a residential housing boom in which hundreds of low-rise apartment buildings, of three to four stories and six to ten units, grew up across the city, especially in the east end. Higher education—disregarding its normal school or teachers college—arrived in Hamilton in 1930. McMaster University was founded in Toronto as a Baptist institution of higher learning. Funded by a bequest of Senator William McMaster in 1887, it was in danger of becoming absorbed by the University of Toronto. Hamilton’s municipal government, civic boosters and ordinary residents lured the university to the city with grants of land and money in 1930. Not only did McMaster preserve its independence, but it began publishing The Silhouette student newspaper, now an award-winning weekly broadsheet. Local boosters also ensured that Hamilton hosted the inaugural Empire Games, now known as the Commonwealth Games in 1930. Amateur athletes from around the British Empire and Commonwealth gathered to compete at Hamilton Civic Stadium, the current site of Ivor Wynne Stadium as a result of the efforts of Melville Marks Robinson. The Great Depression of the 1930s hit Hamilton hard. The simultaneous and prolonged decline in domestic consumption and international trade in finished industrial goods and building supplies put a stop to residential and institutional construction for a decade. It was in this context of privation that Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw started her illegal birth control clinic in 1931. Emotional relief from the Depression was found in the Washingtons, local brothers who performed as a blues quartet throughout Ontario. Practical relief was found in government works projects designed to prime the economy and which added to the long-term attractiveness of Hamilton. Thomas B. McQuesten, a Hamilton lawyer, alderman, and MLA, served as minister of transportation and chairman Niagara Parks Commission from 1934 to 1943. He spearheaded the construction of the Queen Elizabeth Way, a controlled access highway which links Fort Erie with Toronto via Hamilton, and the Mountain access for Highway 20 in Stoney Creek. He founded Royal Botanical Gardens, seeing the institution through from an early concept in the 1920s to incorporation and staffing in the 1940s. Whitehern, his downtown family home, now serves as a civic museum. 1939–1945 In the Second World War, Britain decided to shore up its support in the Dominions by having a royal visit to Canada. When King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth visited Canada in May and June 1939, they stopped