The Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre is in the heart of Ancaster Village. It includes the 454-seat Peller Hall, Voortman Studio Theatre and multiple rooms for art, film, theatre and dance. This state-of-the-art centre will serve as home to many of Ancaster's successful and popular community arts groups. It will also provide a venue for many professional performers and artists.

The Auchmar Estate is considered to be the last surviving country estate on Hamilton Mountain. It was built for the Honourable Isaac Buchanan, a local Scotsman, entrepreneur, politician and civic leader in 19th-century Canada. Visit this Gothic revival manor house and learn about its storied past before strolling the walled and landscaped grounds that surround it. No parking on site.

Balfour House is Hamilton’s last great escarpment estate. Several prominent Hamiltonians have called it home since 1836, most recently the family of St. Clair Balfour. Owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust and managed by the City of Hamilton, the building and garden are spectacular. Exhibits related to the commitment to music of the Southam family will be on display.

Battlefield House Museum, part of which dates to 1796, was once home to the prominent Gage family. Learn about the stories of the people who built the house and the ongoing efforts to preserve and restore it. Explore the Dunington Grubb landscape (which includes the impressive Battlefield Monument) and hike around a 13.8-hectare (34-acre) patchwork of meadow and forest.

Birmingham House is a typical stone Georgian Methodist church with round-headed windows, corner quoins, a central rose window and oversized eaves with paired cornice brackets. It is part of a cluster of buildings in downtown Waterdown that is largely intact after almost 200 years. The building is currently home to the CBY Academy of Performing Arts and Birmingham Consulting.

The beaux arts-style Carnegie Library in Dundas was built in 1910. When the Hamilton Public Library stopped using the building, its future was uncertain. Taking advantage of the thriving arts community, Dundas citizens formed the Carnegie Craft Carnival Committee to raise funds for necessary building maintenance. The Carnegie Gallery was subsequently developed and has been thriving for 40 years.

Originally a Romanesque revival structure, Case United Church has been updated to include a foyer, accessible washrooms, user-friendly stairs and a mechanical lift between floors. Upstairs, a light-filled gathering space offers views of the surrounding farmland and a connecting door to the sanctuary. A vital part of the community, Case United and its cemetery reflect its rural location.

The Central Presbyterian Church, designed by John Lyle and opened in 1908, replaced an earlier church that was destroyed by fire. This was his only church. The flat roof resembles more the public buildings favoured by the beaux-arts style than traditional European churches. Central Presbyterian has one of the largest and finest Casavant organs in Hamilton. Recitals to be announced.

This church — founded in 1876 as the Church of The Redeemer — was established in 2007 with the amalgamation of the parishes of The Redeemer and the Church of our Saviour, Stoney Creek (founded in 1919). See how the 1876 church expanded in 1952, view stained-glass windows and learn the story of the Dossal tapestry.

This church opened in 1892. The adjacent Hannah Public School was purchased in 1906 and served as the parish hall until it was destroyed by fire in 1990. Drawn to service, the congregation decided to build an affordable housing complex on the site. Today, the church has a thriving connection to music in the church and community.

Ancaster is Ontario’s third-oldest community. The Coach and Lantern belongs to a cluster of buildings that have been in continuous use here since 1832. This gorgeous stone building has been a court of law, a hotel and now a pub. This well-known pub and centre for live music is part of a thriving commercial block.

The Imperial Cotton Factory, built in 1900, ran as a factory until 1972. It has been repurposed as the largest creative hub in the Hamilton area — with studios for artists, artisans, musicians, craftspeople and entrepreneurs. Film and television productions, photographers and special events are also drawn here. This year's Door's Open Hamilton is also the Cotton Factory's 10th anniversary.

Opened in 1956, the Dundas Museum & Archives is a private, non-profit museum that collects, interprets and celebrates the unique identity of the Valley Town. As part of Doors Open Hamilton, they welcome the public to tour its permanent galleries. As well, you can visit the historical c. 1848 Doctor's Office and the 1873 Pirie House.

Dundurn Castle is one of the finest examples of high regency-style architecture in the country. Constructed in the 1830s for Sir Allan Napier MacNab (railway magnate, lawyer and politician), the buildings deteriorated under subsequent owners, but were restored in the 1960s to their original splendour. Today, Dundurn Castle tells the story of the MacNabs and the people who served them.

The East Flamborough Township Hall is a masterpiece of adaptive reuse. Almost all the original features of the original Georgian building were restored while the interior was sensitively reworked to provide comfortable office space for legal and financial offices (Brown Lawyers and Brown Financial Security respectively), while still displaying the architectural features of the original building.

Fieldcote was built in 1948 as a private home on the outskirts of the former village of Ancaster. Today, as the village expands, it serves as a cultural heritage centre with an emphasis on local history and the promotion of fine arts. The idyllic setting is the perfect venue for music, with beautiful, landscaped gardens and walking trails.

The original Victorian residence was built in the 1800s and purchased by the club in 1952. Initially used for meetings and small gatherings, a large, balconied dance hall with stage was added to the rear of the building in 1955. The 1960 addition enclosed most of the original building and added some much-needed space for the growing club.

Situated in a park-like setting, Grace Anglican Church is known for many things: the beautiful building, the surrounding cemetery and its wide-ranging charitable works. The sanctuary has been updated many times to include stained glass, an organ and other details. The grand hall offers community functions, often including music. This idyllic small-town community church thrives in Waterdown.

The elegant Edwardian gable and bay on Grant Avenue was transformed by Dan Lanois, Bob Lanois and Bob Doidge into the world-renowned recording venue, Grant Avenue Studio. The two-storey box bay façade with stained-glass windows has welcomed artists from Gordon Lightfoot and Stan Rogers to U2 and Johnny Cash. Check out this excellent example of adaptive reuse.

The Halo Studio is a one-of-a-kind recording studio that offers professional audio engineering services in the heart of downtown Hamilton. Their custom-built live room offers outstanding tone and the perfect vibes for creating great projects. Their control room also boasts the perfect listening environment, featuring a console that has recorded Bruce Springsteen and Kanye West.

The Hamilton City Ballet (in partnership with the Hamilton Academy of Performing Arts) operates out of a building that has been constantly modified and added to since 1842. The original gable front building was built in 1842. A similar building was added in 1865 as a Sunday School. They were connected by a corridor in 1949.

Located on the grounds of Dundurn National Historic Site, this museum preserves and shares the military history of Hamilton and area through exhibits, programs and events. The building, originally constructed as a gate house for Dundurn Castle in the late 1830s, was first known as Battery Lodge, being located on the site of a War of 1812 artillery emplacement.

The Hamilton Museum of Steam & Technology is the site of the original 1859 Hamilton Waterworks. The museum features two 13.7-metre high (45 feet), 70-ton steam-powered pumping engines that supplied the city with clean drinking water from 1859 to 1910. Made in Dundas, these engines are the oldest surviving examples of their kind in North America today.

Tisdale House is the oldest home in Ancaster. In the 1820s, the building was occupied by "Charcoal Burner" John O’Neil and housed two charcoal kilns. Later, the house became an undertaker’s parlour run by George Moore. The house has been fully retrofitted and is now home to the Ancaster Community Policing Centre and the Hamilton Police Museum.

Hamilton Theatre Inc. is where aspiring stars get their training. Housed in a renovated Ontario Hydro building, it has been a training ground for individuals in the community to hone their passion for theatre and the arts. A perfect example of adaptive reuse, the theatre is bursting with musical magic, showcasing some of Broadway’s biggest hits right here in Hamilton.