The Village Inn is a landmark, on the southeast corner of the ‘Four Corners’ in Bradford – one of the most iconic buildings in town.
According to the Library Archives, the site was occupied by a hotel before the Great Fire of 1871. Circa 1920, a 2-storey cement building was constructed on the site, offering commercial space below – in the 1930s, a grocery store – and living quarters above.
In or around 1934, Ken and Bertha Morris, who built and operated the original Riverview Inn, purchased the property in the heart of Bradford. Ken Morris had a long-standing connection to the lot: it was formerly owned by his grandfather.
The Morrises reportedly hired architect William F. Sparling, designer of Toronto’s Granite Club and the 21-storey Metropolitan building, once the tallest ‘skyscraper’ in Toronto, to design The Village Inn, as an English Tudor-style hotel.
Although the project does not appear on common lists of Sparling's work, it was the Great Depression and architectural firms were hard-hit.
Ken and Bertha operated The Village Inn for several years. They sold the property in 1941, moving to Barrie, then Bracebridge, and finally Hamilton, Ontario, where Ken passed away.
The Village Inn has undergone a number of renovations and face-lifts – most recently in the late 2000s, when the façade was completely redesigned in the Italianate style, with stucco and stone, completely eliminating all traces of Tudor.
Details from the BWG Public Library Archives, and the Biographical Dictionary of Architects of Ontario.
