As soon as the first roads were cut through Upper Canada’s wilderness, hotels, taverns and inns appeared along the way, and the innkeeper, that Jack-of-all-Trades to the pioneer community opened the door of his establishment. His was the first public building until the Town Hall appeared years later. All events of any importance took place in his establishment: court sessions, elections, land sales, even in one instance, a sitting of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada. Doctors, dentists, and travelling salesmen met the public in the inns. Church services and Sunday School classes competed with circuses and concerts. Political movements were born there. Settlers were given provisions, directions, loans and even supplies at the inn. The stage coach with weary and bruised passengers, the postal service and even highwaymen all availed themselves of its services. It, together with the General store and the church provided all the sustenance that the early pioneer required to survive.
The cutting of the Governor’s Road, or Dundas Street through the Waterdown area was one of the reasons for the settlement of Waterdown being established. Entrepreneur E. C. Griffin saw great potential in the area with the proximity of water power on the Grindstone Creek, and the location of this road. And although it was originally little more than a narrow trail, bearing a name coined by disdainful settlers as a term of derision, it was the main thoroughfare for travellers.
Foreseeing development, the south west corner of present day Dundas and Mill Streets in the Township of East Flamborough, was part of the first piece of property that Ebenezer C. Griffin purchased from Alexander Brown in 1821. On this corner, the building, now known as the American House was constructed, and on the opposite south east corner, Griffin erected his General Store, both believed to have been in operation by 1824-25. So as in so many pioneer communities of Upper Canada, a hotel was among the first permanent buildings erected in the settlement that was to become Waterdown.
By the 1820s, stages were rumbling along Dundas Street. Within four years of the American Hotel opening, Plumer Burley of Ancaster had started running a stage-coach line between Ancaster and York that left Ancaster at 4 a.m. each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, arriving at York an exhausting eleven hours later. In 1833, William Weller’s Stage coach line was carrying passengers westwards from York, so within a decade of the American Hotel opening, there was a steady passenger trade in place.
Possibly because of his incolvement in the temperance movement or the developing milling industry of Waterdown, Griffin only owned the hotel for a short period. The property was sold to Alexander Markle, an innkeeper in 1832, possibly a relative of the infamous innkeeper, Abraham Markle who was one of the turncoat American citizens forced to stand trial at the Bloody Assizes following the War of 1812.
Throughout its long history, the hotel has been owned and operated by many different innkeepers. In Smith’s Gazeteer for 1846, the Village of Waterdown is recorded as possessing two hotels, one of which was almost certainly the American, operated by Samuel Anderson. During the 1860-1875 period, the number of hotels in village numbered as many as seven – all appear to have been short-lived establishments, with the names and innkeepers changing almost annually.
Possibly because of its wonderful location, the American Hotel remained a permanent hostelry, serving the travellers on both the east-west and north-south routes through the township. Among the known innkeepers were John and Thomas Stuart (1875) who had come to Canada from Scotland in 1871, James H. Cooper (1884-1885), Samuel Cook (1885-1904). For a brief period following Mr. Cook’s death, the hotel was owned Richard Morley, but in 1911, his widow, Mary Cook again returned to operate the hotel and ran it until 1926.
Many grand social events have been held at the hotel over the years. At one time, an archway in the Mill Street wall was the entrance to a passageway through which carriages could drive. This allowed the ladies to alight inside the building – a great convenience, especially if they were dressed for an evening in the ballroom upstairs. This archway was later closed in to make an apartment, but the outline is still visible. Before the turn of the century, the hotel was the site of a winter banquet hosted by Agricultural Implements Agent, John Prudham for his customers. This renowned occasion alternated annually between the American and Kirk Hotels and followed the arrival of the machinery at the Waterdown Station, and a grand procession up the Waterdown Road.
During prohibition the hotel was closed, but reopened in 1933 with proprietors William Condon and F. Stanley. Following the death of both Condon and Stanley, Mrs. Regina Stanley operated it until she sold it to the present owner, Mr. Frank Zizzo. Under Mr. Zizzo’s ownership, the interior of the hotel has been drastically altered, both to modernize and serve the demands of the public. Sadly the original wooden floors, tin ceiling in the front section and the last old-time stand-up bar in Ontario have been removed. However, despite these changes the American House continues to hold an important place in the commercial life of Waterdown.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1993, 2022.
