Queen at Sterne Street, SW corner

An excerpt from T.C. Prosser’s 1854 Map of Bolton. Region of Peel Archives at PAMA
Queen’s Hotel, circa 1890s. Constructed in 1881 by local builder George Watson for hotelier George Evans, replacing his earlier Exchange Hotel. ABHS Collection
A horse-drawn ‘bus’ carried hotel guests from the train station.
  • Brothers George and John Evans emigrated from Ireland in the late 1830s.  As younger sons and both educated, they were looking to improve their lot and took up farming north of Caledon East 1
  • John loved the land and readily agreed to farm George’s adjoining 100 acres; and so, it followed, that George set out for the ‘bright lights’ of Bolton in 1842
  • Trained as a shoemaker George built a log cobbler’s shop on the corner of Queen Street and Sterne 2
  • Two years later, discovering that profit from booze trumped making boots and shoes, George converted his log shop into a TAVERN! 3
  • Success followed and in 1847, George Evans built a two-storey red brick hotel called the Exchange Hotel on the site of his log tavern 4
  • The hotel was Bolton’s finest with many bedrooms, sample rooms for commercial travellers, a large dining room, a spacious bar as well as stables 5
  • A larger-than-life figure, Evans was involved in many community roles (see biographical notes) George could glad-hand with the best
  • George Evans was appointed Postmaster in 1868 and postal services were handled from his hotel 6
  • But in 1881, the Exchange Hotel burned down
  • George Evans immediately hired George Watson to re-build, and what evolved was a magnificent multi-gabled three-storey brick hotel with a distinctive wrap-around verandah.  The bricks were made locally at Norton’s Brickyard 7
  • The hotel attracted commercial travellers as well as farmers transporting grain to the mill
  1. Information provided in March 2018 during a conversation with Doris Porter, John Evans’ great-granddaughter
  2. Abstract Index to Deeds, BOL 77, Blk 4, E1/2 Lot 9, Con 6 Albion.  Inst. #31663, Region of Peel Archives.  Sale of property to George Evans by  Samuel Sterne
  3. Perkins Bull Hotel and Tavern Licences, Boxes 32-34, Region of Peel Archives.  George Evans was licenced for 1844-1845
  4. Esther Heyes, The Story of Albion, Bolton Enterprise, 1968 Edition.  This date is later than the date suggested on p. 320.  The hotel is on Queen Street not on King Street, as noted
  5.  
  6. Item 7871 BOLTON www.bac.lac.gc.ca 
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