The Journal · The Brantford Club

The Hamilton Club vs The Brantford Club: Forty Minutes Apart

The Hamilton Club is a private members’ club at 6 Main Street East in downtown Hamilton, dating from 1873 by its own history. The Brantford Club is a private business and social club at 98 George Street in Brantford, opened December 31, 1898. About forty minutes separate them on Highway 403, and each keeps its own rooms and roll.

If the door you wanted is the one in Hamilton, here is its listing, as The Hamilton Club publishes it: 6 Main Street East, Hamilton, Ontario L8N 1E8, telephone 905-522-4675, membership@thehamiltonclub.com, closed Sunday and Monday, paid parking at the side of the building. If you typed the two names with a “vs” between them, you wanted something else: what separates the two private city clubs at the west end of the Golden Horseshoe, and whether a person keeps one, the other, or both. That question is answered below from each club’s own published record.

Two dates open the ledger. The Hamilton Club dates from 1873, by its own history, and says it has always stood at the same location on Main Street East. The club in Brantford was formed in May 1898, incorporated by Letters Patent on July 16, 1898, per the Club’s centennial history, and opened its door at 98 George Street on the last night of that year. Twenty-five years separate the foundings; forty minutes of highway separate the doors. Neither club has moved.

How does The Hamilton Club differ from The Brantford Club?

The difference is the city each serves and the house each keeps. The Hamilton Club is a private members’ club in downtown Hamilton, with dining rooms, lounges, a sports bar, and a rooftop patio it calls The Terrace. Brantford’s club is a private business and social club in an Italianate residence built around 1855 at 98 George Street, within sight of the Court House, with a dining room, private rooms, a pub, and a kitchen under executive chef Eric Wasylenky, kept since 1898. Both are city clubs in the old sense: a member’s table in the working district, held for the same people year after year. Hamilton’s publishes more of its daily workings, from hours to a wine list; Brantford’s publishes its records instead, in this Journal.

The Brantford Club is a private business and social club at 98 George Street, Brantford, formed in May 1898 and opened on December 31, 1898 in a house of the mid-1850s. Its Charter roll began with a Manufacturer, a Banker, a Publisher, a Barrister, and a Gentleman, and the roll has been widening since.

A Hamilton Address, a Hamilton Club

If your office, your clients, and your evenings are in Hamilton, The Hamilton Club is the right club. It has stood on Main Street East since 1873 by its own history, and it keeps rooms a Hamilton working week can use: the Michael S. Schwenger Dining Room, where a jacket is required for men at lunch and dinner outside the summer months; the Fairclough Lounge and the UpLounge; a sports bar; private meeting rooms with conference calling; and The Terrace, the rooftop patio its history page calls the best open-air dining in the city. It publishes its hours, an à la carte menu, a wine list, and a directory of the clubs its members may visit with a letter of introduction from its concierge. A club forty minutes down the 403 does none of that for a Hamiltonian’s Tuesday. Hold the club that is where your week is.

The Brantford Club’s Side of the Ledger

The Brantford side is younger in the charter and older in the house. The Club bought the Bown property at the corner of George and Nelson Streets for $4,500.00, per the centennial history: an Italianate residence put up about 1855, and the one address it has kept since 1898. The rooms are those of a house: the dining room, the principal table since the first night; the Waterous Family Dining Room, named for the Charter family; the 98 George Room, where the Club keeps its Cocktail Fridays; the Bateson Lounge; and the pub. The kitchen runs under executive chef Eric Wasylenky, and the Churchill Pork Chops carry the name of the guest who signed the Visitors’ Register on January 3, 1901. The private dining page explains how a table of the house is arranged for a member’s own party. For a week that runs through Brantford, Brant County, Paris, or Cambridge, this is the nearer door.

The Hamilton Club vs The Brantford Club, Line by Line

Each row is taken from the club’s own site, Hamilton first, Brantford second; the one row both leave blank is the fee.

Dress and the Telephone at Each

Both clubs publish their rules of the rooms. The Hamilton Club requires a jacket for men at lunch and dinner in the Michael S. Schwenger Dining Room, with formal dress for women, and lifts the rule for June, July, and August; the rest of its rooms are smart casual, and The Terrace takes patio dress. Telephone calls there are permitted in private meeting rooms and the phone booth only. The Club in Brantford asks for Smart Casual in the Dining Room and casual in the pub, with ripped jeans and hats out in both; devices are silenced and calls taken in a private area of the house. The telephone custom is the older of the two: the Club ruled as early as 1911 that a member was never to be interrupted by the telephone at his meal. The phrases are decoded in the Journal’s entry on club dress codes.

Holding One, the Other, or Both

A club membership follows the working week, so most people hold the club in the city where the week is. Some weeks run through both cities, and belonging in more than one place is as old as clubs; many of The Brantford Club’s own members hold a membership at the golf club on Ava Road beside their town one. Neither club prints a fee, and the Journal’s explainer on Ontario club costs says why the number goes unpublished and how a real one is got. At 98 George Street the asking is one email, and someone who keeps the calendar writes back with how it works.

What people ask before they choose

Sources: The Hamilton Club’s own history and heritage page and its contact, policies, benefits, and affiliate pages; the Club’s membership and club policies pages; the centennial history for the Letters Patent and the house; and the Journal’s register of Ontario’s private clubs, where both clubs are dated from their own records. The rest of the Journal’s pairings are kept in one register of comparisons.