It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
Dr. Jacob W. Hart arrived in Huntsville in 1886. He was a recent graduate of Trinity Medical College and arrived on the first passenger train on June 26, 1886. He immediately set up practice and not long after built a hospital on Chaffey Street.
His hospital, Huntsville Hospital, was the first “ticket hospital” in Canada. It was an early form of medical insurance–for $5, a subscriber was entitled to a year’s worth of medical and surgical treatment and board at the hospital in case of sickness or accident. Non-ticket holders were charged $5-12 per week.
In 1892, Dr. Hart bought 1.5 acres of land on the Muskoka River where, in 1893-4, he built a Victorian home with a three-storey turret.
The home was designed by William Proudfoot, Huntsville’s leading architect, who built hospitals, schools, churches, hotels, commercial buildings, homes, and cottages. In addition to Hart House, he built both the Pink House on Chaffey Street and Paget House on Main Street W.
As for Hart House, according to Pictures From the Past, “In 1894, electricity had not officially come to Huntsville so Dr. Hart purchased power from the newly founded tannery. The water system was well planned. A windmill on the property pumped spring water to a holding tank under the roof for use throughout the house for drinking and cooking. Soft water from the eavestroughs was gathered in a large cistern in the basement for washing.”
In 1930, Hart House became the Traveller’s Rest Inn, operated by Mrs. Vincent and Miss Taplin who had a tourist resort of the same name in Novar until it burned in 1929.
Thanks to Glen Duffield for sharing this image with us, which was published in the Official Centennial Souvenir Program, Old Home Week 1967.
Details courtesy of Huntsville: With Spirit and Resolve except where noted.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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