turns talking.

[Myrta] Now, you could do your basic shopping right in Chaput, but didn’t you have to go into town to shop? What were the shops like in Kirkland Lake?

[Sid] Actually the shops were fabulous in those years. As you know, Kirkland Lake has been known as the Hub of the North, and it certainly was because in those days, they had over fifty grocery stores, and we had seven hardware stores. And there were twelve drug stores.

And you had your choice of foods which were of course the regular Canadian food as we know, and then there were foods from other countries. Like from the Middle East, from China and so forth which you did have a big variety.

[Myrta] Mm-hmm. And did your mom go shopping at any of these stores?

[Sid] Yes she did, and I remember when we went to one of the major stores, and that was the Eaton Company. Eaton’s here and it was built right on the main drag, a huge building. It had three floors. The basement was a fooditeria. Where groceries were sold and the other floors were of course regular merchandise. Dry goods, clothing, furniture, whatever.

[Myrta] You also went to Kirkland Lake for fun with your little brother, did you not?

[Sid] We sure did! When you, when you walked – and we walked mostly because we couldn’t afford the bus. The odd time we would.

But anyway, when we walked down we would see all these buildings are actually from Beaver Hill and towards Lakeshore Mine and then we arrived in town it was very busy.

There were stores all along the main drag. There were theatres. Four theatres we had in those days which ran for a while – the Capital, the Strand, the Uptown and the LaSalle which was owned by a separate firm.

But my brother and I – Gord – we would go almost every Saturday. My parents manage it, they would give us 20 cents – 10 cents each – and we went to the Capital. And the Capital was known for its Westerns on Saturday afternoon. Hopalong Cassidy, Wild Bill Hickok and the rest of those guys.

[Myrta] That’s why you like those old Western movies, huh? [laughs]

[Sid] Love them! I’ve always loved horses. The more horsepower the better.