“The
interest in the house built in a day by Ald. James Byers during Centennial week
reached a climax last night, when Mayor Allan supervised the vaunting of the
beans contained in a ten gallon jar.”
Hamilton Spectator. September 5, 1913.
It was a major highlight during
Hamilton’s 1913 Centennial celebrations, a house built in a day. When the
effort began, there was a large amount of what was needed to build a house, and
a considerable number of laborers ready and willing to transform a vacant lot
into a fully furnished house in twenty-four hours.
Due to a few unforeseen snags the
project was unsuccessful as it was not fully finished in a literal day’s time,
only a few extra hours were needed to finish it up.
A huge number of people dropped by the
location at Britannia to watch the progress of the event, and to enter a
contest being hide to determine what would happen to the house once completed.
A large jar was on display. Within the
clear glass, people could that it was filled with beans. The contest entrant
who came closest to either guessing the actual number of beans, or who came
closer than any one else, would win the house.
As proof that the contest was
completely fair and that no one knew the correct answer, it was necessary to
count all those beans.
Beginning during the evening of
September 4, 1913, thirteen men who had been hired to do the counting, began
their work:
“Sharp at 8 o’clock,
Ald. Bryers brought the immense jar from the house which was being contested for
to the committee room in the city hall where the counting took place.
“The seal was immediately broken by
Mayor Allan, and the young men started at once on the count. There were beans
of all shapes and sizes, from the small Canadian to the larger Lima bean.
“The beans were distributed in piles
before each man, who was instructed to keep his count in secret until the final
result was known. When this was finished, Mayor Allan took the total from each
man.”1
1 House
Built in a Day Awarded : Holder of Ticket No. 329 Declared the Winner”
Hamilton Spectator. September 5, 1913
The mayor kept the total number of
beans secret as there was still more work to do. The next task was almost as
great as the bean count, all the entries, numbering an estimated 15,000
guesses, had to be sorted:
“The ballot boxes which were used for
depositing the tickets used by the guessers were brought in by H. M. Marsh,
industrial commissioner, and the mayor broke the seals.
“The tickets were carefully gone over,
with the exception of the mayor, knew the number of beans, and when the final
assortment was made. In the hearing and full view of all, the mayor announced
the lucky number, and personally searched for the winning ticket.”1
The ticket
had been sorted in piles. As the mayor knew the number of beans was 94, 289, he
went through the pile of tickets containing guesses between 94,000 and 95,000.
The winning ticket was #329, but
unfortunately the entrant had failed to include a name and address on the
section of the ticket provided for that information.Mayor Allan declared that
the winner would have one week to come forward and make a claim for the house.
The guesses had ranged from 175 to
83,491,573,520 beans, and tickets had been signed by people, not only from
Hamilton, but from other areas in Canada, the United States, England, Germany
and several other countries.
It was almost 2 a.m. when the effort
of counting the beans, sorting the guesses and finding the winning ticket was
finished :
“At the conclusion of the work, Ald.
Bryers entertained the workers at a sandwich banquet.”1
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