A sinewy, bespectacled sort of chap with a black patch over one eye and a balding, nattily dressed judge of the Magistrates’ Court stood knee high in a hayfield.
Odd place for one of Hamilton’s top teachers and a scowling dispenser of justice to stand together, don’t you agree?
Iconic Ernie Hutton, Mac grad, teacher, football star and board member, and Judge Schwenger, known for his tough stance on the bench, dreamed of turning this pasture land along Upper Wentworth Street into a treasure — first into a park then later a sports field for the Mountain’s first high school.
The foundation of what was to become the home and social retreat for thousands and thousands of Mountain kids was to become a reality.
Nudged on by the fact that in 1950, a wealthy Mountain cement contractor by the name of Sackville Harry Hill had donated 20 odd acres of former farmland to the City of Hamilton, planning started right there in that empty field.
Judge Schwenger, a man of great influence and member of the parks board, christened the new site Sackville Hill Park in recognition of the Hill family’s overwhelming financial support of this donation and countless others over the years.
The Hamilton Board of Education, most eager to establish a secondary school on the hill, harkened to Ernie Hutton’s plan and agreed to building a new school on the western side of the park.
Ernie (Patch) Hutton became the first principal of the new Hill Park Secondary School, a name in keeping with the park’s name and the fact the Hill family encouraged the use of the vast fields for a variety of outdoor athletics.
In 1955, the grand new school opened and over 2,000 eager Mountain kids poured in through the doors.
Brave Ernie, despite losing an eye playing football at Westadle years earlier, could be seen, knobby knees and all, taking passes on the football field. He challenged every senior to outdo his record track time in the 100-yard dash, a competitor till the very end.
Hill Park under his leadership went on to win countless awards on and off the field. Icons like Jim Forrester and Steve Oneschuck poured their hearts and souls into teaching kids on and off the field. A huge, loving, caring family was born. Bands were formed, drama clubs exploded and lately a fine corps of disciplined young Army Cadets wearing the Glengarry wedge caps of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders are doing the school proud.
They reach back into history when every city high school had a spit and polished corps. Alas, Hill’s hayfield is about to see yet another critical turn of events!
Our old, familiar home, now almost 60 years of age, has been read the death sentence by the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, death by closure. What a shame that we can’t resurrect old Judge Schwenger to wield the gavel and turn a few heads in awe. What a shame that Ernie Hutton, patch and all, isn’t here to fight the good fight, just one more time.
I know Oneschuck and Forrester would get down on one knee, look the oppostion square in the eye and take the fight to them.
This one’s for the Gipper. Now let’s hear it!
Mountain historian Colwyn Beynon can be reached at crsw389@sympatico.ca.