Who remembers the DIC department store in Garden Place? I don't, it's before my time. This is what it looked like in 1975. Big glass windows to let in the light, and an orange and white colour scheme.
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| DIC Department Store - Garden Place, Hamilton - 1975 |
In 1993, the building was converted to house Hamilton's public library, and now looks like this. Exactly why the council insists on painting our libraries that abhorid shade of blue, I'm not sure, but the building was brought up to nineties standards pretty well. They've even put a bit of that old orange into the colour scheme!
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| Hamilton Library - Garden Place, Hamilton - 2010 |
Edit:
As Robyn mentioned, the ground floor of the DIC building used to host a pizzeria belonging to one Joe Di Maio. A few more photos:
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| Hamilton Pizzeria, Garden Place, Hamilton |
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| Hamilton Pizzeria, Garden Place, Hamilton |
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| Joe Di Maio - Hamilton Pizzeria |
For more on Joe Di Maio, see this
article.
Heh, I remember the old DIC building. You know how the ground floor of the library is slightly below street level? That's because this new part of the DIC building joined up with the old DIC building, which I think is now the WINZ office on Victoria St. The new building connected with the old building on the ground and first floors. If you go to the rear of the library and look at the left-hand side wall, you can see where the walkthrough gap was. And later DIC also joined up at the back with the Collingwood Court arcade (now apartments).
ReplyDeleteAaaaand there was an Italian cafe that was built in a space that had been a '70s-style garden by the entrance. When the library took over the building, the cafe moved back into a new shop space. And the lovely smell of pizza would waft through the library. (I really miss that place...)
When the library opened in the early '90s, the facade was slightly different. I think it might just have been a different paint job. From memory, it was a sort of pale apricot shade, maybe with green trim.
I knew I had seen pictures of the Pizzeria somewhere... have added them to post.
ReplyDeleteDIC must've been a decently sized department store based on your descriptions.