Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 1.
Dunn's Hotel
Mrs. E. J. Ryan
Dunn's Hotel was the Josiah Chamberlain house before it was a hotel. Josiah’s grandfather was one of 4 brothers brought up from Lowell, Massachusetts by Philemon Wright. They were millwrights.
Josiah married Ann Mulvihill.
John Dunn, who was married to Ann Grimes, bought the house and ran it as a hotel. Dunn’s Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1900, but rebuilt in 1901 — almost a replica of the old.
My father-in-law, William Ryan, tells me this was a very busy place at the turn of the century. There was an awful pile of timber coming down at Mousseau Lake — it was something wild, he says.
A Mr. Filion had a sawmill at Mousseau (Harrington Lake) and he cut the year round. ln winter lumber was drawn by sleighs. In summer it was tied into big stocks and floated down the creek to the foot of Meech Lake, loaded on to wagons, which were backed into the water on the beach (now O’Brien's) and hauled to town and Chelsea station.
Dunn's Hotel was a stopping place for men and teams. At that time there were big stables at the west side of the building. The Hotel had a large dining room at the back and the bar ran the length of the east side of the Hotel. The partitions are now removed.
The bar was busy until 1907 when all licensed premises were closed in this Municipality.
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