Several important early roads crossed West Flamborough Township, and as a result, the area abounded with small hotels, inns and taverns, constructed to serve not only the local inhabitants, but the numerous immigrants and travellers passing through. Three such early roads, Dundas Street, Brock Road and the Stone Road all passed through the township, and all were dotted with small establishments, most of which appear to have operated for only a short period.
References about many of these early hotels even appear in early West Flamborough Township records. Following the formation and inauguration of the first West Flamborough Township Council on 21 January 1850, Council meetings for the next twenty five years were held in various hotels. The Minutes make for very interesting reading! Among the hotels hosting such meetings were, Wm. Bullock’s Inn, Geo. Chisholm’s Inn, F. Freel’s Inn, Jacob Markle’s Inn and John Anderson’s Inn, all on the Brock Road, Chapman’s Inn, Simpson’s Hotel, Greensville Hotel run by Manuel Markle, David Armstrong’s Hotel, and Clappison’s Inn.
The Brock Road running north from Greensville, although frequently in very poor condition was heavily travelled. The earliest hotel appears to date from c.1841, and was built on or very near the corner of the Brock and 4th Concession Road by William Bullock Sr. The 1861 Assessment Roll for the township records the name as the Albert Hotel, probably after the consort of Queen Victoria. It was still owned by the same William Bullock, but appears to have been operated under lease to several tenants, including his son-in-law, Frances Cochenour and his daughter, Mary Ann.
Records show that during the 1850s another hotel, located on the Brock Road and the 5th Concession Road was operating, but without a license, and causing considerable concern to township officials. Within a decade it had disappeared, and not until 1900 was the intersection again the location of a tavern. Operated by Paddy Green, a hotel keeper whose name is long remembered in Hamilton history, the building also served as the Post Office, and mail for several area hamlets was dispatched from here. Paddy Green was well known for his jovial humour, lunches and wonderful refreshments, and many of the area mail and horse-drawn express coaches stopped at his hotel, not only for lunch, but to meet this renowned character. Paddy’s son, John Green moved to West Hamilton, where he too operated a hotel, named after his famous father.
On the corner of the 6th Concession and the Brock Road there were two hotels, one operated by Mrs. Doyle who was assessed as the innkeeper, and a second one built during the early 1840s by William Bullock Sr. and his younger brother Ralph. Ralph Bullock operated the hotel for a number of years, selling to William McMann who leased it to Fred Leach for a number of years and then to Thomas Hunter. This appears to have been a busy intersection, as there was a toll gate for many years, established probably to bring trade to the hotels, but by 1875, a gradual decline in traffic along the road also saw a decline in business and need for hotels.
In Strabane there appears to have been a brick hotel located across from the blacksmith’s shop at the village intersection. There was also considerable stabling on the property, as this was a point of change for the horses who pulled the stage and mail from Guelph to Dundas and Hamilton. Bread from Guelph was also carried on the stage and sold at the hotel, but that was when a loaf cost a few cents to purchase. Little is known of the hotel’s history, but among the operators were James Young and John Mooney. The building was apparently demolished at the start of the century. The bricks were transported to Millgrove where they were used to build a house for William Carey, and the stable timbers became a barn on the farm of the Charles Stewart family of Lot 9, Concession 7.
Freelton boasted two hotels during the days of stage coach travel. Near the centre of the village, Thomas Campbell, brother-in-law of Patrick Freel, after whom the village was named, built a hotel that was known locally as the old hotel. Mr. Campbell appears to have sold it immediately, as his name never appears again in connection with the building. The building seems to have had a continuous change of ownership during its years in existence. It was owned by various members of the Duffy family, Christopher, John, Thomas and William Duffy all appear on Directory Listings, as do Thomas Smith, Miss Young, Henry Foley, Samuel Cook, Andrew Mahoney, J. T. Hoorigan, Alfred Powell and lastly, Patrick Kehoe.
The second hotel that existed in the village was reputedly built in 1822 by James Morden, presumably a member of the famous Morden family. Known as the Upper Hotel, one of the rooms on the second floor was used by a small congregation of the Anglican church for worship services. This group was a mission of the Waterdown Anglican Church, but due to lack of sufficient supporters, services were eventually discontinued. The building was destroyed by fire during 1899 and the property was sold for $201.00 by Mr. House, the owner at the time, to Miles Binkley, acting as an agent for the Methodist Church.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1993, 2022.
