Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 12:00pm-4:00pm; Guided tours offered at 12:10pm, 1:30pm, and 3:00pm.
Location: 41 Jackson Street West, Hamilton, ON, L8P 1L3
Access: Adults (18-59): $9.00; Seniors/Students (60+): $7.75; Students (13-17): $7.75; Children (6-12): $5.50; Infants (5 and younger): Free; Families (2 adults, and unlimited dependent children under 18): $24.75
Contact: museums@hamilton.ca
Telephone: 905-978-1443
Website Address: https://www.hamilton.ca/attractions/hamilton-civic-museums/whitehern-historic-house-garden-national-historic-site
Whitehern Historic House is one of the finest examples of an intact historic home in Canada. Three generations of the McQuesten family lived at Whitehern from 1852 until 1968. Members of the family were responsible for the development of industry in Hamilton, and for parks, highways, bridges, and landmarks throughout the Golden Horseshoe, Niagara, and other parts of Ontario. In the 1830s, Calvin McQuesten helped to found the McQuesten-Fisher Foundry which helped to spur Hamilton’s industrial growth and later became the Sawyer-Massey Company. Among the last generation were six children who never married. In 1959 the three surviving members of the family bequeathed the home to the City of Hamilton with all its original contents. It contains elements from many time periods – Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian – dating up to 1939 when the Honourable Thomas McQuesten was Minister of Highways. The historic house allows visitors to explore the changing nature of family life, culture, health, politics and domestic technology in Hamilton.
Click here for a tour of the historic house and garden.
The Whitehern Museum and Archives has digitized and organized much of the material in the archives through a website, which includes 4,000 letters, documents, and photographs from the McQuesten family. The website features timelines, biographies of members of the McQuesten family, and histories of industry and Hamilton, based largely on the PhD thesis The Lifewritings of Mary Baker McQuesten (1849-1934): Victorian Matriarch of Whitehern by Dr. Mary Anderson.