BURK’S FALLS – Back in its heyday, the Burk’s Falls Village Hotel was the place to see and be seen.

In the 1950s, the hotel was a community hub for travellers and residents alike, whether they frequented the bar downstairs, the dining room on the main floor, or rented a room overnight.

Today, however, that history is at risk of being lost. On Saturday, Dec. 12, the roof of the Village Hotel building (the hotel portion long since shut down) collapsed, sending a flood of rainwater down in the building below. It all congregated in the basement, where the Fox and Kyte Pub operated, leaving the bar closed to the public until damage can be assessed. Early reports say the building is condemned and an engineer’s study will be necessary to determine whether the building can be brought back up to standard.

If there’s a building to save, the Village Hotel might be it. The building dates back to 1909, after the great fire burnt most of Burk’s Falls’ downtown.

“It was built after the fire in 1908 that burned down Clifton House,” says Betty Caldwell, founder of the Burk’s Falls and District Historical Society.

Clifton House, a previous hotel, had been in the Village since 1887, in the same location as the Village Hotel. After the fire, Fred Brasher, who had owned the Clifton House since 1889 when James Sharpe sold it to him, rebuilt. The new Village Hotel sat further back in the street — as seen today, only without the tower (that was added in the 1980s by a later owner).

Brasher had a daughter who married Vic Fell. After Brasher died, the Village Hotel went to the Fells who carried it on into the community hub it would become.

“It was very, very highly spoken of,” Caldwell says. “It was quite a busy spot at one time.”

Buses and stagecoaches from down south and up north would come to Burk’s Falls and stay at the hotel for fishing and entertainment.

“When the boats were coming down the Magnetawan River, they would stop and passengers would stay at the hotel and then continue down the river for an excursion or to get to their cottages,” Caldwell says.

The Fox and Kyte’s current location was always a bar. The main floor of the hotel was a formal dining room, where diners would dress to the nines before coming in for supper.

“White tablecloths, the works,” Caldwell says.

“You always wore your fanciest clothes when you went into the dining room.”

At one time, the Burk’s Falls Lions Club met at the Hotel for their meetings in the big dining room.

“It was very popular,” Caldwell says.

Sometimes, the hotel was popular for other reasons.

Betty Douglas, who grew up in Burk’s Falls, remembers going to see an eye doctor from North Bay who rented a hotel room once a month in the late 1940s and would do eye testing out of it.

She also recalls the long-time owner, John Fell.

“John Fell and my dad were good friends,” she says. “When my dad died, John put all the funeral guests up in the hotel for free.”

The Hotel remained busy throughout the 50s, but the faster the cars became, the more business began to go downhill.

By the 1980s, under new ownership, the Hotel portion shut down and a grocery store was put in on the main floor. The bar in the basement remained open.

It stopped being a grocery in the mid-2000s and for roughly the past decade the main and upper floors of the Village Hotel have been closed to the public. The basement has stayed open, first as the Village Pub, and then as the Fox and Kyte Pub.

“It’s a real landmark,” Caldwell says. “It’s been there for more than 100 years.”

Source: https://www.northbaynipissing.com/community-story/6241451-village-hotel-used-to-be-heart-of-burk-s-falls/