City status was achieved on June 9, 1846, by an act of Parliament, 9 Victoria Chapter 73.
As the city grew, several prominent buildings were constructed in the late 19th century, including the Grand Lodge of Canada in 1855, West Flamboro Methodist Church in 1879 (later purchased by Duffer in Masonic Lodge in 1893), a public library in 1890, and the Right House department store in 1893. The first commercial telephone service in Canada, the first telephone exchange in the British Empire, and the second telephone exchange in all of North America all were established in the city between 1877–78.
Though suffering through the Hamilton Street Railway strike of 1906, with industrial businesses expanding, Hamilton's population doubled between 1900 and 1914. Two steel manufacturing companies, Stelco and Dofasco, were formed in 1910 and 1912, respectively, and Procter & Gamble and the Beech-Nut Packing Company opened manufacturing plants in 1914 and 1922, respectively, their first outside the US. Population and economic growth continued until the 1960s, with the 1929 construction of the city's first high-rise building, the Piggott Building, the move of McMaster University from Toronto to Hamilton, the opening of the second Canadian Tire store in Canada in 1934, an airport in 1940, a Studebaker assembly line in 1948, the Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway in 1958, and the first Tim Horton’s store in 1964. Since then, many of the large industries have moved or shut down operations and the economy has shifted more toward the service sector, such as transportation, education, and health services.
On January 1, 2001, the new city of Hamilton was formed from the forced amalgamation of the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth and its six municipalities: Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough, Glenbrook, and Stony Creek. Before amalgamation, the "old" City of Hamilton had 331,121 Hamiltonians divided into 100 neighbourhoods. The new
