Maryboro Lodge
In the 1830s, Cameron and Sturgeon Lakes were home to a conspicuously large number of aspiring young gentlemen (but not nearly so many young ladies). For a time, there was literally more lords than labourers. Typically younger sons who would not inherit the family fortune back home, they hoped that by moving to the backwoods of Upper Canada that they could achieve a status that they were too poor to enjoy back home. Land speculation was a common venture for these young men, and no local enterprise snapped up more cheap land than Robert Jameson and James Wallis. They owned Fenelon Falls, Rosedale, many surrounding farm lots, plus lots in the towns of Lindsay and Peterborough, as well as Whitby harbour (anticipating traffic from the region to head south).
As the village’s owner, James Wallis could choose any site he wished to build his home. He selected a lot in the Oak Grove, with a view of Cameron Lake and the Fenelon River. His family owned the Maryborough estate in Cork, Ireland, which was the namesake for his new residence in the woods. Raised by a landed family, he was conscious that his dwelling was not a proper country house, hence the name Maryboro Lodge. Being a bachelor at the time it was completed, the house included two dancing parlours, a dining room, and bedrooms, but no kitchen. It was just what was needed to entertain friends in the backwoods.
Wallis also owned the village’s sawmills and one of the common dimensions being cut was deals—3x9 inches—which were typically exported to Britain. This first floor of Maryboro Lodge was made of deals stacked on their narrow side—being an unusual form of construction. In 1840, a summer kitchen and servant’s quarters was added with a separate staircase. The master bedroom featured a dressing room—where the lady of the house could be dressed. Originally, the building faced Wallis’ private park (now Oak Street) and the falls. The two parlours faced the river. As the village grew up around the building, traffic patterns reversed and today most visitors approach the building from what was originally its back side.
Jameson and Wallis struggled to find customers who would purchase land from them at a profit—there was no shortage of land at the time. Both moved on to other ventures, Wallis became a steamboat captain and gentleman farmer at Peterborough. His land ventures were insolvent, but he was saved from personal embarrassment by an inheritance. Several different families lived at Maryboro Lodge in the late nineteenth century, as the oak grove remained a beautiful site for a church picnic.
In 1913, Belle, Tillie and Kate Abbott transformed Maryboro Lodge into a boarding house and tourist lodge. These sisters never had running water, but nonetheless prepared meals for their guests. Many guests fondly remembered having tea with the Misses Abbotts (as they were called, each being Miss Abbott) on their verandah. In this era, Maryboro Lodge had a tennis court, and was situated immediately beside the railway. Across the tracks was an informal village campground. It was customary to drive an automobile into the park and set up camp.
When the time came for Belle and Tillie Abbott to move to a nursing home, their nephew Milburn Kelly helped to ensure that Maryboro Lodge would be preserved for the community. The Fenelon Falls Historical Society transformed this oldest building in the area into a local history museum. Still operated by volunteers more than six decades later, this old house has become a place of learning and discovery, while carrying on age-old traditions like afternoon tea.
