The Elgin House Hotel

by Stan Nowak
This article was first published in the November 23, 2007 edition of the Dundas Star News. Reproduced with permission of the author.

The Hotel opened on the last evening of November 1837, with a superb banquet in the Great Room. Dr. John Rolph, Member of Parliament for Norfolk County and well-known radical Reformer was the keynote speaker. Dr. Rolph’s brother, George, a prominent Dundas landowner, was in attendance, as was former Dundas resident William Lyon Mackenzie (ironically, one week later, both Dr. Rolph and Mackenzie would be fugitives from the law as leaders of the unsuccessful Rebellion of 1837. Mackenzie’s escape route would lead through Dundas on his successful flight to the United States).

Notable personalities from Niagara, Simcoe, Galt, Guelph, and York were invited to the grand feast celebrating the grand opening of the new Elgin House Hotel on King Street in Dundas. Being a fiercely-proud Scotsman, it was only fitting that the hotel owner and proprietor, William McDonnell, would plan the event on November 30—St. Andrew’s Day.

William McDonnell was a resourceful, self-educated farmer who arrived in Dundas in 1823. By 1837, he was the bartender at the Buck’s Head Inn, and ran a thriving store in town as well. His commercial and financial success enabled him to buy property on the south side of King Street to build a hotel of his own.

The Elgin House was the first major building constructed in the flourishing period of economic prosperity following the opening of the Desjardins Canal. It was considered the finest hotel west of York (although there weren’t too many hotels west of York at the time).

It was brick-built, with rough stone end and back walls. It was three storeys high (later raised to four in 1875), with forty rooms. Four wide brownstone steps lead to the front door. The arched recess, through which horses and stages were driven to the stables at the rear, followed through a long arched carriageway that passed right through the building from front to rear. The front arch had a capstone with the wording "Wm. McDonnell 1837" cut into it.

On September 14, 1861, a large fire which consumed most of Dundas destroyed the outlying buildings of the Elgin House and almost burned down the hotel as well. The fire started at 11:00 a.m. and blazed well into the next morning, destroying most of the buildings in the eastern part of town. A grateful William McDonnell gave free beer to all the men who helped save his hotel, and gave a substantial financial donation to the local Volunteer Fire Fighting Company.

The Elgin House Hotel resumed business and continued to provide the finest accommodation to travelers while their horses were pampered in the rear stables, and were fed the best hay and oats by the most attentive and compassionate hostlers.

William McDonnell ran the hotel until his death in 1871. In 1875, the building was purchased by R. T. Wilson, a Dundas businessman who ran the Elgin House as a hotel until 1885. During its life as a hotel, the Elgin also housed other businesses and establishments as tenants.

In 1885, both the Public Library and Post Office required more office space, so Mr. Wilson got out of the hotel business and used the Elgin building for office space thereafter.

By 1886, the Elgin House was fully renovated for commercial use, and would never be used as a hotel again.

The construction of the Elgin House hotel signified a major switch in commercial emphasis in Dundas from Main Street to King Street, and provided an anchor for the western end of downtown Dundas.

While, there is not much evidence that this building once served as the finest hotel west of Toronto, it has been restored to viable commercial use with apartment housing on the second and third floors. This major landmark continues to serve Dundas well, although its Victorian ground floor facade has been destroyed—except for the front curved archway with the capstone that still reads "Wm. McDonnell 1837".

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