Fennell’s Corners, where County Road 89 and Yonge Street meet, has always been a busy intersection in Innisfil.
Today, it’s dominated by a pair of gas stations.
In the 19th century, though, when it became known as Fennell’s Corners, the businesses of note were several competing inns.
In the 1800s, Yonge Street was the main north-south thoroughfare that linked Barrie and Innisfil with Bradford, Newmarket and, ultimately, travel. It was vital for commerce and the movement of people and goods.
The east-west road, modern County Road 89, was perhaps just as important, as farmers used it to deliver their goods to the train station at Gilford, from which they could be shipped to distant markets.
All day long, wagons, stage coaches, and people on horseback passed through this intersection. And in those days, any busy intersection attracted one or more roadside inns.
The first man to recognize the potential of opening a hotel here was Henry Croxon, who built a stagecoach hotel on the southeast corner.
Born in England in 1813, Croxon wasn’t content with merely farming his land. He wanted more. The hotel he built, officially known as The Royal Hotel, thrived.
An 1867 directory referred to it as “a very excellent place” and noted stagecoaches running between Gilford and Cookstown stopped there twice daily. The hotel became such a prominent local landmark, the intersection became known as Croxon’s Corners.
The hotel became even more important when, in 1870, a post office was established within its walls with Croxon as its postmaster.
Croxon’s hotel had plenty of competition, though. John Glassford owned the Fortunes of War Hotel, and Richard Storks operated the Farmers Inn.
And then there was Brown’s Hotel, which may have been a renamed Farmers Inn under new ownership, and which deserves special recognition.
In 1851, 36-year-old Edward Brown and his wife, Maria, arrived from England. Brown farmed, and plied his trade as a plasterer and stonemason. At some undetermined point, the couple began operating a hotel of their own just south of the corners, on the southeast side, at the intersection of Yonge Street and Line 15.
The hotel prospered, though Edward apparently left much of its management to Maria as he continued to devote a lot of his time to his trades.
Brown’s Hotel was notable for being the home of West Gwillimbury council meetings for many years.
In 1891, the Browns were aging and handed control of the hotel to their 24-year-old son, Charles. He continued to operate it for another decade or so.
It was the last of the hotels still operating as such. And it’s the last of these buildings standing today, though it now takes the form of a cannabis store.
