Perth Courier, Jan. 21, 1898
The new owner of the old Patterson Hotel property, Messrs Richard and George Smith intend converting the edifice into a double tenement and when finished the once popular inn will become a comfortable and respectable tenement house.
The alterations will convert it into a cottage roof building and the slope of the gables is now being taken down so that all the outside walls will be alike. The roof of course will be entirely new and the walls repaired and painted. The interior will be entirely renewed, a verandah built along the front and everything made neat and up to date.
When one of the workmen, Michael Mulholland, was tearing down the west gable, he found a common toilet comb embedded in the wall in a good state of preservation. It was made of horn with a polished metal back. It is therefore a very old article. The lot on which this building stands was patented by the Crown in 1836 and deeded to Nadab Eastman and William McGloughlin in 1836.
It came into the possession of the late John Doran, Sr., the same year. Mr. Doran was a carpenter and he erected the hotel property on it about as soon as he got it and it remained in the possession of the Doran family until a few years ago. A Mr. Cross kept the first hotel in it and after him William Matheson, the well remembered bailiff. The late James Patterson came into possession about 1850 and he retired from it. It was then known and long before, as the St. George’s Hotel.
Mr. Patterson previous to his coming here was proprietor of the British American Hotel at Kingston and he came to Perth a most popular and successful landlord but when he left here he and his family drifted away out of sight and on one knows what became of his two sons who grew up under the shadow of the hotel. This hotel in old times did a large business and was the leading house of its kind north of Brockville. Before 1866 no less than 8 sittings of courts were here in Perth yearly and the dockets were generally large and contests keen. These brought therefore a large number of people to Perth often and they stayed long.
The united counties council sitting three times a year here also brought its crowds to the county buildings and as the hotel was not only convenient to the court house but was a popular house, it had a great run and paid well. But when the Renfrew reeves came here no more and the sittings of the count lessened the glory of this fine hostelry lessened and its business went to the hotels more centrally suited for mercantile and other trades. The Pattersons left it and the building became a tenement house and latterly there being no one to look after it, it deteriorated into a half ruin.
It was bought a few years ago by the late J.M.O. Cromwell but he did not carry out his original intention of repairing it for a residence and it became more of a ruin than ever. Time has, however, brought a kindly fate for the old house. Next to the site of the hotel the late Hon. William Morris erected a small log house and when the late Rev. William Bell reached here in 1817 he found Mr. Morris keeping a flourishing store in it.
Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.
Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun and Screamin’ Mamas (USA)
Clipped from The Ottawa Journal, 10 Feb 1887, Thu, Page 3
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