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Advertisement for the North American Hotel. "This house will continue to be made a comfortable home for the travelling public, and guests will receive every attention."Early Tillsonburg saw a number of hotels emerge on Broadway. These hotels were stopping points for stagecoaches and were frequented by commercial travelers passing through and/or looking to sell their wares. The earliest hotel was located at the junction of Broadway and Simcoe Street and was known as the British American or North American. In the early 1860s, it was operated by Macaulay Boyce. The Baldwin Hotel, which later became known as the Royal Exchange Hotel and the Oil Exchange, was located at the corner of Broadway and Brock Street. Aaron Musselman was the proprietor of the Oil Exchange Hotel which was said to have the longest bar and best selection of cigars in Tillsonburg. It was destroyed by fired in 1872.

  

Advertisement for the Oil Exchange Hotel - General stage house, Broadway Street, Tillsonburg. Aaron Musselman, proprietor. "This house is situated in a Central Location. The buildings being newly built, the accommodations afforded are unsurpassed by any other House in Canada. The bar is always supplied with the very best of liquors and cigars. Livery attached."

Advertisement for the Oil Exchange Hotel, 1871.

  

  

Across Brock Street was the Queen’s Hotel, also affectionately referred to as O’Neill’s Hotel in honour of its early proprietor, Joseph O’Neill. O’Neill was a prominent Roman Catholic Layman and a member of the small group forming the nucleus of the congregation of St. Mary’s Church. The Queen’s Hotel would pass through a number of hands until it was destroyed by a fire on May 20, 1908.

Photo of the Queen's Hotel damaged by fire, a crowd is posed in front of the building.

The Queen's Hotel after it was damaged by fire, 1908 [courtesy of Annandale N.H.S. & Museum]

  

 Photo of Queen's Hotel after a fire, top of building is missing. Smoke is escaping the interior of the building. A crowd observes the building from the street.

The Queen's Hotel after the fire in 1908 [courtesy of Annandale N.H.S. & Museum]

  

  Newspaper clipping, headline reads: "Queen's Hotel at Tillsonburg Burns. Three Are Dead and One is Dying. Proprietor's Wife and Daughter Hurt." Subheading reads: "Inmates of building awakened face to face with death. Most escaped by jumping or fire escapes. Miss Jessie Gray jumped from third storey and was killed. Clarence Bernard of Toronto burned and bruised to death. Miss Dunbar of Buffalo may not live."

Headline from the Woodstock "Sentinel-Review" newspaper about the Queen's Hotel fire, 20 May 1908.

  

On the southwest corner of the market and Broadway, Adam Matheson opened a hotel known as Matheson House. Unlike its competitors, it was of frame construction and resembled a large house. It was considered to have the best bar and dining room in town. In January 1893, the Matheson House was destroyed by a pre-dawn fire. Matheson would rebuild the hotel and in 1907, when the business passed out of his hands, it became known as the Arlington Hotel. It was sadly destroyed by fire in December 1967.

Photo of the Matheson House and market square in Tillsonburg. A crowd of people are in the square.

Matheson House and Market Square, Tillsonburg [courtesy of Annandale N.H.S. & Museum]

  

  Postcard featuring the Arlington Hotel in Tillsonburg. Two men in a horse-drawn buggy are sitting outside of the hotel in the foreground. Arlington Hotel is a large brick building with a with a mansard style roof.

Arlington Hotel in Tillsonburg, 1920

  

In the late 1880s, the Royal Alfred Hotel was built and operated, on Broadway, by proprietor Alexander Cowan Sr. His son Alexander Jr. worked as the bartender. Likewise, the Imperial Hotel was built in 1891 and boasted inside water closets (flush toilets) and two of “Cops Brothers'” largest and best furnaces.