This small motel was located just outside of the eastern limits of the City of Brockville along Highway Number 2. Unfortunately we do not have much history on this business, and if anyone knows anything about it we would appreciate hearing from you.
We are fairly sure that it was converted into individual apartments in the early 1970’s.
The creek takes its name from the original settlers of the area the Grant Family. We are fortunate to have old post cards, prints and photos showing how the original bridge looked. Today as you drive along the highway, you can cross the creek without really even knowing it’s there.
Just past the Lyn road on the south side of the highway you would come to this next business.
Lancelot de Carle was the founder of the business now known as Brockville Cemetery Memorial Works.
Lancelot de Carle was first in business in Prescott on that town’s King Street one door west of Norton Miller’s bookstore. De Carle advertised gravestones, monuments etc. in marble, granite or sandstone.
His first local plant was set up in 1861 at No.8 Railroad Street, Brockville north to the railway tracks and it is presumed that the marble works were located on the west of the street near its junction with King Street. The street began life with the name Buell Street, but for some years was known as “Railroad St.” n it reverted back to Buell and has been known by that name ever since.
In the 1866 Fuller’s Directory of Brockville, Lancelot’s business was identified as “Central Canada Marble and Stone Works”
In 1875 the de Carle works passed into the hands of Lancelot’s son Leopold. The plant moved in 1869 from Railroad Street to a point on the south side of old No.2 Highway near the Brockville Cemetery.
Leopold called his factory “Brockville Cemetery Marble Works”. The family chose the site in order to be close to the burying grounds However, de Carle stones blossomed in cemeteries throughout the United Counties.
Their two story headquarters was equipped with pneumatic drills for engraving and used the most modern machinery of the times as well as employing highly skilled mechanics.
Leopold de Carle himself was an expert craftsman as well as an astute businessman and a pillar of the community. His literature proclaimed “Always on hand a large stock of finished work fro which to select in marble and granite. I import direct from the famous granite quarries in Scotland and Sweden and also from various quarries in Canada and the United States. Superior Designs and lowest estimate supplied on application”
John Johnston, who lived on the Lyn Road not far from the marble works was employed as one of the stone masons carving and chiselling the various headstones.
“Fred W.Grant took over the business in 1946. He joined the firm at 18 in 1927 and retired in 1974. Fred died on January 14, 1983. In 1966 the original building was torn down and relocated a short distance to the east of the original building. The reason for this move was that with a four lane highway running right in front of the door, parking had become almost non existent. The new brick building will feature a modern design and new equipment. It is built to the east of the old one and has ample parking facilities.” (R&T June 15, 1966)
The business was sold to George and Peter Rigos of Kingston.
(excerpts from the R&T- Darling Scrapbook No. 1 pg 135)
If on you trip along the highway your car had problems, you could always pull into Nedow’s Garage on the corner of the Lyn Road and Hwy No. 2. Bill Nedow was the owner and operator of this establishment. He operated a car junk yard and if you were ever looking for a part, you could usually count on Bill to find it for you.
As well as the garage, Bill Nedow also acted as the Willys Jeep Dealer for this area for many years.
I may be off on the name of this business, but not the location or the memories of the odours coming from the buildings at feeding time. If you drove by this operation in the 1950’s and 60’s with your car windows open you would get the fishy smell of the food that they fed to the numerous cages of mink.
The mink building and cages were located to the west (Left) of the building.
Established in 1914 this club was originally a nine hole golf course with 7 holes on the south side of the highway and two on the north side. The original clubhouse was burned in 1937 and a newer clubhouse on the same spot was built to replace it. The clubhouse was located on the south side of the highway and had access to the river.
In 1976 the Country Club sold the existing portion of its property on the south side of the highway, and built a new clubhouse and curling rink on the north side and expanded to an 18 hole course.
The clubhouse and part of the gold course are within the Brockville City limits, while the rest of the course is in Elizabethtown-Kitley Township.
We started our trip entering Elizabethtown from the east. Just as we passed the Ontario Hospital we would have noticed the sign welcoming us to Brockville. At this point Hwy No. 2 turns into King St East.
“Brockville was the first police village (1832) in Upper Canada, when its population reached 1000; the first incorporated town in 1850; and finally in 1962 the City of Brockville.” [1]
The first thing you would have noticed was the magnificent home of George T. Fulford, who made his fortunes selling “Pink Pills for Pale People”. Just down the road and on the north side of the road is the Fulford Home for Women. Another impressive large building built by George Fulford for ageing women.
We would then drive by the large stately homes of the more wealthy Brockville families. Soon we would find ourselves in the downtown core of the town, named after Sir. Isaac Brock, Hero of the War of 1812.
Over the decades the stores would change hands, but the streets and shops would be bustling with customers. If you happened to drive through on a Wednesday afternoon, you would notice closed signs on all the stores, as the merchants would only keep their stores open for a half day.
In front of the City Hall building, King Street would change from King St east to King Street west. You would travel further along King Street West with more stores lining each side of the street, until you reached Perth Street, the old Highway to Perth.
At this point you would be leaving the downtown core. After driving up and over the old railway bridge, with its’ wooden deck known as the Kingston Bridge, you would again find yourself driving along residential lined streets. As you get to the westerly end of the town you would notice a large structure with sprawling buildings knows as Phillips Electrical Works. And across from that was St. Lawrence Park, where many youngsters learned how to swim and had summer picnics with their families.
You would soon be driving out of the city and re-entering Elizabethtown on the west side of Brockville, where King Street turns back into Hwy No.2
[1] Elizabethtown: The Last of the Royal Townships by Alvyn Austin
Opened in 1970, St. Lawrence Lodge is a Long-Term Care Home that overlooks the majestic St. Lawrence River and provides care and support to 224 residents. Serving the citizens of the City of Brockville, the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, and the separated Towns of Prescott and Gananoque.
The lodge was built across from the Ontario Hospital on what used to be part of the Hospital Farms. It was built in Elizabethtown, but an agreement was reached with the City of Brockville to provide water and sewage
In 2006 the original building was replaced with a more modern structure. The photos shown here are of the original building opened in 1970.
A little further along Highway No. 2 on the north side you would pass several very impressive large stone buildings encompassed by a stone fence. Depending on the time of the year when you drove by, there would have been men working in fields of vegetables on either side of the road. To the south you would get an impressive view of the St. Lawrence River and Morristown, NY on the other side.
Those large buildings were the Ontario Hospital also known as the Brockville Psychiatric Hospital and those fields were the hospital farms. The hospital was built in 1892-94 as a provincial Asylum for the Insane. The farm associated with the hospital was intended to allow the institution to be self sufficient, however the surplus produce was sold at the local Brockville market, and rail cars full of potatoes were shipped to other institutions across Canada.
The following excerpts on the history of the Ontario Hospital are taken from Glenn J. Lockwood’s book “The History of Brockville” published in 2006.
“The Pickens Point property (Lot 6 in Elizabethtown’s First Concession was chosen as a site with land sloping down to the St. Lawrence to provide for the sewer drainage. A stretch of land from the Grand Trunk Line to the river was purchased (110 acres) and more was expropriated (97 acres on Lot 5) from J.J.Henderson. The additional land was needed so the asylum could grow its own food.
The asylum was set up on a farm plan, with a main building commanding the hill north of the Prescott Road. Within a year, six farm cottages flanked it, three on each side, with a stable, carriage house, tall water tank reservoir and hose tower outbuildings.
The asylum was one of the largest residential buildings ever built in Victorian Canada, with a façade 400 feet long and a tower seven storeys high. At the back the kitchen and pantries were flanked by large dining halls. There was a bakery beneath the kitchen and, behind it, a laundry, boiler house and coal vaults. By 1906, the asylum housed 800 residents and employed 75 people.
The extensive grounds had a purpose. It was here the residents worked. We should not assume they were exploited. This was an age when self-sufficiency was a virtue, and it was seen as a disgrace to live on public charity. By giving residents work, the asylum boosted their self-worth and contradicted the view that they were a burden on the public purse. Most patients were soothed by familiar work, and pleased to contribute. Higher functioning patients took charge of others, thus enabling a small staff to manage huge numbers of residents. Evenings were set aside for relaxation, including piano playing, reading, cards, concerts, daces, skating, football, lawn bowling and boating.
The Asylum now known as the Psychiatric Hospital continued to grow and flourish. The number of employees has increased to 107 by 1942. In the 1930’s, electroconvulsive therapy began to be used. Although the process was frightening and painful and had terrible side effects, it was deemed beneficial at the time.
In the early 1950’s the hospital was completely renovated. The ‘outmoded, over crowed facilities of Victorian Standards and design have been transformed in four years into one of the finer mental institutions on the North American continent.
The number of jobs at the Brockville Psychiatric Hospital dwindled along with the flow of in-patients in the 1970’s and 1980’s (from 1,618 in 1964 to 748 in 1975, to 237 in 1995). At the same time the flow of out patients grew from 300 in 1984 to 1,200 in 1995. In 1961, a new residential unit was built, but the hospital farm closed in 1967. The treatment of mental illness had evolved. A forensics ward opened in the hospital in 1975. Assertive Community Treatment emerged in 1991 but by 1997, plans were in place to close the facility and to merge it with the Royal Ottawa Hospital, thus removing 374 jobs from Brockville. Deft work by MPP Bob Runciman secured a stay of execution. The hospital was transformed into the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre, with community acute psychiatric care and forensic programs continuing to operate from the site. The result was a net gain of jobs.
Looking to play a round of miniature golf, or a driving range Then a stop at Playland Park was a must. There were pinball machines inside to play, and a Teen dance on the weekend. A great place to spend some time. Unfortunately in 2016 the business and buildings were put up for sale, and this icon is gone.
This motel still exists on the south side of the road, but today is under different ownership. It was modern, popular and was a busy spot before the newer motels opened to the north of Brockville next to Hwy 401. I
t also had a very good Sunday brunch, which was attended by people after their church services finished.
Right across from A&W was another very popular spot, Dairy Queen. If it was a hot day and you were in the mood for a tasty soft ice cream treat this was the place to stop.
Just past Sharp’s Lane on the north side of the road was ‘A&W’. A drive in that offered curb side service with smiling young ladies hanging trays with your food on the car’s side window. A&W was the place to be and were famous, not only for their burgers, but for their frosty mugs of root beer. If you were driving by on a weekend night you would have noticed all the cars lining their curbs. If you are old enough you may just remember what “Swamp Water” was – a combination of Root Beer and Orange Soda ! (Also a good place to go for a date !)
The next small white concrete building on the north side of the road was “Ralph’s Dairy Bar”. Before the days franchised ice cream stores, this was the place to go for a hand scoped ice cream cone. Unfortunately I cannot find mush information about Ralph’s Dairy. They were one of the dairies that did do home delivery of milk in bottles to families living in Brockville. And as mentioned before on a hot Sunday afternoon this was the place to go for an ice cream treat. Ralph’s was open during the 1950’s and early ’60’s
The first road you come to is Sharp’s Lane. “Sharp’s Lane is named after John A. Sharp who acquired the property in the mid- Victorian era. Although this narrow side road ran little more than a mile north of th
e river, more contraband goods are reputed to have flowed north and south on this road than any comparable road in Canada, due to tons of supplies being brought in for the Rideau District” (The Story of Brockville by Glenn J.Lockwood pub 2006)
It was the most important Smuggler’s Highway during the War of 1812 between the St, Lawrence River and the Ottawa Valley. “Perhaps more contraband goods have flowed, both north and south, on this road than any other similar road in Canada” McKim wrote “ The fact that it was little used and led directly into the country made it an ideal location for those enterprises. This was no petty smuggling by some farmer, but a wholesale running of goods by the ton to supply the stores in the Rideau District and beyond. Tea, tobacco, cotton and many other articles were delivered at the foot of this road, and hidden in the woods or a farmer’s barn. Many a farmer has uncovered a load of goods in his hay-mow. He said nothing and the goods disappeared in a day or two. Live horses were the principal commodity smuggled south into the United States. The horses were made to swim the river. Adventure, excitement, risk and profit lured the men into the quiet hours of the night on the Smuggler’s Highway. Now all is quiet on the riverfront and few remember the good old days. (Elizaethtown: The Last of the Royal Townships by Alvin Austin pub 2009)
Entering Elizabethtown from the East, the first building you would see on the north side of the road is a large stone house now know as ‘Stone Acres’.
“This home can be described as a ‘Regency Villa’ which was part of the Sherwood grant. Adiel Sherwood sold this lot to Thomas Nisdale, a stone cutter by trade. The front door is exceptional, a wide aperture surmounted by a deep cornice of Adamesque swags. ‘The stone work is a fine example of his skill, especially the large arch which is cut from a single piece of stone. Since then the place has passed through many hands, each adding his contribution of buildings. It was once owned by W.H.Comstock, and Timothy Burns and came into the hands of Mr. W. Ralph in the 1920’s who operated a large dairy operation for many years” (Elizabethtown: The last of the Royal Townships by Alvin Austin pub 2009)
Highway #2 runs along the bottom of the township from east to west. It is interrupted by the City of Brockville sitting towards the easterly end of the township.
Before highway #401 was constructed and finished in the mid 1960’s, Highway #2 was the main road between Toronto and Montreal. There were no rest stops as we find today, but the highway was dotted with small stores, restaurants and gas stations. It was a long trip but it was a leisurely one and afforded the travelled a beautiful view of the St. Lawrence River and the surrounding countryside. Brockville was considered the halfway point on the journey between Montreal and Toronto.
Highway #2 entered Elizabethtown on the Easterly end from Augusta Township and on the Westerly end from Front of Yonge Township.
The area and places in between those two Townships is what we will be taking a look at. Transport yourself back at least 50 years and take that journey with us.