12" x 16" oil on canvas
Comes in a sleek poplar floating frame for a clean, modern look .
 
The City Motor Hotels sign was once one of Hamilton’s most recognizable landmarks, a glowing relic of mid-century optimism. I spent decades in its neighborhood, watching it age alongside the city itself.
Built in the 1960s, the hotel embodied the charm of that era’s architecture, complete with a courtyard pool. But as time wore on, it fell into decline, overshadowed by hardship and illegal activity. In its final years, it became a refuge for those on the fringes of poverty and homelessness—a quiet echo of what was to come.
Today, social housing apartments stand where the hotel once did, a noble repurposing of the land. And yet, when the last remains were cleared, I couldn’t help but mourn that sign—its neon hum, its quiet place in the skyline, gone.
‘Digging for gold in my neighborhood
For what they say is the greater good
But all I see is a long goodbye
A requiem for a skyline’
—Death Cab for Cutie