Hamilton’s Auchmar House is to History students what Cootes Paradise is to biology students.

The 19^th-century mansion is a history lab, of sorts, that has to be experienced in person rather than through a textbook.

That’s why Robert Pinchin and Elizabeth Ivanecky were so excited about their third-year History Practicum placement with the Friends of Auchmar, a community group committed to the preservation and public use of the 161-year-old house.

The unique course pairs McMaster History students with local businesses or community groups working on specific heritage projects.

In other placements, students have partnered with the Hamilton Public Library, Dundas’ Picone’s Fine Foods and Dundurn Castle National Historic Site. They’ve even written the text for a number of local historical markers and plaques.

Pinchin and Ivanecky were tasked with researching Auchmar House, its original occupant (influential Hamiltonian Isaac Buchanan) and the site’s historical significance.

The two-storey brick manor, at West 5^th Street and Fennell Avenue, was completed in 1855. Buchanan was a wealthy Scottish merchant, civic leader and well-known political figure in Canada West.

“If we had just researched the house, though, we’d have come up with some facts like how it was one of the first in Ontario to have indoor plumbing,” says Pinchin. “That’s important, sure, but by really immersing ourselves in our work, we discovered much more about the history of Auchmar, Isaac Buchanan and Hamilton itself.”

The pair learned, for instance, that Buchanan was a founder of a military regiment that would become today’s Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, was an influence on Sir John A. Macdonald’s National Policy and was an abolitionist who offered up Auchmar as a space for Emancipation Day celebrations.

“Getting out of the classroom allowed us to broaden the definitions of what history really is,” says Pinchin.

The students taped interviews with city politicians, area residents and others as part of the project, and are turning the footage into a short documentary.

“We developed skills that we never would have developed in the classroom,” says Ivanecky. “Students in other faculties go out into the field – why not us?”

Ivanecky also says the experience made her feel like more of a citizen of her hometown.

“After learning about the city’s history, I feel more attached to Hamilton,” she says. “I feel like I see Hamilton in a different way.”

That’s music to instructor Asa McKercher’s ears. The L.R. Wilson Assistant Professor of History says the course is not only meant to hone the skills of Canada’s future historians, but to develop good citizens.

“This is not about regurgitating facts and stats,” he says. “We want to prepare our students to “do” a different kind of history.”

Students can find out more about History Practicum 3HP3 here.