During the month of September, 1905, commuters riding the radial electric railway between Hamilton and Burlington, witnessed the construction and subsequent occupation of a peculiar little shanty.
Located on vacant land, just twenty feet from the railway track, at a spot where the line made an abrupt curve northward from Wilson street, turning towards Barton street, the shanty was built by Joseph Smith as a residence for himself , his wife and his ten year old son, and, of course, their dogs.
Joseph Smith’s shanty was the result of a rather desperate reaction to a situation common all over the city of Hamilton. As local industries grew larger and larger and needed more and more workers, the construction of new housing for these men and their families did not keep pace leading to an acute shortage of affordable homes for the workingmen ensued.
The Smith shanty was ten feet by four feet, constructed with bits and pieces of lumber. Tree boughs and slabs of cast-off wood were used for roofing, while an abandoned shutter served as the domicile’s door.
Joseph Smith had received personal permission from Sir John M. Gibson, owner of the land, to make use of the vacant lot. The location, near the present corner of Wilson street and Birch avenue, was relatively isolated as there were no streets cut through the area for some distance. Despite the isolation, the Smith family had very little privacy due to the endless inquisitive stares of the radial railway passengers as they passed the shanty at all hours of the day.
The Spectator sent out a reporter to interview Mr. Smith and the article appeared in the September 23, 1905 edition of the paper under the headline, “Happy and Contented in Their Humble Home : The House That Smith Built to Provide a Shelter for His Small Family.”
As the headline indicated, the reporter was amazed at the attitude of the Smith family despite their predicament, observing that they were as happy as if they had the wealth of a Rockefeller, or the influence of a rajah over his Hindoos.”
Of a genial, talkative nature, Joseph Smith was more than willing to tell the reporter his past history and current troubles. When asked where he and his family had previously been living, Smith replied that they had been residing “at the corner of Barton and Wellington streets. We had a shop, some other people had the upstairs and some Englishman had the back. The Englishman was payin’ the rent. Unfortunately, when the Englishman got too far behind on the rent, everyone was turned out on the street. I tried and tried to get some place but we just couldn’t.”
The reporter asked to be shown the interior of the shanty which he found surprisingly comfortable.
Mr. Smith then shared his past personal history with the reporter : “I was born in Milton and started work at 13. I had to run away from home. My mother died, and my father married again. My stepmother had a baby while I was going to school, and I would go to school half a day, and stay home the other half to mind this kid. When the old crank at school wanted to know why I was away, I told her. But I got lickins’ fer playin’ hookey, and that was more’n I could stand.”
When asked if he intended to spend the winter living in the shanty, Smith answered, “Maybe we’ll have to. If I can’t get another house, we will. I’ll sod the walls, and perhaps I can make it warm enough.”
Inside the shack, which was brightened only by the light of one small window and the doorway, there was barely room enough for a person of average height to stand upright
One chair and a small table furnished the shanty’s only room. The box stove took up much of the space, while a straw mattress on the floor was barely wide enough for one person. Two newborn black and tan pups shared the room, while outside a shepherd collie was tied up.
Mr. Smith said that the collie was responsible for keeping away the gangs of boys who sometimes threw stones at the shack.
As the interview was coming to a close, Joseph Smith emphatically declared that he was not at all unhappy with his housing situation:
“We got lots of fresh air here. Why, do you know, I can eat more in one meal here than I can in three up in the city. We’re all feeling fine.”
