Reputedly built by John Yakes of East Flamborough, the hotel was a two-storey frame structure with a magnificent verandah running the whole length of the front facade – it is interesting to note that prior to becoming the owner/operator of the hotel, John Yakes had married Mrs. George Baker of Bakersville, East Flamborough Township, and the Baker family home on Centre Road also has a very fine verandah that stretches the length of the front facade and was built just a few years earlier than the Valley Inn Hotel.
During its history, additions were made to the hotel. Two gables were added in 1894 and an annex to the rear of the building, together with stables and a barn. During the 1860s and 1870s there were suspicions that much of the liquor sold in the hotel did not bear an excise tax stamp. Certainly it was a favourite “watering hole” for the farmers who made the regular journey to the Hamilton market.
The location of the hotel, so close to the very unpopular toll house, often resulted in trouble. There were incidents, when farmers especially, filled with too much liquor drove their wagons through the toll gate, taunting the toll keeper to stop them if he could, and one incident, in which the toll keeper, fearing an attack by an unhappy farmer, beat him so continuously with a stick, that he bled to death on the roadside.
Great changes came to the area in the 1920s. The growing popularity of the motor car made road improvements necessary. With the construction of the high bridges on Highway 2 at the Rock Gardens and Wolfe Island in 1926 and 1927, the traffic through the Valley Inn saw the road reduced to that of a local routeway. Snake Road, with all its twists and turns, was closed and so was the old road to Guelph. With these changes came the demise of the Valley Inn Hotel.
By 1928, the building stood empty and in November of the same year was almost completely destroyed by a fire. Sparks from a passing train started a blaze on the roof which quickly spread through the old frame building before the Hamilton Fire Department arrived. Although they managed to extinguish the flames before it was burnt to the ground, the Fire Chief and Building Inspector declared the building valueless when they returned to inspect the site the next morning. All the remaining buildings on the site were lost in another fire in 1959, removing all traces of one of the most important hotels that had served area travellers for more than 50 years.
In 2005, another Valley Inn landmark was also threatened. The old picturesque Bailey Bridge across the western end of Burlington Bay which provides access to Woodland Cemetery, the Laking Garden and to the many popular fishing spots of the area, was placed under notice of possible closure by the City of Hamilton. Famous for the rumble of car wheels on its wooden timbers, the bridge has deteriorated and with load restrictions in place is considered unsafe.
Installed in 1965 after a truck hauling road equipment crashed through the original bridge, the present structure was originally loaned to Hamilton by the province and erected by Canadian army engineers as a temporary replacement. At the time of the accident, there was a serious dispute over which municipality was responsible for its replacement, as Burlington, Hamilton and East and West Flamborough all met at the Valley Inn!
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2006, 2024.
