NEW BEGINNINGS
New owner has big dreams for rundown hotel.
THERE’S NOTHING New Hamburg’s Marie Voisin loves more than a big, fat, local history project. And one never knows where such projects will lead.
In 2009, after years of exhaustive research and writing, Voisin published William Scott and his Extended Family, a historical biography of Scott, considered the founder of New Hamburg. Then she started work on New Hamburg’s Historic Houses, coauthored with historian Ernie Ritz. This dip into the past explores the pre-1920 homes of the town.
She conducted dozens of interviews with residents of the historic homes. While ownership had changed hands from the original builders and owners, many properties remained in the family. The majority of those residents were now elderly themselves.
It was during these visits that the penny dropped for Marie.
“I realized that these people living in these big, old homes were house-poor. And their upkeep was killing them.”
She adds: “They wanted to sell their money-burning homes, but they didn’t want to move from the New Hamburg downtown area.”
Over and over again, Marie heard the lament: “But there’s no apartment accommodations here.”
“So they were pretty well stuck,” Voisin says. She wished she could do something to remedy this situation.
“So I kept my eyes and ears open for a property that I could convert to seniors’ apartments. But I never found anything suitable.”
Real estate development is not new to the Voisin family. Marie’s husband, Greg, is the force behind several local projects, including Kitchener’s Sunrise Centre and The Boardwalk on Ira Needles Boulevard.
Marie’s dream took an unexpected turn a few >>
>> months ago when she visited Eddly’s Tavern on New Hamburg’s main street to interview proprietor Mike Weber for her book.
A former hotel, Eddly’s had been a local landmark for more than 150 years under names such as the Imperial.
The two toured the building as Mike shared some of its history. Voisin recalls that when she left, she wondered if this was the place she had been looking for.
It would take another two months before she asked Weber if he’d ever considered selling. To Voisin’s delight, Weber answered: “Yes, I have.”
With these words, Voisin had herself a monumental project.
A quick trip back to early post-Confederation years helps set the scene. The newly born Canadian nation is bustling. In the village of “Hamburgh,” just west of Berlin (Kitchener), there’s a building boom in progress.
Houses, factories and commercial establishments are sprouting like bad weeds in the village of about 1,000 people. Of the dozen or so buildings strung along the dust and mud of the main thoroughfare, four are hotels. Travel was dusty work in those days and a pint of ale in a cosy tavern went a long way toward whetting the whistle.
One of these establishments was the Dominion Hotel, owned by John and Fanny Jackson. It was a two-storey frame structure built about 1867 on the corner of East and West streets (now Huron and Mill streets) in the village core.
Disaster stuck the Dominion Hotel in June 1870, shortly after the Jacksons took over proprietorship. A spectacular fire razed it to the ground The local newspaper, The Kanadisches Volksblatt (Canadian People’s Paper), chided that firefighting equipment used to combat the blaze had been sorely “inadequate.”
Historian Ernie Ritz notes the positive outcome of the Dominion’s loss. “There was a call for better fire protection as a result of the Dominion fire. The town then hired more firefighters and purchased an additional pumper as well as new hooks and ladders.”
In 1872, the Jacksons rebuilt the hotel — this time in more fire-retardant yellow brick. Over the next decade, the Dominion changed hands — and name — a number of times, before being reinvented as the Imperial Hotel in 1884.
Owner John Buckel Jr. added a third storey to the building in 1902. Also of yellow brick, the entire structure was then stained red. Red brick was more prestigious, but was more costly to purchase.
Over the years, the Imperial housed a variety of commercial businesses in addition to providing drink, food and a bed for the night. At various times over the decades, it also housed a bank, a grocery store, a butcher and a barber shop. Shoes, women’s hats and “fine gentleman’s apparel” could also be purchased in the Imperial’s storefront.
For a time, the newly renamed newspaper, The Independent, published from the
Imperial Hotel. The Mechanic’s Institute (the predecessor of today’s public libraries) was also housed there. A trip to the past wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the annual New Hamburg Implements Day extravaganza of the late 1800s to early 1900s. The Imperial played a part in this celebration. “It was almost a party atmosphere as dozens of farmers massed on the main street in front of the Imperial,” Ritz says. “They were taking ownership of their new farm implements, which were being delivered all at the same time. After business was concluded, everyone adjourned to The Imperial for roast beef and beer.” The 20th century brought a cavalcade of Imperial Hotel owners. By the early 1960s, rooms were no longer let on the third floors, with only a few “roomers” on the second. Most of the windows were then boarded up and the rooms largely forgotten. Ed Becker took possession in 1982 and renamed it Eddly’s, his nickname. Becker and later Mike and Patricia Weber ran Eddly’s as a tavern and a casual restaurant.
In the spring, a party of six, including myself joined Marie Voisin in a guided tour of the building before reconstruction began in earnest in early May. Four were >>