Our Buildings Tell a Story
The Queen’s Hotel 1958 -1966
The Queen’s Hotel, has been an integral part of Stratford life for over a hundred and sixty-five years. Named in honour of Queen Victoria, the Queen's Arms Hotel (later changed to Queen’s Hotel and today known as the Queen’s Inn) was first housed in a wooden structure. The hotel has the distinction of being Stratford's oldest continuously operating hostelry business. Travellers were offered a free ‘bus’ service from the train station to the hotel in ‘buses’ that were beetle-shaped coaches that acted like taxis.
At the time, the Queen’s fronted Waterloo Street and was located across from what was then J.R. Forbes Livery Stables. The first recorded owner of the Queen's Arms Hotel was Robert Johnson who purchased the land from the Canada Company and built the Queen’s in 1858. The building featured an inn, tavern and stabling for nearly one hundred horses. Johnson sold the Queen's to John Corrie in March 1866. The Corrie family owned the hotel for almost fifty years.
John Corrie was known for constructing Huron St. Bridge and his activity in local public utilities, where he promoted electric and gas lighting. Given his prominence, the Queen’s was the special headquarters of County Councillors and politicians. John Corrie's son Fred J. Corrie. after twelve years as a hotelkeeper took over ownership of the Queen's in 1904 and built the new Queen's Hotel in 1905 on the same site as the original building
The original Queen’s Arms building was salvaged and moved to 244 Ontario Street, where it became a residence.
The new hotel was constructed in the Neo-Classical Revival Style characterized by the cupola on the angled corner of the building that includes a doorway that led to the original tavern, which according to contemporary newspaper accounts, had ‘the finest bar in the province … built of massive quarter cut oak.” The hotel was lit through a combination of electric and gas lamps. The restaurant was decorated in an oriental style, fashionable at the time, and the second and third-floor hallways were covered in red velvet carpets and had bathrooms and lavatories on each floor with hot and cold running water. The floors of the forty-five spacious rooms were covered with Belgian carpets. The rooms rented for $1.50 per day.
In May of 1914, Fred J. Corrie sold the building for $22,000 to David T. Pinkney. The Queen's Inn would remain in the ownership of the Pinkneys for fifty years. Pinkney oversaw several major changes to the hotel, including a 12-room extension on Ontario Street in 1927. As well as a major renovation of the entire building in 1940, that saw both the interior and exterior modernized, including the installation of modern refrigeration, plumbing and heating. He was owner of the hotel until 1966. Source: Pictures Stratford-Perth Archives and Chris Rickett