A Letter to Hamilton
Dear Hamilton,
From Hamilton, For Hamilton
Street scene: AI-generated illustration.
The word that runs the whole company
It starts at home, with the people you cook for, the people you carry. A house is the oldest promise a person can keep.
The same promise, made bigger. More homes, on the streets that already have the porches, the maples, the bones. The unit of measure is the same both times: a home.
01
House-scale homes on Hamilton’s infill streets. Semis with additional dwelling units, houses that quietly hold four families, rooflines that belong.
02
Every finished home is a visible argument that quality infill works, for the street, the neighbours, the city.
03
When the playbook is proven, give it away, so the next builder starts where we left off.
Our founder has been here since 2008. Not scouting it. Living it. Hamilton isn’t a market we picked off a spreadsheet. It’s the place our whole story happens, and that is not negotiable.
Hamilton’s streets were built for more neighbours than they hold today. The porches are here. The schools are here. The escarpment has been waiting patiently the whole time. What’s missing is the housing in the middle. Bigger than a single house, smaller than a tower. These are the homes a city actually grows on.
4 → 6
Where four homes fit on a lot today, six gentle, house-scale homes should be able to belong. That’s the change we’re working for.
Why it matters
Rents in Hamilton have climbed for years, faster than what people here earn. Buying a house now takes an income most working people do not have.
So picture who that leaves out. The nurse on a shift at the General. The family that grew up in Hamilton and wants to raise kids here. The renter who keeps getting pushed one neighbourhood over, then one city over.
We are not going to tell you new homes are cheap. They are not, and we do not build the cheapest thing on the block. But the city is short thousands of homes, and you do not fix short by building nothing.
Duplexes and fourplexes used to be ordinary. They built the best old streets in this city. They are just hard to build now. We build them anyway.
The evidence
Exhibit A · West Mountain
Built. Lived in. Working.
Construction complete, and the first family is already home upstairs. This is what the finish line looks like: lit windows on an ordinary street.
West Mountain · Complete & leasing
View project →
Exhibit B · West Mountain
Drywall up. Keys soon.
Three homes under one house-scale roof on Hamilton’s west mountain, under construction now, finishing through the summer.
West Mountain · Under construction
View project →
Exhibit C · Kirkendall
One handsome semi. Six front doors.
A principal dwelling on each side, with additional dwelling units tucked behind. Six homes that read, from the sidewalk, exactly like the house that’s always been there. In pre-construction now.
Kirkendall · Pre-construction
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Exhibit D · Strathcona
Two houses the street already recognizes.
Two detached, house-form dwellings, four homes in each, on a pair of quiet Strathcona lots. Gentle density at the scale the street already knows. Coming soon.
Strathcona · Coming soon
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Exhibit E · Ancaster
Ancaster, next.
A deep, treed lot in Ancaster, early in its planning story. Watch this space. Slowly, the way good streets are made.
Ancaster · Early planning
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Exhibit F · Flamborough
Land deserves homework.
A larger parcel in Flamborough, early in its planning story. The homework comes first.
Flamborough · Early planning
View project →
Graham Kilgour
Founder, Haddon Homes
info@haddonhomes.ca · Hamilton, Ontario
In Hamilton since 2008 · HCRA licensed builder · City of Hamilton licensed contractor · Acquisition to lease-up
